Sunday, June 2, 2013

Strolling with the Madonna and the Patriarch of Venice, Part 2 of 2


This is the second group of photos taken Friday, May 31, at the 25th-annual procession of Mary led by the Patriarch of Venice from the church of San Francesco della Vigna to the basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Some explanation of the event can be found in the prior post (Part 1). Click on each photo to see in full resolution.










11 comments:

  1. Great photos. I would love to have taken part. We process our statue of Mary on the feast of the Assumption. We started this 6 years ago. Very unBritish, especially for the C of E, but a wonderful time. Haven't experienced the negativity you saw but it is on Sunday morning and they are probably still in bed!

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    1. Thanks, Andrew; I find the processions with Mary particularly interesting, not least of all (if you'll excuse me for saying this) for the pre-Christian elements that still seem to persist in them. I don't think I appreciated the power of a procession before. As for those who'd sleep through the hour of a morning service: the next day Jen visited some friends whose out-of-town house guests, here for the Biennale, were just getting up at 3 pm.

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  2. Our Madonna is robed in blue brocade and both she and the bambino are crowned for the special day. We have a big party (in English slang- a bun feast) afterwards. You're right about the pre-Christian bit but we like to think God wants us to party, so we do!
    Perhaps your friends' guests were jetlagged? Let's excuse them with that, eh?

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    1. I'm afraid, Andrew, that your festivities are sounding almost pagan! Or Sicilian. They make my mind go back (willingly) to an old movie "The Wicker Man" from, I think, 1970, with Britt Ekland, set on some seemingly-idyllic British isle whose quaint close-knit community celebrates rituals that, it turns out, aren't quite standard C of E fare. Aside from the absence of the young Britt Ekland, yours sound more fun.

      I hadn't thought about jet lag for those guests but, yes, I suppose the time change when traveling from France to Italy can be brutal!

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  3. Oh, thank you so much for sharing this moving experience (I'm not sure I can call it a tradition, not for a couple hundred more years, perhaps).

    And, among all of your excellent images, the one that really caught my eye was of the little chapel in the first photo. I have never seen it open; now I know when I have to be in Venice to get a glimpse inside it!

    I look forward to more of your on-the-ground reports.

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    1. I had never seen it open, either, Yvonne! I was hurrying to the church that night, literally running late, and the sight of it wide open almost made me stop and explore, but I kept right on to S Francesco della Vigna. So I never actually got to go inside of it, as the next time I saw it I was with the procession and we just paused a short time. There must be some other feast on which they open it, though.

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  4. My favourite is the one with the nun and the altar servers viewed under the statue. Looks like a Joseph Wright of Derby painting. Awesome.

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    1. Except that Joseph Wright of Derby probably never painted nuns scolding altar boys...but I see what you mean now, the candlelight & shadows and even the look of the faces in them. I snapped that particular pic as I knew first-hand, as a long-time Catholic school student (or inmate?), just what was going on: having attracted the unwanted attention of nuns during ceremonies myself. I'm happy you liked it.

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  5. What a lovely thing to not only witness, but to participate in. Like Yvonne, I have never seen that little chapel open, what a treat.

    Shame about the candle-stealer though...

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    1. I was surprised by how well-attended and, well, I guess you could "spirited" it was, Susie.

      I think I was probably the only one in a position to notice the candle stealers--well, except, perhaps, for that Someone-Who-Sees-All--and as there were plenty of candles, it didn't affect the ceremony. Of course, stealing from churches, temples and other sanctuaries never seems like such a good idea... But more troubling to me were the 10 (in two different groups) or so people I saw sneaking into the Biennale on the day it opened to the public. I won't tell you how or where (as I wouldn't want to encourage copy cats), but it really surprised me, and because Venice is hurting for money, it seemed especially out-of-line. The Biennale actually does some pretty great things for the community here--its free Carnevale for Kids during Carnevale is easily the best thing about that time--so these sneaks weren't exactly "sticking it to The Man", just to Venetians.

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