The Tiaras of the Popes: Pope Gregory XIII (+1585):
Pope Gregory XIII was the immediate successor to Pope St. Pius V and he reigned as Roman pontiff during the years 1572-1585. In fact, it was he to whom we have to thank for the Gregorian calendar -- so named after him of cours

Some of the More Striking Vestment Work of Recent Years:
Vestments are one of the liturgical arts that seems to get particular attention, no doubt in great part because their use is to varied and variable which allows for a lot of visible variety. Over the course of the past fe

The Function of the Ciborium Magnum:
The ciborium, ciborium magnum, or baldachin, is an item of liturgical art that serves to cover over the altar. In terms of the why, on the one hand there seems to be a natural human imperative to cover over that which is of importance in par

Some Churches of the Once Christian and Roman City of Constantinople:
The great city of Constantinople -- or what since the Ottoman conquest has become known as Istanbul -- is a city of no little intrigue and mystery. Its former identity as a Christian and Roman city can today

Spanish Splendour: Vestments from the Treasury Museum of the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe:
Spain is known for the particular beauty of its sacred art and its tradition of sacred vestments is certainly not an outlier in this regard. If you were to describe the Spa

The Altarpiece of the Cistercian Abbey of Stift Stams in Austria:
Given its verticality and grandiose subject matter and symbolism, it is a surprise to me that the Tree of Jesse -- which comes with reference to the royal lineage and genealogy of Christ -- has not been a more po

1950: A Festal Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Gesu in Rome:
The following images present a reasonably rare view of the church of the Gesu in Rome, decorated in 1950 in celebration of the canonization of St. Anthony Marie Claret, with a solemn pontifical Mass offered by one of th

Before and After: St. Mary's Church in Willimantic, Connecticut:
John Canning Studios recently gave us another example of the importance of colour in liturgical architecture. They recently undertook a restoration and beautification project at beautiful St. Mary's Church in Will

A Hand-Coloured Missal from 1620:
The age of the printing press effectively put an end to colourful missal art for all intents and purposes, but on occasion we find some enterprising person who took the time either to work up a book with medieval style illumination or, as in th

Pianeta of Giovanni Carlo Boschi, Cardinal Major Penitentiary:
Cardinal Giovanni Carlo Boschi (1715-1788) was made a cardinal by Pope Clement XIII in the year 1766, appointed Cardinal-Priest of the titulus of San Giovanni e Paolo the same year, and eventually in the year 1784,

The History and Forms of the Christian Altar: The Twentieth Century to Present:
In our last and final instalment we shall consider the form of the altar as it would come to be expressed in the twentieth century onward. While previous periods were defined by their evolution of o

New Gothic Revival Church in the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina:
After eight years of planning, design, and construction the beautiful new church of St. Clare of Assisi on Daniel Island (Charleston, South Carolina) has been dedicated. Construction took three years and tw

Pontifical Vestments of Cardinal Saverio Castiglioni (Pope Pius VIII):
Pope Pius VIII is not a pope one hears a great deal about given the brevity of his reign (which only lasted about a year and a half from 1829-1930). For context, however, he was the pontiff who was on the th

New Chapel for St. John Vianney College Seminary with Works by ALBL Oberammergau:
It is with great joy that St. John Vianney College Seminary (SJV), in St. Paul, Minnesota, has built and dedicated a fitting new 3,500 SF chapel as part of a 20,000 SF addition. This project was m

A Monumental Cross in the Medieval Italo-Byzantine Style by Martin Earle:
Martin Earle is one of the more talented liturgical artists operating today as far as I am concerned, and he is certainly not new to many of our readers as we have featured him here before. For those who

New Set of Vestments for the Order of Malta by Sacra Domus Aurea:
The well-respected atelier of bespoke liturgical vestments, Sacra Domus Aurea, has recently completed a commission that really caught our attention. It is a complete set of vestments in the Roman style of pianeta

An Eighth Century Ciborium:
Early ciboria are not always easily found but today we have one to share with our readers that has been dated to circa A.D. 700-750. We have mentioned here before in our series on the history of the forms of the Christian altar that in their earliest

A Preview of Civium Architects Work in St. Mary's, Kansas:
David Helt of the Kansas-based Civium Architects recently held a private open house for their newly constructed church in St. Mary's, Kansas.  The project highlights the fact that traditional architecture, even on a lar

Other Modern: An Introductory Survey of the Work of Carlo Donati:
Regrettably, I can dig up little in the way of information about the ecclesiastical painter Carlo Donati. What I can tell you is that he was actively engaged in various ecclesiastical projects in the period spann

Before and After: St. Peter's in Montgomery, Alabama:
We're pleased to present another before and after coming from out of Conrad Schmitt Studios. Like some of the previous examples we have shown from them, this is not a case of a before and after attached to radically renovati