Thursday, December 25, 2008

Cathedral altar canopy

For Christmas Day, I thought I would show the setting of the holiest object from the most important church in Costa Rica. The Christmas decorations are also visible in this photo.

This is the canopy above the altar of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The La Negrita statuette that I previously posted is located in the lower center of this photo. The placement of the statue is obviously a place of great reverence and prominence, which is fitting because the reason the cathedral was built on this spot was due to the reappearance of the statute on this spot even after it was removed, nearly 500 years ago.

Experiences such as the La Negrita statue in Costa Rica and the rather similar origin of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City were undoubtedly beneficial in popularizing the Roman Catholic faith among the indigenous population, as such stories gave them indicators of faith that they could relate to more than the Bible stories from a strange land and distant time.

5 comments:

Sharon said...

Merry Christmas to you two!!!

glenda said...

Have a Happy Holiday in Australia!

Steffi said...

Great photo and very interesting post!
Merry Christmas!

Judy said...

Very Ornate. That lens flare is strange and interesting. I haven't seen one quite like that before.

Torsdag 1952 said...

This is my first blogstop in Costa Rica. Good to see all the different parts of the word by blogging.
Hallo from Germany
Hartmut

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