parish life events

lenten soup suppers - thursdays in lent
february 26 - march 26
6:00 - 8:00 pm

In this four-part series, medieval historian and author John Y.B. Hood (PhD) will explore the closely linked development of Christian theology and Christian architecture in the period 400 to 1150 A.D.  Influenced by the Second Temple in Jerusalem, as well as by early Christian structures such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the original St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the architects and artisans of early Medieval Europe created buildings that were designed to teach as well as to inspire.  In this way, not only did elements such as altars, mosaics, stained glass, and sacred images serve to deepen faith, but the very structure of the churches themselves silently shaped the hearts and minds of Christian worshippers.

In these image-rich presentations, we will focus on four of the most important churches of the early Middle Ages:

  ·         San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy (490 AD): an imperial church whose fortress-like stone exterior conceals some of
the most beautiful—and most influential--mosaics in all Christendom

·         The Aachener Dom in Aachen, Germany (805 AD): "Charlemagne’s Church”, directly inspired by the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre

·         St. Benedict-on-the-Loire, near Orleans, France (1050—1180): a beautifully austere early Romanesque abbey, home to the relics of St. Benedict as well as to dozens of remarkably preserved carved stone capitals

·         St. Mary Magdalene in Vezelay, France (1150): the “last Romanesque and first Gothic” abbey, with its famous Last Judgment tympanum, created by the sculptor Gislebertus