Posts Tagged ‘St. Stanislaus Kostka R. C. Church’
The views from Valaskjálf
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with what I saw during a recent double decker tourist bus excursion in Pittsburgh, in todays post. As mentioned yesterday, the bus I was riding on had a preordained route which it rides through, one which is designed to hit several areas of interest in the metro area. It crossed the Allegheny River, heading south, and then towards the convention center, using one of the Three Sister’s Bridges. As it happens, this was the Andy Warhol Bridge which we were riding over.
A humble narrator was randomly pointing the camera around, and working the dials in a very quick fashion. It’s a good exercise, photography wise, this sort of thing. A lot like when I used to ride the Staten Island and NYC Ferries looking for random stuff in NY Harbor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For instance – as the bus turned off the bridge, the scene above popped at me. I had about 5 seconds to recognize, compose, and click the shutter while the vehicle I was in was moving at about 15-20 mph. Try this sort of thing sometime, photo peeps. Breaks you out of the same old/same old way that you do things.
Not something I’d normally shoot for Newtown Pentacle, the scene above, but when I spotted that ‘How’s it going’ ad on the bus shelter – woof. Ka-click.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The route progressed into the Strip District, and St. Stanislaus Kostka R. C. Church and headed more or less eastwards.
Regarding the gobblety gook in the title: part of my continuing treatise on obscure terms associated with Odin and the spiritual side of Proto Germanic and Scandinavian antiquity, Valaskjálf was the Asgardian Palace in which Odin placed his ‘Hlidskjalf’ or ‘High Seat’ from which he could look down on and observe the worlds of both Midgard (men) and Jotunheim (monsters).
Back tomorrow with more.
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St. Stanislaus Kostka R. C. Church
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the… what do you Goyem call it… altar? The stage? I don’t know, but it’s the centerpiece and point of focus at Pittsburgh’s St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church. My grandmother would have referred to the statuary depicting the crucified Christ rising above a scale model of Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican simply as “Yuyzel on da cruss.” What can I tell you, I grew up Jewish.
I’ve visited this ‘sacred space’ before, but this time around I was on a walking tour of the surrounding strip district offered by the ‘Doors Open Pittsburgh’ outfit and I got to linger and take a really good look at the place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This sculpture caught my attention just because there’s so much going on in the composition. Whom I would presume to be Mary is holding a baby I would presume to be Jesus, and offering the Rosary to the damned. I’m sure that every hand posture and facial expression has some allegorical meaning, as that would be ‘very Catholic.’ It was located behind the rack of votive candles, if that means anything. It probably does.
One of the Lay people who care for the church spoke to our group of lookie loos and detailed the history of the centuried congregation and it’s many trials that have included catastrophic floods and nearby industrial explosions. I couldn’t get a decent shot of the mural on the ceiling vault, which depicts John Sobieski and the boys arriving in Vienna to kick some Turk ass. For those not familiar with the battle, it’s what Tolkien based the ‘Charge of the Rohirim’ at Helms Deep on in his Lord of the Rings epic.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On our way back out to the street, and we had to leave in an expeditious fashion as the Church’s Priest had appeared in vestment, with a large family in tow and they were preparing to christen a new baby. If you’re ever in Pittsburgh, definitely put this jewel of a church on you list to visit. Pope John Paul 2 did, so why not you?
As a note, I’ve actually done a bit of research on the ritual of Baptism in the past and it is positively ancient. The Canaanites were basically fire worshippers, being connected to the religions of the Phoenicians as they were – with Baal as the central godhead and ritual sites found on the hilltops in wilderness areas – so it’s unlikely that the proto Hebrews picked it up from them. Theoretically, Baptism became part of the portfolio about the same time that Angels first became part of the story, during the ‘Babylonian Captivity.’
Back tomorrow.
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Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
perceptible resemblance
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was my pal Max’s first time in Pittsburgh, so we took a grandiose walk around a downtown area known as the “Golden Triangle,” after crossing the Monongahela River on the South Tenth Street Bridge. We walked crosstown to the Allegheny River and then over a bridge or two to the North Side. That’s the Fort Duquesne Bridge pictured above.
We wandered about for several hours, and feeling a bit thirsty, decided to go looking for a place to sell us a glass or two of beer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After crossing the Allegheny River via another span from the north side, we headed for a tavern rich area called “The Strip District,” and passed by this demolition project. I can officially say that this cold storage warehouse had caught my eye the last time I was in town, so seeing it midway through being torn down was a bit of a surprise. It looked like a Godzilla had taken a bite out of it.
There you go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a Sunday, when these shots were captured, so no work on the project was taking place. There were lots of people milling about wearing Steeler’s colors. There was a preseason game scheduled for the evening, and there were lots of yellow towels being carried around by fans of the “sports ball” franchise.
As mentioned – Sunday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sunday is, I’m told, the day that the Goyem go to a church. Accordingly. the doors of St. Stanislaus Kostka R. C. Church were open and inviting signage sat in the aperture.
Well… like a vampire am I. An open door and an invitation? Yes, please.
This Polish church is locally famous, as the future Pope John Paul 2 once randomly showed up here to lead a service, while he was still holding the rank of Cardinal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wow. Beautiful sacred space, this.
We asked: Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was in town, as described by some of the lovely people caring for the church, to receive an award from one of the universities. He was staying at the home of a local business magnate who was of Polish ethnicity, and decided that he wanted to lead a mass service locally before attending the awards ceremony, so St. Stanislaus Kostka was suggested to him by his host as it’s the sister church of the one in Poland which Wojtyła’s ministry was based out of.
The modern church people described the encounter with the future Pope to us, which involved a stretch limo arriving in front of the church unannounced, and a red robed Cardinal suddenly getting out and walking in. There’s a small altar set up to the side of the main pulpit, pictured above, which commemorates the visit and event.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The folks at the Church were really nice and friendly, gave us a few tips on other wonders of the Catholic Church in the area that sounded incredible. I was told that there’s a Reliquary on nearby Troy Hill that contains one of the largest collections of such items in North America.
I told them I’d be back in January, and wanted to talk more. I also want to properly photograph this amazing structure at some point.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 