March 7, 2022
"The relics believed to be of St. Nicholas were brought from present-day Turkey by sailors 1,000 years ago, and his bones have been entombed in Bari ever since...."
"The presence of the relics has long made Bari an unusual linchpin in relations between Italy and Russia and between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches.
In 2007, Mr. Putin himself came to Bari and knelt in front of St. Nicholas’s tomb, just as the faithful did during the prayer for peace.... Larisa Dimetruk, 62, from Lutsk in northwestern Ukraine, said she came to beseech St. Nicholas to make the Russians 'stop their president.' 'Only the people can stop him,” she said. 'We didn’t come here to pray together. We came here for a miracle.'... Others simply felt torn and had no interest in talking politics. 'We’ve all run out of tears,' said Olga Sebekina, from St. Petersburg, Russia, who said her grandmother was Ukrainian and that she still had family there. 'Which side of my heart should break more?'"
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17 comments:
When I think of Bari I think of mustard. And chemotherapy.
Wait...if St. Nick has been dead for a thousand years, who keeps leaving presents under the tree?
Those of us who are not Roman Catholic or Orthodox don't get how powerful and significant are relics of saints. A relic is anything associated with a saint. It could be a piece of clothing or, more macabre, body parts. The right hand of King Stephen rests in a jeweled casket in St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest. The head of Catherine of Siena is displayed in that Italian city.
It has been said that if you took all the pieces of the "True Cross," you could build a ship. If you combined all the bones of the Apostles, you could supply a full crew. And if you added together all the vials of the milk of the Virgin, you could float the ship.
John Calvin references this in his Treatise on Relics. It is also referenced later by Washington Irving in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
Worth listening to Benjamin Britten’s cantata (for small orchestra, chorus, and children’s chorus) that memorably commemorates his life and works (“as bishop of Myra and its dioceses”). Absolutely charming, and explains why pawn shops have signs with three metal balls displayed…
Thanks for that, Ernest. We (Catholics)venerate our Saints. I’ve always thought of those most holy people as the honor roll of the Church. We’re all called to be saints, for sure. The bar is set pretty high. Yet, how hard is it to show a bit of kindness in our journey of life?
All the pieces of the “True Cross” couldn’t build a cross
Once he had estimated the weight of the cross, de Fleury calculated the size, or more accurately, volume, of the cross, which came to 10,900 cubic inches. But the total volume of all the fragments he had measured came to only 240 cubic inches. The number surprised him, so he made a generous allowance for fragments that were in private hands or otherwise had not come to his attention, as well as fragments that had been lost over the centuries or destroyed in war or during the vandalism of the Reformation. He multiplied his original number by 10 and arrived at a new figure: 2,400 cubic inches, not even a fifth of the estimated size of the cross upon which Christ was crucified. here
Back in the 70's I spent six months crossing Asia overland with an Australian guy named Nicholas, a Greek immigrant to Oz.
Before I met him, in Istanbul, he had been on the island of Rhodes, Greek territory.
When he was departing for Turkey the immigration guy looks at his Australian passport, sees he was born in Greece, and informs him that---naturalized Aussie citizen or not---he's eligible for conscription into the Greek army.
!!!
In the end it took a bribe---and the official explaining that since it was December 6, Saint Nicholas Day, he would be lenient---to get Nick onto the boat for Turkey.
heh
Putin associates the ancient Russian Orthodox faith with Eternal Russia in a rather superstitious way. He doesn't express any connection with its doctrines, he just associates it with deep Russianness. While that is true of any of us about any large belief to some extent, mixing in emotional and nostalgic associations, he is at the extreme of this.
since prisoners carried only the cross-piece calculation needs to be revised
St. Nicholas was allegedly at the Nicene conclave, and was punished for slapping the heretic Arius.
I thought this was going to be about Bari Weiss.
My grandfather was from Bari. They are famous for their large loaves of crusty, peasant bread.
A sunset and maybe- a Wisconsin farmer tucking in the girls for the night? It looks like a barn…
Somebody’s going to be getting to sleep in for a few days- if no sunrise cafes.
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It’s not anything factual I was thanking Ernest for w/his story.
I found it poetically touching.
Rh would frown on my female emotion- or nod that he’s correct- about female emotion.
Santa Claus is dead?! No wonder I didn't get that Bugatti Chiron Super Sport.
Re Andy's comment: Of course, the idea that all the pieces of the True Cross could build a ship is hyperbole. If one reads both Catholic and Protestant literature during the Reformation era (i.e., Calvin, etc.), such rhetoric is common in the heat of debate.
"Larisa Dimetruk, 62, from Lutsk in northwestern Ukraine..."
Along with Lviv, another Polish city. As someone familiar with how arbitrary international borders have been in that part of Europe, I believe they are only as valid as your neighbors believe they are, and your ability to enforce them in case they don't.
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