First and foremost, the Franciscan Monastery crowd is a little less accommodating than the Washington National Cathedral folks to those who arrive +/- 5 minutes of the scheduled tour time. Not anticipating heavy-ish traffic on my journey to the Northeast corners of DC, I made it in just after the 2:00 tour group had rounded approximately two corners, but was politely asked to wait around for the 3:00 group. Well, it was a semi-beautiful, slightly-chilly-but-not-prohibitively-so spring day, and the tour didn't include the any stops in the rather impressive gardens, so I just took myself and my constant companion outside for an hour or so of wandering the grounds and appreciating things like arches and domes...
...and crazy pretty tulips and a replica of the simple Portiuncula Chapel at the First Church of St. Francis...
...and "let's play with aperture" shots of the plaques in the Rosary Portico, which contains 15 chapels commemorating the lives of Mary and Jesus...
...and detailed mosaics...
...and general prettiness of the Byzantine style, after the Hagia Sofia in Constantinople, with some modified Romanesque influences (totally copied straight from the website - of course I didn't just know that. I have my random factoids, that's for sure, but that ain't one of them.)...
...and those Rosary Portico columns...
...and the general splendor of the tomb replicas/Grotto/stone paths that was supposed to make me feel like I was in Rome.
Well, given the amount of photos you've just scrolled through covering various plant life and things made out of stone that see the light of day compared to the number of photos to come, I actually really enjoyed my solitary hour of wandering about a bit more than the actual tour of the interior. It might, just might have had something to do with the composition of my tour group, which consisted of (1) rowdy children with a complete lack of regard for personal space and (2) I already mentioned the crazy kids, right?
In spite of the rugrats, it was pretty cool to check out the impressive interior...
...with our nattily attired guide...
...who taught me more about saints than I think I ever really needed to know. Those freshman year Bible classes at ACU don't exactly venture into saint territory.
I was really intrigued by the "tour the catacombs" hook on the website...and while they were detailed and actually underground, as catacombs should be, they were just a touch on the cheesy side (I'm sorry! This feels a little sacrilegious!) with the "stone" elements often crafted from a stone-print wallpaperish material or stuccoed concrete. Maybe I should go check out the for-reals catacombs in Rome to achieve the right degree of reverence, perhaps brought on by the fear that I'll turn a corner and never find my way out (catacombs should be a little scary, right?). Although when coupled with a stop in the Chapel of Purgatory and captured like this...
...ok, maybe they were just a little scary.
Since I was in the general vicinity and in an "oooh, check out the impressive religious building!" frame of mind, I headed over to the BOTNSOTIC (remember the mouthful from earlier? only referred to acronymically from here on out) on a bit of a whim. Largest Roman Catholic Church in not only the United States, but alllllllll of North America and one of the ten largest churches in the WORLD!
Mass was actually going on, and I hadn't scoped out the tour schedule ahead of time (meaning I missed the last one of the day, oops), and honestly I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer mass (hehe, mass...Mass...sorry) of the darn thing, so I just took a loop around the outside and ducked down into the Crypt Church (crypts, catacombs, and Catholicism out the wazoo today!) for a quick stroll, slowing down for a moment of reflection.
Besides, the visitors center didn't exactly look all that welcoming.
On a side note, I've now been in the tallest building in DC. And I'll likely be visiting the tallest structure in DC (finally! how have I not done this yet?) when my parents come to town...in three days! Yay, can't wait to see you! Yeah, and I also work in the tallest commercial building in DC, which happened to play a minor supporting role in Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol and therefore makes going to work the tiniest bit more awesome. You know all about the Height of Buildings Act, don't you?
Apparently my de rigueur "I am impressed by your religious building" shot.
3 comments:
What beautiful churches! And I love that you work in the building from The Lost Symbol. So cool.
P.S. Your hair is really long...and curly!
I haven't cut my hair since last July - eeekk! I do have to say I love letting it do the weekend curl, though - so easy.
Ooh, I love all the pretty pictures of the Catholic things. I've been to the Basilica once before . . .in fact, I even helped carry the communion up during a mass there. I didn't know of the other places there, though. Very nice. Love your perspective on all the Catholic-isms.
Post a Comment