Word: shrine
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Within the Constantinian church, and buried under the high altar of the Renaissance church that succeeded it in the 16th and 17th centuries, is another piece of commanding archaeological evidence: a small, three-niched shrine set up between 160 and 170, roughly a century and a half before Constantine started building. Called the Aedicula (meaning little room or shrine), it was used as the focal point of Constantine's church, and was the only structure not razed to ramp level by the church builders. As Constantine's architects did 150 years later, the builders of the Aedicula...
...Whatever it contained, the Aedicula was revered throughout the 1,200-year life of Constantine's church, and became the heart of the present cathedral, underneath the twisting columns and great bronze canopy of Bernini. By the time Vatican archaeologists, burrowing from below, entered the subsurface grave, the shrine had been altered almost beyond recognition: the two upper niches had been combined to form the present Niche of the Pallia, two small chapels, the Covered and Open Confessio, had been added, and the whole shrine was encased by the present high altar...
...exhibit has become a perennial shrine for bored and procrastinating First Level habitues who may refresh their tired imaginations by pondering the relative merits of the wood-engravings and relief-printing processes, or by reflecting on the mysteries of a print entitled Reincarnation du Pere...
...Cracow in 1475 when he was in his mid-30's worked for 14 years carving the altar, which measures 45 ft. in height and 36 ft. in breadth and contains some 200 individual carved figures. The greatest labor and most consummate skill were obviously lavished on the shrine, or central panel (see color page). There at the center of the drama is the dying Virgin Mary, falling with limp hands into the anguished arms of the attending St. James. The two figures, carved from one massive block of wood, have been called "one of the most lyrical compositions...
...Shrine. "It was while I was in a sort of coma," says Roman Catholic de Borse. "that I kept hearing ' the word 'Lourdes.' I tried to tell one doctor, but he couldn't understand me. Next morning I finally got it over to another doctor. At first they opposed me at every turn, and the airline companies weren't any better-they were afraid I'd die on the plane. And I had no money. But then there was another kind of miracle: a woman stopped my priest, Father Vaughan, in the street...