After they pick up our bones...

by cameo-d 24 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  cameo-d

  and after they are bored with picking fruit....

  do you think they will make us into something they like better?

  

  When I first saw this elaborate chapel of skull and bones, my reaction was that this had been intended as a mockery. Surely these friars know the statutes and Levitical laws that death and handling of the dead is considered "unclean". I guess that's why this screams out to me as being a mockery, not only of defying the hygiene of the scriptures, but also disturbing the "sanctity of the dead."

  The Capucin Friars disinterred bones of over four thousand bodies dating between 1528-1870 and used them to create intricate designs that cover the walls and vaults of the chapel.

  

  You would expect a little respect for the dead, especially with graves having been kept in church yards in times past. But this seems to be such an offensive transgression. I can't help but wonder...if these were your family, how would you feel about this display? And also the fact that this has not only been sanctioned by the chruch, but hand done into abominable "works of art" by the higher order of the clergy!

  

  Is this another "show" just to bring in more money for the church, now that it's open to tourists?
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  reniaa

  definately ewww factor for me, you can tell these were celibate men ^^
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  cameo-d
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  shamus100

  It's just a little over the top.

  Is this even legal?
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  SacrificialLoon

  There are several "bone churches" in Europe, and my understanding was most of them were built after the plague.
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  cameo-d

  About halfway up the stairs to the church, on the right side, you will find the entrance to the ossuary of the Capuchin friars . When one of the friars die, he is buried in a vault, and after some time the bones are retrieved and placed in this ossuary, where they are arranged in a macabre style. There are now bones from more than 4.000 brothers who died between 1528 and 1870 in the ossuary.

  On the right side, the first chapel has two famous paintings: St Michael the Archangel by Guido Reni, painted in 1630, and Christ Mocked by Gherardo delle Notti. The tomb of Blessed Crispin of Viterbo is in the third chapel on the the same side

  Cardinal Antonio Barberini, who provided funds for the church, was buried here in 1646. The inscription on his tomb says "Here lies dust and ashes and nothing else."

  http://romanchurches.wikia.com/wiki/Santa_Maria_della_Concezione_dei_Cappuccini
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  cameo-d

  And yet here is a different story ....

  40,000 dead form morbidly fascinating sculptures and artwork; skeletons meticulously fashioned in 1870 by a wood carver. This is Sedlec's Church: All Saints ossuary in the Czech Republic.

  Sedlec is a suburb to Kutna Hora, a town in south Bohemia.

  So why were so many corpses buried here, and who was responsible for the works of art? In 1278 the Cisercian abbot of Sedlec, Henry, traveled to Palestine and the 'HolyLand' by order of King Otakar II of Bohemia. He returned with a sample of earth from Golgotha which he sprinkled over the grounds of his local cemetery. The grounds were immediately considered sacred, and hence became a much sought after location for relatives to bury their dead. In the 14th century, the Black Death spread the bubonic plague across Europe and now 30,000 bodies all wanted a resting place within the sacred grounds. Such vast numbers of dead led to the creation of the ossuary in 1511 by a half blind monk who gathered up the bones to be stacked up within the ossuary, making spaces for new corpses, which were soon taken up by more victims from 15th century Hussite Wars. The ossuary itself is situated in the basement of the All Saint's Chapel.

  Frantisek Rint, wood carver and artist was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to imaginatively compose the bones into works of art, amongst his creations came the Schwarzenberg family's coat of arms, and a chandelier containing every bone in the human body (although I couldn't say whether this includes the smallest bones found in the human ear!), composed of several bodies. In the four corners of the ossuary sit four 'bells', pile upon pile of bones carefully stacked with a hollowed centre.

  http://www.artgraphica.net/art-shop/prague-kutna-hora-bone-church.htm

  
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  cameo-d

  He returned with a sample of earth from Golgotha which he sprinkled over the grounds of his local cemetery.

  Does anyone know why dirt from Golgotha would have such significance?
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  cameo-d

  This strikes me as strange. This is from the cemetary at Mission Santa Barbara. I haven't been one to visit cemetaries, but I would think relatives of the dead visiting here would find this gothic decor unsettling. (1786)

  (Below) This is an etching in glass in a church cemetery in Buenos Aries.

  

  I just do not understand these churches making such public goulish images. I guess halloween really is a christian holiday.

  And the way they have taken people's money, I guess they really are pirates!

  ---------------

  I have seen in several places what seems like rumor stated almost as historical "fact" that Adam was buried at Golgotha.

  There is a painting entitled Crucifixion by Fra Angelico from 1435 which depicts Adam's skull under the cross. So it would seem the *rumor* has been around a long time.

  Have any of you ever heard of this?
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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  (Mark

  15:22-24)22 So they brought him to the place Gol´go·tha, which means, when translated, Skull Place. 23 Here they tried to give him wine drugged with myrrh, but he would not take it. 24 And they impaled him . . .

  Golgotha was the location of Christ's crucifixion. Calvary was also a name for the location. Religious relics, such as dirt from there, were much sought after for "holy powers".

  From our vantage point in the 21st century, graveyards are the eternal resting place. The bodies are preserved and sealed up forever, or at least a really long time. Others choose cremation and their ashes scattered someplace sentimental. Centuries ago, such notions didn't exist for ordinary people. Even as in Hamlet, a used grave was dug for reuse, and the bones discarded. Mozart was buried, or more accurately, dumped in a big, open, unmarked, shared grave. For them, the dead body didn't matter. It couldn't matter because it decomposed in just a few days. Bones would last longer. What do you do with them? At the time, it was considered creative, sacred, and would likely have been considered an honor for ones bones to still be around hundreds of years later in a chapel. For the believers, they imagine the souls looking down from heaven hoping that visitors will see the bones, be reminded of the shortness of human life, so enjoy it while you can, and live in a way to enjoy an eternal reward. I think such ideas were much more common after the Black Plague.

  I think it would be interesting to visit such a chapel and imagine that the bones of my ancestors from hundreds of years ago were somewhere there. But any such rememberances of my ancestors are from other lands and long since disappeared.