Faces of Mary

       Last week, we watched a very interesting video on the different depictions of Mary in artwork. It is amazing how many actual art pieces there are that solely focus on the Virgin Mary or Mary holding the baby Jesus. The day after I watched the video, my art history teacher took our class out on a field trip to the Uffizi Gallery. When we first walked through the rooms on the top floor, I noticed that almost all of the paintings were focused on religious subjects. Surprisingly, Mary was featured in more paintings than Jesus himself. Also, when I visited the Vatican, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Michelangelo’s Pieta was the most precious piece of art in the entire church. The Pieta is a marble sculpture of Mary holding the lifeless body of her son, Jesus Christ. It stands behind bulletproof glass in an effort to protect it from intruders (In the 1980’s, a man tried to destroy the statue in a terrorist act against the Catholic Church because he believed that the Pieta was the single most important piece of art in the Vatican.) All in all, I now realize that Italians adore Mary as much as they adore Jesus.

San Miniato

Recently, while walking up the stairs to the Church of San Miniato al Monte on the outskirts of Florence, I never thought I could see such a beautiful view. The entire city of Florence is visible from the porch in front of the church. The Duomo dominates the skyline while the mountains and hills of Tuscany form a beautiful backdrop of the city. Before my visit, I knew of the church but I did not know where it was located. Yet, since I walked along the Arno River everyday in order to reach school, I would see this magnificent church perched on top of a hill as if it were looking down upon each and every Florentine. Little did I know that this church I saw each and every day was the Church of San Miniato al Monte, one of the most beautiful churches in all of Italy. As for the church itself, the Romanesque structures of its interior and exterior are perfectly built. The splendid marble façade of the church is gorgeous and can be seen form throughout the city of Florence. The gold mosaic in the center of the façade, depicting Christ as the Redeemer, is beautiful as well. Also, the entire complex if San Miniato al Monte is huge. The Cimitero delle Porte Sante, which surrounds the church itself, is lined with an abundant amount of superb neo-Gothic tombstones, including the tomb of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. As for the interior of the church, the beautiful marble columns stand out to the casual viewer. The work of art above the alter, Pantokrator, or Divine Christ,  is absolutely stunning as well. 

Duomo and Baptistery

       The Duomo is absolutely amazing. The outside of the building is as impressive as anything one may see throughout the globe. The front façade of the Duomo is perfectly designed and immaculately kept. The statues that fill up the most of the façade are beautifully built and perfectly maintained. The sheer size of the Duomo makes it easy to see through the entire city of Florence, letting people know that the shrine to Jesus Christ is the de facto center of town. However, even though the inside of the Duomo, also known as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, is still beautiful, it was surprisingly quite plain and bare. The similar cathedrals that I have visited throughout my travels, such as the churches in Siena and Assisi, are decorated to the nines in its interior. Even though Giorgio Vasari’s Last Judgment in a masterpiece art, the cathedrals in Siena and Assisi have many more beautiful works of art than the Duomo.
       The Baptistery of St John is equally as beautiful on the outside of the Duomo. However, “somewhat” unlike the Duomo the interior of the Baptistery is also immaculately designed with all sorts of gold statues and gorgeous paintings.  Yet, the true treasure of the Baptistery lies on the building’s front doors. The “Gates of Paradise,” as Michelangelo named them, were built by Lorenzo Ghiberti. These golden doors have twenty-eight different panels on them, with each panel showing a different story of Christ in the New Testament. Overall, both the Duomo and the Baptistery were spectacular. However, I believe that the baptistery is kind of a hidden treasure that must not be missed on anyone’s trip to Florence.

12A Tomkins, A Short History of Christianity 238-243

            In chapter nine of Stephen Tomkin’s A Short History of Christianity, he talks about the conditions of the Catholic Church under the great and almost immortal Pope John Paul II. Tomkins describes the Pope as a “progressive” and “conservative” who promised not to bring back the values of the old Catholic Church, but to push for a new, modern face of the Church. Pope John Paul II also argued for rights and religious freedom and had a more liberal stance when it came to foreign relations. However, in this chapter, Tomkins mentions another important and powerful priest who also argued for people’s rights and religious tolerance. His name was Bishop Oscar Romero.

            As Archbishop of San Salvador, Father Romero was a source of strength and hope for the poor and for the oppressed of his country, working with and for them, taking their struggles as his own. Romero wrote and spoke passionately and publicly of the need for Christians to work for justice, frequently faced with threat and danger from those who opposed his ideas. On March 24, 1980, while celebrating the Eucharist, Archbishop Romero was shot and killed at the altar by a death squad assassin, paying the highest price for the commitment about which he spoke so often and so eloquently. Because of his courageous stand for justice, he became a martyr not only for poor Salvadorians but for all struggling to overcome oppression and poverty. Today, his sermons are read as powerful reminders of Christians' obligation to fight for a just society. Shortly before he was murdered, Romero said: "It is my hope that my blood will be the seed of freedom and the sign that hope will soon be reality" The example of Romero's courageous life and ultimately death continue to inspire those who struggle for human dignity and justice.

            In conclusion, both Pope John Paul II and Bishop Oscar Romero were revolutionaries during a time of desperate need for both of their countries/churches. I recently read an article about Bishop Oscar Romero and how the Vatican blocked his canonization because they did not want to impose a liberal stance for revolutionary figures. However, to great joy, I read another article about a few months later on how Pope Francis is now “unblocking” the canonization of Bishop Oscar Romero and is now pushing for his sainthood.  

Cimitero delle Porte Sante

       After visiting the Jewish Cemetery and the English Cemetery, I realized that hope is bestowed throughout the graveyards of the world. Hope is the only thing that tries to keep us from fearing death. And when I visited the Cimitero delle Porte Sante in the Oltrano section of Florence, I felt joy yet again. The Cimitero delle Porte Sante, which was opened for use in 1848, is a cemetery that surrounds the entire basilica of San Miniato al Monte, down the street from the Piazzale Michelangelo. Situated high atop the hills of Tuscany, the basilica of San Miniato al Monte overlooks the entire skyline of Florence. It is one of the most beautiful places to see all of Florence. It is also the perfect location for a cemetery, where the dead can feel as if they are on top of the city, overlooking the beauty of Florence. This was the only cemetery I did not feel depressed about while walking through it. The Cimitero delle Porte Sante defines hope. A hope that maybe one day, one will spend eternity perched on top of a hill overlooking one of the most spectacular sites in the world, feeling like a king.

English Cemetery

          Aside from the Jewish Cemetery in Prague, I happened to visit two other cemeteries this past month, the English Cemetery and the Cimitero della Porte Sante, both located in Florence. The English Cemetry dates back to the early 1800s when non-Catholics and non-Jews who died in Florence could not be buried within the city walls. In 1827 the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church bought land outside the medieval wall and gate of Porta a' Pinti at Florence from Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany for an international and ecumenical cemetery, Russian and Greek Orthodox burials joining the Protestant ones. Among the many Swiss, Russians, Americans and British buried here, those of the English-speaking British and Americans are the majority as the Anglophone community in Florence in the nineteenth century was the largest. 

When I visited the English Cemetery, I met with Sister Julia, the caretaker of this beloved cemetery. She explained how this cemetery was almost abandoned and beyond depressing before money was put into the restoration of the cemetery a few decades ago. While I was walking around the cemetery, I stopped at a tombstone that stuck out for me. The tombstone was in the shape of a large bathtub with many Latin inscriptions written all over the outside of the marble tombstone. Below this tombstone was the grave of the famous English poet and novelist Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Sister Julia explained to me how Robert Browning, another famous English poet and the husband of Elizabeth, designed Elizabeth’s tomb and made sure that the tombstone was to be polished and preserved every year. And for the next twenty years he spent most of his money preserving his beloved Elizabeth’s tomb. Again, just as I felt while I was walking around the Jewish Cemetery, learning about the history of the tombstones in that graveyard, I was full of joy and hope. I hoped that one-day my family, friends, and other loved ones would care for me after my passing the way Robert Browning did for his wife, Elizabeth.

Old Jewish Cemetery Prague

      A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Prague with a group of friends to explore the town and their famous Christmas markets. During our visit, we visited many beautiful historical buildings, museums, and landmarks such as the Astronomical clock tower and the Old Town Square. Yet, the most interesting place we encountered throughout our journey, by far, was the Jewish Cemetery. The Jewish Cemetery was in use from the early 15th century (the oldest preserved tombstone, the one of Avigdor Kara, dates back to 1439) until 1787. Its ancestor was a cemetery called "The Jewish Garden", which was found in archaeological excavations under the Vladislavova street. The numbers of gravestones and numbers of people buried there are uncertain, because there are layers of tombs. However, it has been estimated that there are approximately 12,000 tombstones presently visible, and there may be as many as 100,000 burials in all.
The first time I glanced at the cemetery I felt sad and almost depressed on how disrespected the people buried in the cemetery were. Most graves are either just piled on top of each other or placed extremely close to each other. The tombstones were cracking apart and almost falling down. However, I found out that, according to Jewish tradition, Jews must not destroy Jewish graves and in particular it is not allowed to remove the tombstone. This meant that when the cemetery ran out of space and purchasing extra land was impossible, more layers of soil were placed on the existing graves, the old tombstones taken out and placed upon the new layer of soil. This explains why the tombstones in the cemetery are placed so closely to each other. After learning about this, I started to feel some sort of joy because I thought about how much these people must have adored their Jewish heritage and their loved ones who may have been buried in the graveyard already, that they wanted to spend the rest of eternity buried next to them no matter what the cost. I feel like I should not have been joyful or happy when I looked at the cemetery, but I felt hope that maybe one day, when my life shall end, I will be buried next to my loved ones now matter what.