Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Mary Magdalene

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Mary Magdalene's feast day today, and many Christians in Israel are in church.

The first Jerusalem church that comes to mind is, of course, the landmark Church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives.
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From their website:
"Today, the church is the place of daily worship for the women’s convent of St. Mary Magdalene, under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. The sisterhood was established in 1936 by Mother Mary (Robinson), an English convert to Orthodoxy. The convent is a thriving community of 30 nuns from all over the world: Russians, Americans, Australians, Arabs, Serbs and Romanians."
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I was surprised to encounter native-English-speaking nuns when I browsed their gift shop. For more about that, please see my post from last July.

This is a Catholic friend and neighbor who was ecstatic to receive this 1787 engraving.
The German below it says (if I understand well) that it is after the original artwork by Cavalieri Celesti that was or is in the St. Johann Nepomuk church in München.

But enlarge the photo!
Is it not a highly unusual depiction of the story in Luke 7:36-50?!
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16 comments:

  1. What a great Church.
    This post is so interesting, Dina.

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  2. Great shot, Dina! Wonderful perspective of the church!

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  3. St. Mary Magdalene - a great woman; a woman of extravagant love, indeed. She recognized that they would not always have Jesus with them. Thanks for the beautiful pictures and for referring to last year's post.

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  4. Nice post. I enjoyed the photos.

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  5. If you did not mention where this church is located, one would think that it is in St Petersburg, Russia. It looks beautiful in the sun.

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  6. What a great building!

    Do they have bells? In Orthodoxy, bells are an aural icon of the voice of God!

    Wow!

    aloha sahalom

    Comfort Spiral

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  7. A great church with a great architecture!
    Thank for sharing Dina...

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  8. You're not out of touch, you're too young if anything ;-). The song was written back in 1946 (just googled it) by a guy named Alex Kramer.

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  9. St. Mary Magdalene has fascinated me: amazing architecture and beautifully captured.The church is quite unique.

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  10. The church is magnificent, Dina!
    Unfortunately, Mary Magdalene does not have a large following in the Philippines. In fact, I haven't heard of any group making a big fuss during her feast day ever. A friend shared a poem and a homily about her by email to commemorate the day, but he was alone in doing so.

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  11. I love the colours every religion brings. Its such a cultural richness.

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  12. Beautiful post, Dina... Very interesting!

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