Cathedrals & Churches

A friend of mine, Travis, with whom I work as a volunteer at the Basilica of St Mary in Minneapolis, is a self professed Catholic geek. ( In a previous post, Making of a Volunteer, I told the beginning of what became the unlikely story of my working with Travis. ) One of the meanings of this is that he is very attracted to churches ... their outside, inside, architecture, windows, statues, paintings, layout, virtually everything about them. When going from point A to point B, he will stop at an interesting church and take pictures ... outside, inside, of the statues, of the paintings, of the windows, of the altar(s), ... ; you get the idea. Sometimes when going from point A to point B, both A and B are churches, too!

I offered to preview some of his favorite pictures on my shared blog. I used the word "preview" because he is putting together a website which will be an exposition of churches in the upper Midwest, but is still some time away. He accepted my offer, with more excitement than I had anticipated, and recently sent me some pictures. Below I preview two of them, along with the explanations he wrote and I edited.

High Altar Basilica of  Stanislaus Kostka Winona, MN

This is one of the more recent churches to be elevated to the status of minor basilica (done so on November 10, 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI, making it only the second basilica in the state of Minnesota). The church was designed and built in the 1980s in the Polish Cathedral Style. The vastness of the basilica is moderated by its rounded nave and profuse light (thanks to many large stained glass windows throughout the structure).

This cathedral was designed and built at the turn of the last century. The image is of Christ the Judge, flanked by Saints Peter (keys) and Paul (sword).

Apse Image Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul Indianapolis, IN

I will preview more, scattered among my posts, in the coming weeks.

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