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Pilgrimage to Charlton-on-Otmoor.
Thursday, 2 September 2010 at 20:41
The rood screen at St Mary's, Charlton-in-Otmoor.
I cycled over to Charlton-on-Otmoor on the Bank Holiday Monday, down through the Claydons and Marsh Gibbon, to see the famous St Mary’s church with the in tact pre-Reformation rood screen. The vast majority of rood screens were dismantled after Edward VI’s injunctions of 1547. Somehow, this one survived the rout, but hardly any others do in English churches. This survivor is also special for the fine carvings and wonderfully painted details. It must be the finest in a parish church anywhere. The rood cross here is also very special, as a tradition of garlanding the cross with box leaves continues here to this day. This particular pilgrimage complimented my cycle ride to Addington (see blog for 26th July), where I saw the only church in England with its pre-reformation altar still intact and in use. These are two churches that should be on the local pilgrimage trail, representative of a pre-Reformation era, before the mystery of Christianity was systematically dismantled from within.
John Dunn.
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Sorrento Blog.
Monday, 23 August 2010 at 20:36
Pompeii.
Sorrento.
14th August.
A walk around the old town.
15th August.
Train ride to Herculaneum. Walked up and down the roads between homes, shops and Roman fast-food outlets. The state of preservation is, of course, outstanding. It wouldn't take much effort to reconstruct it all into a fully functioning town! Arguably, the middle classes who lived here had a better lifestyle than the present day. Cool, columned courtyards and colourful, frescoed walls must have made a luxurious environment in which to live. This is a site of world importance ... and yet... you leave the run-down, graffitied train station at Ercolano and you wouldn't know the glorious excavations are only a few hundred yards down the road. There is not a sign, even a hint of the nearby treasure. In fact Herculaneum makes no impact on the present-day local economy at all. It all seems strange.
John Dunn.
16th August.
Caught the train again, this time to Pompeii. Just about everyone gets off the train at this station. Nothing can prepare the visitor for the sheer grandeur of what remains of this Roman city. The story is well known, but when you experience your first steps into that grand forum, the breath really is taken away. Here is a modern city... better than most modern cities. From the scale of the public squares to the chariot wheel ruts in the street; from bodily needs catered for by the fast food outlets, to bodily needs catered for in the brothels, here is life - or rather the illusion of life. You follow the map as you would in any city strange to you. You want to take in a play at the theatre, so you turn here; you want to see the gladiators at the amphitheatre, so you turn there; having seen enough and you want to leave the city, then you can follow the main street, or avoid the noise and traffic in some of the quieter back lanes. These were the choices faced over 2000 years ago, and here I was experiencing them again, along with thousands of others. This place is strangely real, rather than surreal. It is the scale that leaves one in awe. It is a Roman city alive today. Time travel exists.
John Dunn.
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Rome Blog.
Sunday, 22 August 2010 at 22:02
St Peter's Basilica, Rome.
Rome.
The hotel in Rome was the very special ...... . Maintained by the Salvatorians, it had for its neighbour the Pope and St Peter's Basilica!
That night's meal was at the Hard Rock Cafe. Too much!
Tuesday, 10th August.
An audio-guided tour around the Baths of Caracalla took care of the morning, and a guided walking tour of central Rome filled the late afternoon and evening. Starting in the Campo Fiori, the tour included:
Piazza Navona, with Bellini's Four Rivers Fountain
The Pantheon
A stop for a special and delicious coffee (malted cappuccino!)
Bellini's elephant fountain
The current premier's, Berlusconi 's, palace
The Trevi Fountain
A special hand made, all natural ingredients, ice cream
The Spanish Steps
The grand Victor Emmanuel monument and the nearby Mussolini's balcony.
Wednesday 11th August.
This was a day when the highlights got ever higher. It started with a guided tour of:
The Forum
Senate House
Augustus’ palace on the Palatine Hill.
The Coliseum.
The above, of course were all outstanding... can there be more words?.... Yet the highlight of the day was still to come! This was the 'Scavi Tour' right under the altar of St Peter's!
Underneath the altar is the rock upon which the church was built... St Peter himself. For here the saint and first Pope was buried in the first century AD after he was crucified upside down. Constantine chose to site the first basilica here in the fourth century, on the place of St Peter's burial, which was, in fact, in a pagan cemetery (the remains of which can be seen on the tour). The climax of the trip was a sight of the very bones of St Peter! Was there ever a pilgrimage to compare with this? Those bones of the body that Jesus knew in Galilee, here, in front of our very eyes!
Thursday 12th August.
What could follow the previous day's glories? The truth is nothing. Yet a gentle walk though the woods of Gianicola to the Garibaldi Monument did have a sort of recuperative effect. In addition to this great monument, erected in the Fascist years, there were the monument to Garibaldi's wife, the 'lighthouse' gift to Italy from Argentina and Tasso's Oak to see.
In the afternoon was a tour of religious sites, starting with a tour of the Catacombs from S Domitila, the only church in the catacombs, located just outside the Aurelian city Walls, just off the Apian Way.
Next on the tour came the Basilica of St John Lateran, with its famous Holy Door. Across the road from the church are The Holy Stairs, brought to Rome from Jerusalem by Helena, wife of Constantine. Jesus was reputed to have walked up these steps. There was an opportunity to kneel on the bottom step, whilst more determined pilgrims with time climbed to the top on their knees.
Next on the tour was the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. There was a service in the church, so not too much could be seen, but the mosaic in the apse behind the altar impressed.
Vatican Museum.
Friday 13th August.
The morning held a tour through the museum, the highlights easily being the Raphael rooms (especially the famous school of Athens), and the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's masterpiece.
Finished in St Peter's. Outstanding, of course, was Michelangelo's Pieta, made when he was only 23. On display also was the body of St. Pope Pius X. Of course, the Basilica as a whole is the wonder to behold - the largest church and by far the most lavishly built, with gold and lapis lazuli abundant. Michelangelo's masterminded the construction of this wonder up until his death at the age of 89.
By bus to Sorrento in the afternoon.
John Dunn.
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Venice Blog.
Thursday, 19 August 2010 at 20:50
The Golden Alterpiece of St Mark's Basilica in Venice.
Thursday 5th. August.
From the station, we sailed down the Grand Canal in the vaporetto to our hotel, the Hotel Ala, at the Giglio landing.
Friday 6th August.
Made a visit to the Doge's palace. Normally, this trip would be wonderful enough to a place full of Titians and other great art, but this visit also included the 'secret tour' to the rooms above and behind the palatial rooms of gold, marble and great painted ceilings. Included in the 'secret' viewings, apart from the rooms with the administrative functions of the Venetian Republic, was a look inside the cells that once held Cassanova.
The vaporetto was taken from St Mark's Square to the island on which stands the baroque, yet clean lines of St Giorgio Maggiore. The Tintorettos were a sight to behold, whilst the lift-assisted climb up the bell tower opened up vast and beautiful vistas across the lagoon of Venice and down, more immediately upon the monastery buildings adjoining the great church.
There was just time to call into the church of Santa Maria del Giglio before returning to the hotel.
Saturday 7th August.
A fascinating guided tour of St Mark's basilica opened the day. The mosaics were explained well, but words are insufficient to tell of the impact made upon the eyes and soul by the acres of scripture stories brought alive in the mosaics of precious marbles, coloured glass, stones and gold. To think, I had stood within touching distance of the bones of St Mark! Beyond this, only the precious bejewelled altarpiece (see photograph above), made up from booty brought back from the sacking of Byzantium, could hope to hold anyone's attention.
Next stop of significance was the Accademia, a treasure house of great art. Tintorreto, Titian and Bellini were all represented, but most wonderful for me, out of all the many glories, was Carpaccio’s Crucifixion and Glorification of the Ten Thousand Martyrs of Mount Ararat.
Taken in on the way to the Accademia were the Music Museum and the church of St Stefano. After the Accademia, it was the church of St Maria del Frari that amazed the eyes. Of the latter's many treasures, it was the strange monument to the great magician in marble, Canova, that stands out in the memory. The strange and stark pyramidal structure, with it's half-open door, serves to haunt anyone who has set eyes upon it. Titian’s painting of the Assumption on the high altar was divine.
Sunday 8th August.
Could great art get any greater? Yes it could, with the feast of art at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. The paintings displayed on the walls and ceilings represented years of work by the master, Tintorreto. Scenes from the Old and New Testament provided the subject matter of each painting, any one of which would warrant a museum to itself; but here was a complete cycle of Christian devotion in paint, the whole being far greater in value and impact than the sum of the parts.
The next stop was the Palace Ca' Rezzonico, with its associations with Robert Browning. It is now an art museum with art and furnishings from the 18th century in particular.
Next, the fine baroque church of Salute was entered, before the day ended in the Museo Correr, just off the busy St Mark's Square.
Monday 9th August.
A vaporetto trip along the Grand Canal, a last chance to see the Byzantium influenced gothic of the palaces, led to the railway station and the train for Rome.
John Dunn.
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A Shrine to a Pre-Reformation Age.
Monday, 26 July 2010 at 20:47
The super altare at St Mary's church, Addington.
Imagine the events taking place in immediate post-reformation England. Churches were being visited by Thomas Cromwell’s hand-picked commissioners. They were looking for confirmation that each parish church visited was complying with the new protestant forms of worship. What might a priest, still faithful to Catholicism, do in these circumstances? He might hope that England will one day return to the true faith, but until that time dawns he must, in practice, comply with the expectations of the Cromwell commissioners’ visitations. There must be no altar in sight; instead there must be a simple communion table. Neither must the old service and prayer books be used, only the prayer book permitted by the state. Both the altar and the old books must be destroyed or, as was the case at Addington, hidden. For this church is a shrine to pre-reformation Catholicism in England. The ‘super altare’ and six books were walled up in the chancel, put there in the expectation that one day they would be used again.
The main altar of the current church had the old ‘super altare’ let into it when the church was restored in the nineteenth century, no doubt under the influence of the Anglo-Catholicism of the time. This situation is extremely rare and this church is the only one in England with its pre-reformation altar still intact and in use, in this case vindicating the old Catholic priest’s decision to preserve it.
The books too were found in good condition when the church underwent nineteenth century restoration work. They are now deposited in the Lambeth Palace library.
But I suppose it is the altar that is the central object of this little church, a shrine to a faith and belief system ruthlessly routed under Henry VIIIth.
Addington village itself was a delight to visit, a corner of old England, complete with tithe barn, by-passed by the turnpike to the north, and missed by the railway to the south. The pattern of life here would not have change dramatically from the time of the reformation for many centuries. It is a site worthy of pilgrimage.
John Dunn.
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Lost Parishes: Battlesden.
Monday, 19 July 2010 at 21:25
Battlesden church is a lost and forlorn place, on a small ridge. Detached now from the remaining village, the church marked the centre of a settlement that existed in Roman times, later to be recorded in the Doomsday Book. The font in the church struck me as being the oldest visible part, having been there since about 1100. A well-placed bench in a sunny spot in the churchyard provided the perfect resting-place for the touring cyclist.
John Dunn.
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Lost Parishes: Potsgrove.
Monday, 19 July 2010 at 21:18
The little church at Potsgrove in Bedfordshire is a gem of Victorian Anglo-Catholic restoration. For here you step into a pre-reformation English church, complete with rood screen and the rood itself, separating the chancel from the people. The rood screen is from the fourteenth century, contemporary with the building of the church itself. I cycled here last Sunday from the Woburn side of the village. To continue meant getting off the bicycle and pushing along a well-maintained bridleway. This was a wonderful walk through a hidden valley, climbing again to what must have been an avenue driveway to a large house at Battlesden where I now headed to see the church.
John Dunn.
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