The Catholic Undertow

Mary Ann Collins, A Former Catholic Nun

Appendix G

Pictures

I recommend the National Geographic Society’s picture book, Inside the Vatican. It has many stunning pictures, all in full color, that will give you some sense of the wealth and pomp of the Vatican. The book is affordable. (As of March 2006 it cost $12.24 at Amazon.com, which is a 32% discount off of the normal price of $18.00.)

This Appendix used to have links to dozens of good pictures, but many of them no longer work. Therefore, I recommend that you go to the “Pictures” webpage on my website Catholic Concerns. It has links to many good pictures, divided into categories. (I can update links on the website, but not in a published book.)

http://www.catholicconcerns.com/Pictures.html

You can watch an online video about apparitions of Mary. You can watch a million pilgrims with candles, in a procession, following a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. When you get to the website, scroll down and you will see a menu of film clips. I recommend Clip 3, “Marian Apparitions Around the World.”

http://www.harpazo.net/EternalProductions/ApparitionsofMary

You can see a picture of this procession at the website address below. Because it is night time, it is difficult to see the people, but you can see the light from the candles they are holding. You can also see the clergymen who are walking in front of the statue, which is on a litter, carried on men’s shoulders.

http://www.harpazo.net/images/FatimaCrowdSM.jpg

Here is a picture of Pope John Paul II kneeling before a statue of Our Lady of Fatima.

http://www.harpazo.net/images/consecrationSM.jpg

The Internet has many good pictures showing Catholic devotional practices. You can easily find them yourself. Google has a search engine just for pictures (images). Go to Google’s home page. You will see some words that are underlined. Click on “Images.”

http://www.Google.com

Once you find a picture that you like, click on it. You will go to the website where the picture is located. That picture may be buried in an article or a group of pictures, but there is an easy way to find it. On the top of your screen, towards the left, you will see the picture you are looking for. Click on it, and you will see the full-sized image.

I found some good pictures by doing searches for Mary statue and for Mary statue procession and for Mary shrine. I also found some good pictures by doing a search for Infant of Prague and for Infant Jesus of Prague.

You can search for specific things in the Vatican. I recommend doing searches for Sistine Chapel and for Vatican Gardens and for Vatican Museums and for Vatican.

If you do a search for Borgia apartments you will find pictures of the “apartments” of the Borgia Pope (Alexander VI). They are palatial and opulent, with their high vaulted ceilings (painted by artists who used generous amounts of real gold in their work), and their priceless works of art.

You can get even more specific. For example, a search for School of Athens gave a number of this famous fresco by Raphael, which is in an area near the Sistine Chapel. A search for Alexander VI led to a number of pictures, including some good ones of a full-color portrait that shows the gold and jewels on the Pope’s vestments and papal crown (tiara).

Searches for papal tiara and pope tiara led to some good pictures of the Pope’s crown (tiara). On some of the pictures, you can clearly see the gold and jewels.

A search for vestments gold led to some modern vestments with gold on them, but you don’t see the overwhelming amount of gold that I have seen in some modern pictures of the Vatican. In the Middle Ages, the vestments were even more ornate and richly decorated, often being studded with jewels.

In the Sistine Chapel, there is a sculpture by Bernini. It is difficult to describe because it is so immense, spectacular, and ornate. It even includes a stained-glass window as part of the sculpture. It is called by several names, including St. Peter’s Chair or the Chair of St. Peter. A search for Bernini Peter chair led to some good pictures of it. This is something that can’t be described. You need to see it for yourself. Much of it is made of gilded bronze (bronze that is covered with real gold).

If you search for Cambio Peter you will see a statue of the Apostle Peter, sitting on a throne, in the Sistine Chapel. (Cambio is the artist.) One foot is forward. Over the centuries, so many pilgrims have kissed that foot that is has lost much of its shape. (The top is smooth and you can no longer see Peter’s toes.) On the feast day of St. Peter, this statue is clothed in pontifical garments (the Pope’s vestments and tiara).

The Pope has a portable throne called a sedia gestatoria. Uniformed men carry the Pope on this portable throne, flanked by large, ornate fans of ostrich feathers, and sometimes covered by a canopy. If you search for Pope sedia you can see some pictures of popes being carried on the sedia gestatoria.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has a “virtual tour” that will show you many chapels devoted to Mary. You can see large statues and mosaics. In the Upper Church, please look for Our Lady of Siluva. In the Lower Church, please look for Mary, Mother of Mankind. Sometimes a large statue of Mary is above a much smaller crucifix (a cross with Jesus on it). One statue has many rows of large candles in front of it. Go to the website below and look for “virtual tour” or “tour.” (If the link doesn’t work, then search for “National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception”.)

http://www.nationalshrine.com

You can see dozens of pictures of the Sistine Chapel if you do a general Internet search for “Christus Rex” + “Sistine Chapel”. It will lead you to a page called “Cappella Sistina” (which is “Sistine Chapel” in Latin) that has 27 categories listed. (They are underlined). If you click on one of them, you will get a page with pictures on them. If you click on small pictures, you will get larger ones.

The following websites have some good pictures of the Infant of Prague. This is the convent in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where the statue is. Among other things, it shows pictures of the nuns taking care of the statue.

http://www.karmel.at/prag-jesu/english/firsten.htm

A website with a “photo album,” prayers and devotions, and the history of the devotion.

http://www.infantjesus.com

A webpage that has links to websites about the Infant of Prague in a number of languages. You can see the pictures even if you don’t understand the text.

http://www.pragjesu.info