A Mother's Mantle - St. Mary's Basilica

Last Sunday while roaming the crowded streets around Commercial Street in Bangalore, we chanced upon the St. Mary's Basilica. Amidst the chaos of Shivajinagar and the bustling Russel Market, the church appears like an oasis: a beautiful immaculate structure, the embodiment of peace and harmony. At twilight, the dipping sun created a nice golden glow in the sky as a backdrop to the church.

Built in Gothic style with stained glass windows, arches and ornamental motifs, the oldest church in the city, it was elevated to the status of a minor basilica in 1973. At present, it's the only basilica in the state of Karnataka and only the sixth in the country.

The church was built from 1856 to 1882 and consecrated in September 1882. Dedicated to Mother Mary, it is famous for St. Mary's feast held every year in the month of September. The festivities, attended by thousands from in and around Bangalore across religions, goes on for 10 days culminating in a grand chariot procession on the last day. Looking forward to attending this festival this year.

Inside the Basilica!!

Another one of my old pictures. This one was taken inside the Basilica of St. Lawrence, Asheville, NC. In a previous post, I have mentioned about this beautiful minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church.

It was quite a visit and still gives me the jitters. It was my first visit to a church when I carried along a tripod. And I was kind of wary of the looks I might get from other patrons. Fortunately, there were very few people around when I entered the church. The priest was a very nice man and just smiled down benevolently at me. Inside the church, Ela and I spent some time at the altar and then went around admiring the beautiful stained glass windows and other artifacts.

Apart from the well-known stained glass windows, the inside of the church is also adorned with exquisite statues of saints imported from Italy. These include St. Lawrence, St. Cecilia, St. Rose of Lima, St. Patrick, and St. Peter the Apostle. The high altar is made from marble and is decorated by a fresco painting of the Last Supper. Above the high altar in the sanctuary, there is a Spanish wood carving of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John, the Beloved Disciple, mourning at the Crucifixion of Christ. Behind the wood carving are polychrome terra cotta ornamental partitions of the Four Evangelists and two of the Archangels, St. Raphael and St. Michael.

After completing a round, I then started setting up my tripod to take a few pictures of the interior, the beautiful dome and the stained glass windows. For some reason, the tripod decided to give me a bad time. It was making awful noises that seemed to reverberate in the silent building. It reminded me of the sound you hear sometimes during change of gears in heavy vehicles like tractors and trucks. Couple of patrons turned around to look at me. Ela inched away and kept as much distance as possible from me giving an impression that he wasn't with me. Feeling very conscious, I continued with my work and finally managed to set up the tripod with my camera on top. I breathed a sigh of relief!!

I focused on one of the glass windows, made some adjustments and then pressed the shutter. And immediately almost jumped out of my skin. The shutter sound was magnified multifold and sounded like shots from a gun. I realized, I had set it up to automatically take 3 pictures at different exposures. In the silence of the church, it sounded like the staccato fire of a machine gun. Gulping down, trying to give the appearance of a diligent photographer, I turned the camera to capture a few more pictures before silently exiting the building with Ela following me at a discreet distance. Phew!!

Basilica of St. Lawrence

The Basilica of St. Lawrence is a beautiful Roman Catholic Church in Asheville, NC. Built in 1905, this is the only basilica in Western North Carolina. It is reputed to have the largest free standing elliptical dome in North America. The interior of the church is exquisite with a lot of marble and wood work. However, it is best known for the elaborate stained glass windows which were made in Munich, Germany.

There are ten semi-circular windows, just under the dome, depicting scenes representing The Annunciation, The Visitation, The Nativity, The Child Jesus Teaching in the Temple, The conversion of St. Paul, The Marriage Feast at Cana, Raising to Life the Daughter of Jairus, The Calming of the Wind and Waves, The Agony in the Garden, and The Appearance of the Risen Savior to Mary Magdalene. The two large windows on the left and right walls represent Christ Healing the Afflicted and The Transfiguration. The large window in the organ loft portrays the Resurrection. There are couple of lower windows depicting St. Paul and St. Peter as subjects. Smaller windows above commenorate the four Fathers of the early church and the four Evangelists.