Not quite a cappa...

I always liked the mandya or mantya of the Orthodox Churches.

As a Glossary of Common Terms in the Orthodox Church explains, the mandya is a "long, capelike episcopal vesture, usually purple in colour with ribbons and tablets which represent the law and the flowing streams of the Holy Spirit."

I find the cappa to be more 'elegant' and 'baroque' with exactly the right amount of unnecessary fabric rustling around the prelate's arms. But as far as the variety of in-your-face colors goes, it is hard to beat the mandya. Here are some great photos that a kind reader sent in:


Watered silk,...

... trains,...

... (and then some)...

... and color! Here's some purple.

I love this blue-turquoise-ish color! Green... hmm... well, alright...

More purple/violet/rose-ish

And even...

... black!

I wonder if there are any red mantyas?

Everybody wave, smile and say "Thanks!" to sender-inner Kevin!

Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski (1901-1981)

Thanks to reader Sebastian, who sent in these two splendid photos of the "Primate of the Millenium":

Kissing the Ring

Alfonso Cardinal Castaldo visits the Institute of Santa Rita alla Salute in Naples

We need more prelates in carriages!

And I know this for a fact, cause I got the proof right here:






Dom Antonio Cardinal Mendes Belo, Patriarch of Lisbon from 1907 to 1928, makes it abundantly clear that it's more fun to travel slowly but in style.

Pedro Cantero Cuadrado (1902-1978)

He was bishop of Barbastro/Spain from 1951 to 1953, bishop of Huelva from 1953 to 1964 and archbishop of Zaragoza from 1964 to 1977. The above picture shows him as bishop of Huelva. The following pictures were taken on the day of his installation as archbishop of Zaragoza:

Ciao!

Bishop Vittorio Moietta takes possession of his diocese of Nicastro/Italy in 1961.

Now that's cute

Artist, historian and lecturer George Stuart creates very detailed historical figures, which are presented on this webpage.

French Caridnal de Rohan (of "affair of the necklace"-fame) even got a cappa magna with ermine.

A tiny but great man

Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler (1910-2007)

Almutiae

They are small and most of them have watermarks, but they are definitely worth posting! Check out these beautiful furry canons-capes (First three from Fribourg/Switzerland; last one unidentified):

Gimmegimmegimme!

Dear readers!

Whoever gets me the following two spectacular portraits of George Cardinal Mundelein as a decent med- to high-res picture will not only have substantially added to the quality of my collection but will also be rewarded the title "Honorary Trainbearer" of this Blog! To make the whole thing a little harder: I don't have the slightest idea where to find these paintings!






Good hunting!

Richard Downey (1881-1953

He served as Archbishop of Liverpool from 1928 until his death.

It was under his reign that construction of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King began. The original design by Sir Edwin Lutyens envisioned a huge cathedral that would have become the second-largest church in the world and the world's largest dome, with a diameter of 168 feet (51 m) compared to the 137.7 feet (42.0 m) on St. Peter's in Rome. Building work based on Lutyens' design began in 1933. In 1941 the restrictions of World War II and a rising cost from £3 million to £27 million forced construction to stop. In 1956 work recommenced on the crypt, which was finished in 1958. Thereafter, Lutyens' design for the cathedral was considered too expensive and so was abandoned with only the crypt complete. Here you see what could have been:



After the ambitious design by Lutyens fell through, Adrian Gilbert Scott was commissioned in 1953 to work on a smaller cathedral design. He proposed a scaled-down version of Lutyens' building, retaining the massive dome. Scott's plans were criticised and the building did not go ahead. Today's cathedral was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd. Construction began in October 1962 and less than five years later, on the Feast of Pentecost 14 May 1967, the completed cathedral was consecrated. This is what we have today:

Just to remind everyone...

... that French canons are great, too:

Emergency!

I just took a look at my collection of photos and I was shocked to find out that I am slowly but surely running out of stuff to post. Of course I'll keep searching the internet for new pictures. But eventually (within two or three months), there might come a day when I'll just have to stop posting.

So I want to ask all kind readers to send in whatever great or decent or nice photos they have of

• infectiously happy prelates
• spectacularly colorful canons
• magnificently flowing cappae magnae

You might think 'Why should I send in a photo I already have seen?' Well, if everyone does it, you send in one photo you have seen and might get dozens of new ones in return you have never seen before. I just want to offer this as a kind of display space for any old or recent photo you might want to send in so that everybody can share and enjoy.

I know that com-box response to my work is usually fairly weak, but my stat-counter tells me that between 500 and 1.000 visitors come here every day to look for new stuff. So there definitely is a crowd out there that would highly appreciate any contribution and might also want to chip in. Let's make this work!

Can't start the new year...

... without a good photo of the cappa magna!



A very rare shot of John Henry Cardinal Newman

Practice makes perfect

The earlier you start giving these episcopal rings a decent smack, the better you'll be when you're a grown up. Here we see bishop Chappoulie of Angers with a very young and very well-mannered little girl.

Happy New Year!

Hi Everybody! I hope you had a very blessed Christmas and I wish you a very happy 2010!

Well, I am back, so let's get started! Why don't we begin the new year with one of my favorite things: Cathedral canons from Spain!

Here are some photos from the installation of two new canons in the dioceses of Segorbe in November 2009: