A luxurious ancient pagan tomb located in a necropolis under St Peter’s Basilica has been reopened to the public after a year of restoration.
Catholic News Service reports the Vatican has completed the restoration of the largest and most luxurious mausoleum in the vast necropolis under St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Mausoleum of the Valerii displays some of the most ornate decoration among the 22 family mausoleums in the ancient underground cemetery.
“We had wanted to restore it for a long time, but we didn’t have the money. Now we’re extremely happy” the funding came through and the year long restoration has been completed, said Maria Cristina Stella, an official at the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the office responsible for the basilica’s upkeep.
The $300,000 project was funded by the Rome based Foundation for Music and Sacred Art, the Italian branch of Mercedes-Benz, and other sponsors.
The Vatican necropolis includes the burial grounds where St Peter’s tomb has been venerated since early Christian times.
The Valerii mausoleum was built sometime after 160 by Gaius Valerius Herma - a wealthy, highly educated Roman slave who had bought his freedom. He built the site for his family and his freed slaves and their descendents.
Like many other pagan tombs in the necropolis, the sarcophagi were later “recycled” by Christians who buried their loved ones and added inscriptions referring to Christ.
The cemetery had been used until the fourth century when the emperor Constantine had workmen fill in the open-air necropolis with dirt in order to lay the foundation for building a basilica above St. Peter’s tomb. The airless, lightless atmosphere actually had helped preserve much of the artwork and statuary.
Restorers for the Valerii mausoleum used hand held lasers, tiny drills, scalpels, sponges and plain water to remove mineral salts, other encrustations and dirt, and they injected special glues to reinforce crumbling plaster walls.
They pieced together broken plaster or marble fragments back onto statuary tucked into niches lining the mausoleum walls.
The second century subterranean burial ground is two levels below the basilica floor, and St. Peter’s tomb is directly under the basilica’s main altar.
The cemetery was excavated for the first time in the 1930’s and 40’s, revealing a double row of mausoleums and niches decorated with paintings, stucco and mosaics, along with a section of simpler graves.
The Vatican has spent the past decade repairing and restoring the tombs, labyrinthine lanes and funerary artwork using state-of-the-art techniques, as well as setting up a complete conservation system that controls the climate of the necropolis.
The term Candlemas (or Candelaia) derives from the late Latin “candelorum” or “candelaram” namely the blessing of candles and it indicates a holiday in astronomical time, coinciding with half winter in the rural cycle, when we approach the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The most famous popular saying about it states: “When we are at Candlemas, we are out of winter, but if it rains or the wind is blowing, we are still within winter” suggesting that if the day of Candlemas does not have good weather, you still have to wait several weeks before the end of the winter and beginning of spring. This is a moment of transition between winter / dark / end and spring / light / Birth: the passage is celebrated through the purification and preparation for the new season.
For the Catholic Church, Candlemas is the Feast of the Purification of Mary, celebrated by the Church and by the faithful on February 2 simultaneously with the presentation of Jesus in the temple which could not take place before 40 days had passed, which is the time required by the Jewish law for the purification of one who has recently given birth to a male.
The first account of the Candlemas in the Holy Land is by Eteria that describes it as a major public holiday. Later, from Jerusalem, the festivities spread throughout the East and particularly to Byzantium. With the Emperor Justinian I it became a public holiday and took the name of Ypapanté (= meeting of the Lord). The origins of Candlemas, however, have distant roots in time.
From Rome, Italy, we descend on Lupercalia which celebrated in the Ides of February, the last month of the year for the Romans, when they used to purify themselves before the advent of the new year to propitiate fertility. In this celebration, dedicated to Fauno Lupercus, two boys of a patrician family were conducted into a cave on the Palatine, consecrated to God, in which priests, having sacrificed goats, mark their forehead with a knife stained with the blood of the animals. The blood was then dried with white wet wool in milk, and then the two couples had to smile. They were dressed in skins of sacrificed animals; and the same skins were then cut into strips which were then used as whips. So dressed and whips in hand, the couple had to run around the base of the Palatine hitting anyone they might encounter, particularly women who voluntarily offered to be purified and whipped to obtain fertility. Another moment of the festival was the ‘februatio’, the purification of the city, where women ran through the streets with lit candles and torches, a symbol of light.
The use of lit torches and candles during the religious procession had two functions: the first, of a spiritual nature, showed the victory of light over darkness, the social presentation of the Divine on earth, and the other of a practical nature, resulted from the need to have visibility in travelling night in the cities where the celebrations took place. The blessing of candles, then as now, is a significant moment in the great procession called Cerorum luminibus coruscans (or “shining through candles and lights”), and it is able to generate in the hearts of the participants a strong sense of communion with the mother of Jesus. Today, the solemn offer of candles to the Pope is done by many Italian cities, as in Trapani, where popular representations recall the purification of Mary, and people bring candles, flashlights and torches to their windows, as it used to happen in Naples. The blessed candles are then kept at home by the faithful and are lit to appease the wrath of God, during violent storms, on waiting for an absent person who does not return or is kept away in serious danger, when attending to a moribund, or anytime you feel the need to invoke divine help.
The character that of a Marian feast was introduced by Pope Sergio. But it will be the Eastern mysticism that sings more profusely in its liturgy about the Virgin’s gesture especially in the antiphonal “, oh Zion, the wedding room, receive Christ your Lord…” sang in response to the first reading of the office readings. This mystical intuition is made possible by following these steps: Christmas is considered the “husband” (antiphon to the Magnificat Vespers first and second readings at antiphon) as the sun is rising on the horizon; and the Church is considered as a bride adorned, its joys are the wedding feast of Christ with the Church. The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, though celebrated for a time “during the year,” is the final point of the Christmas season. The same antiphon, mentioned above, places Mary in the correct position by singing: “… (Oh Zion) hail Mary, gate of heaven, because she holds on her arms, the king of glory, the new light. The Virgin recoils, presenting the Son, born before the first-born star of the morning. Simeon keeps him in the arms, and announces to the people that he is the Lord of life and death, the Saviour of the world “. Towards the eleventh century comes to revelationem antiphon Lumen Gentium that characterizes faith and prayer of the Church in this circumstance, and the song of podsejani Simeon Nunc dimittis.
For this reason the Vatican II Council invites us to understand the intimate nature of these festivities: “The union of the Mother and the Son in redemption occurs upon virginal conception of Christ lasting until his death. And when presented to the temple by offering the gift of the poor, Simeon was heard saying that the son would become a sign of contradiction and that a sword would pierce the soul of the mother, because they revealed the thoughts of many hearts “(LG 57).
Candlemas in some places is called “Day of the bear”. In this particular day, the bear is emerges from hibernation and out of his burrow to see weather and assess whether or not he should put the nose out. A proverb from Piedmont says that if the bear has its dry bed (which would indicate a good weather for that day) for forty days he no longer exits. Another proverb similar to the first, but in this case Southern, argues that if the 2 February the weather is not good, the bear has a chance to stay in winter continues.
The bear was also the main character of some rural rites of February, placed in the rural cycle: at the end of a simulated hunt, the bear is caught and brought inside the country where it is the object of jokes and games. The epilogue can vary either with its release or an escape and return to nature. The character of the bears is played by actors in disguise who should not be recognized until the end of the ritual show.
At Urbiano they celebrate the “feast of the bear”: a few days before the feast, hunters with the face blackened, went in search of bears, (played by a man in costume) who were invariably found the eve of the evening. Hunters, “bear”, and a tamer visited the public houses and inns with the pretext to scare people (and girls), left to become transgressivelly drunk. The day after, the bear appeares in the country and, after the tour of the village, dances with the most beautiful girl before disappearing only to be transformed in a man.
This festival occurs not only in Piedmont and areas in the Alps, but also in other regions (and nations) and, at distant times bears in the party were true animals, led around by a mountaineer who took the bear dancing in the squares of villages around the country. Then he used to disappear. In some countries, to maintain tradition, the bear was then replaced by a masked person that specifically performed the same pantomime.
At Putignano, in Puglia, bear impersonators toured the streets of the country, stopping in the squares: there, with the sound of drums, they danced the tarantella, among those present arranged in a circle. Sometimes, depending on the weather, the bear wouls mimic the act of building his refuge (u pagghiar ‘).
These rites reprised an ancient tradition that celebrated the festival of the return of light for the summer, with the defeat of the forces of darkness and cold. By performing these rituals the symbolism of bears is revealed (they go into a winter hibernation and awaken back in spring), interpreting a primitive force of nature. The bear can also be understood as representing “wild man”. In both representations there is still represent the binomial nature - man.
The number “Forty” in the Bible The day of Candlemas is connected with the number 40, a number that represents the purification. The Book of Genesis, for instance, tells us that the deluge lasted forty days and forty nights (7.12), and, according to Matthew, chapter 4.2, Jesus’ was fasting in the desert for forty days and forty nights. On the other hand, St. Paul in his writings to the Christians in Corinth, he recalls when he received 40 lashes by the Jews. (2Cor. 11.26)
In the Bible, the number 40, with its precise religious meaning is used many times: Abraham implores to God to save Sodom if there he would find at least 40 righteous people (but had come down to less than ten in the end), and when saved from Esau he had offer 40 cows in sacrifice. In Egypt, Joseph took 40 days to embalm the body of his father, and left Egypt, Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights, and when the tabernacle was built it took 40 silver bases to stand on. The explorers of the land of Canaan arriving to the Promised Land: it took them 40 days, but in return they had 40 years of punishment. Judge Abdon had 40 children, and the philistine persevered for 40 days, according to Samuel (1 Sam. 17.14).
Even the great prophet Elijah remained on Mount Horeb for 40 days and 40 nights and Jonah preached repentance to the inhabitants of Nineveh for 40 days. Therefore really lent 40 days (40 nights) of true inner penance, fasting, is not just a physical stance but spiritual experience.
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Translation with the help of Google Tools from the article published last Friday in Italian sent in by the Priory of Italy at the occasion of the publishing of the video depicting the Candlemas celebration of 2008. We apologise for any mistranslations.
Questo é il video preparato por il Priorato de Italia in occasione della Festività della Candelora lo scorso 2 febbraio 2008.
Il termine Candelora (o Candelaia) deriva dal tardo latino “candelorum” o “candelaram” cioè benedizione delle candele ed indica una festività collocata, nel tempo astronomico, a mezzo inverno e coincidente, nel ciclo agreste/vegetativo, con la fine dell’inverno e l’inizio della primavera; il più famoso detto popolare a riguardo infatti recita: “Quando vien la Candelora, de l’inverno semo fora; ma se piove o tira il vento, de l’inverno semo dentro” suggerendo che se nel giorno della Candelora non si avrà bel tempo, si dovranno aspettare ancora diverse settimane prima della fine dell’inverno e dell’arrivo della primavera. Si tratta di un momento di passaggio, tra l’inverno/ buio/ fine e la primavera/ luce/ nascita: passaggio che viene celebrato attraverso la purificazione e la preparazione alla nuova stagione.
Per la Chiesa Cattolica, la Candelora è la festa della purificazione di Maria, celebrata dalla Chiesa e dai fedeli il 2 di febbraio in simultanea con la presentazione di Gesù al Tempio che non poteva avvenire prima dei 40 giorni,cioè del tempo previsto dalla legge ebrea per la purificazione di una puerpera dopo il parto di un maschio.
La prima testimonianza della festività in Terra Santa é raccontata da Eteria che la descrive come una grande festività pubblica. Successivamente, da Gerusalemme, la festività si diffuse in tutto l’Oriente e in particolare a Bisanzio. Con l’imperatore Giustiniano I divenne giorno festivo e assunse il nome di Ypapanté (= incontro del Signore). Le origini della Candelora, però, hanno radici lontane nel tempo.
In Italia, a Roma, risaliamo ai Lupercalia che si celebravano alle Idi di febbraio, ultimo mese dell’anno per i romani, che servivano a purificarsi prima dell’avvento dell’anno nuovo e a propiziarne la fertilità. In questa celebrazione, dedicata a Fauno Lupercus, due ragazzi di famiglia patrizia venivano condotti in una grotta sul Palatino, consacrata al Dio, al cui interno i sacerdoti, dopo aver sacrificato delle capre, segnavano loro la fronte con il coltello tinto del sangue degli animali. Il sangue veniva poi asciugato con della lana bianca bagnata nel latte, e subito i due giovani dovevano sorridere. A quel punto i due ragazzi dovevano indossare le pelli degli animali sacrificati; con la medesima pelle venivano quindi realizzate delle striscie (dette februa o anche amiculum Iunonis) da usare a mo’ di fruste. Così acconciati e con le strisce in mano, i due giovani dovevano correre attorno alla base del Palatino percuotendo chiunque incontrassero, in particolare le donne che si offrivano volontariamente ad essere sferzate per purificarsi e ottenere la fecondità. Altro momento particolare della festa era la ‘februatio’, la purificazione della città, in cui le donne giravano per le strade con ceri e fiaccole accese, simbolo di luce.
L’uso di fiaccole e candele accese durante la processione sacra aveva due funzioni: la prima, di natura spirituale, indicava la vittoria della luce sulle tenebre, la presentazione sociale del Divino in terra; l’altra di natura pratica, derivava dalla necessità di avere visibilità nell’attraversamento notturno delle città in cui avvenivano i festeggiamenti. La benedizione dei ceri, allora come oggi, è un momento significativo e la grande processione chiamata Cerorum luminibus coruscans (ovvero “risplendente mediante ceri e lumi”), è un grado di generare nei cuori dei partecipanti un forte senso di congiunzione con la madre di Gesù. Ancora oggi, l’offerta dei ceri al Papa viene fatta in forma solenne ed in molte altre città italiane, come a Trapani, si celebrano rappresentazioni popolari che rievocano la purificazione di Maria, o si mettono ceri, torce e fiaccole alle finestre, come si faceva anticamente anche a Napoli. I ceri benedetti sono poi conservati in casa dai fedeli e vengono accesi, per placare l’ira divina, durante violenti temporali, aspettando una persona che non torna o si ritiene in grave pericolo, assistendo un moribondo, e in qualunque momento si senta il bisogno d’invocare l’aiuto divino.
Il carattere mariano della festa fu introdotto da papa Sergio. Ma sarà la mistica orientale a cantare più profusamente nella sua liturgia il gesto della Vergine soprattutto nell’antifona “Adorna, o Sion, la stanza nuziale, accogli Cristo tuo Signore…” che si canta nel responsorio alla prima lettura nell’ufficio delle letture. Questa intuizione mistica è possibile seguendo questo passaggio: a Natale ecco affacciarsi lo “sposo” (antifona al Magnificat dei primi Vespri e seconda antifona all’ufficio delle letture) come sole che si leva all’orizzonte; all’Epifania è la Chiesa che si presenta come una sposa adorna delle sue gioie: è la festa delle nozze della Chiesa con Cristo. La festa della Presentazione del Signore al Tempio, anche se celebrata nel tempo “durante l’anno”, è il punto conclusivo del tempo di Natale. La stessa antifona, che abbiamo ricordato sopra, colloca Maria nella posizione giusta cantando: “… (o Sion) accogli Maria, porta del cielo, perché ella tiene fra le sue braccia il re della gloria, la luce nuova. La Vergine si ferma, presentando il Figlio, generato prima della stella del mattino. Simeone lo tiene fra le braccia, e annunzia alle genti che egli è il Signore della vita e della morte, il Salvatore del mondo”. Verso il secolo undicesimo nasce l’antifona Lumen ad revelationem gentium che caratterizza la fede e la preghiera della Chiesa in questa circostanza, e viene intercalata al cantico di Simeone Nunc dimittis.
Per questo il Vaticano II invita a cogliere l’intima natura della festività: “L’unione della Madre col Figlio nell’opera della redenzione si manifesta dal momento della concezione verginale di Cristo fino alla morte di lui. E quando lo presentò al tempio con l’offerta del dono proprio dei poveri, udì Simeone mentre preannunciava che il Figlio sarebbe divenuto segno di contraddizione e che una spada avrebbe trafitto l’anima della madre, perché fossero svelati i pensieri di molti cuori” (LG 57).
SPIGOLATURE SULLA CANDELORA
La Candelora in alcuni luoghi viene chiamata “Giorno dell’orso”. In questo particolare giorno, l’orso si sveglierebbe dal letargo e uscirebbe fuori dalla sua tana per vedere come è il tempo e valutare se sia o meno il caso di mettere il naso fuori. Un proverbio piemontese in questo senso recita: “se l’ouers fai secha soun ni, per caranto giouern a sort papì”. Ovvero, se l’orso fa asciugare il suo giaciglio (cosa che starebbe a indicare tempo bello per quel giorno) per quaranta giorni non esce più. Un altro proverbio simile al primo, ma meridionale in questo caso, sostiene che se il 2 Febbraio il tempo non è buono, l’orso ha la possibilità di farsi il pagliaio e quindi l’inverno continua.
L’orso era anche protagonista di alcuni riti rurali del mese di febbraio, collocati nel ciclo agreste/vegetativo: al termine di una caccia simulata, l’orso viene catturato e portato all’interno del paese dove viene fatto oggetto di dileggi e di scherzi. L’epilogo può variare dall’uccisione dell’orso alla sua liberazione/fuga e ritorno alla natura. La figura dell’orso è rivestita da qualcuno del luogo che non deve essere riconosciuto fino alla fine della rappresentazione rituale.
A Urbiano si celebra la “festa dell’orso”: qualche giorno prima della ricorrenza, i cacciatori con il volto annerito, andavano alla ricerca dell’orso, che (rappresentato da un uomo travestito) veniva immancabilmente trovato la sera della vigilia. Cacciatori, “orso”, e domatore visitavano le stalle e le osterie con il pretesto di spaventare la gente (e le ragazze) si lasciavano andare a trasgressive bevute. Il giorno dopo, l’orso compariva in paese e, dopo aver fatto il giro della borgata, ballava con la ragazza più bella prima di scomparire per ritrasformarsi in uomo.
Questa festa ricorre non solo in Piemonte e nelle zone dell’arco alpino, ma anche in altre regioni (e nazioni); in tempi più remoti l’orso della festa era vero, portato in giro da un montanaro/domatore che andava da un paese all’altro facendo ballare l’orso nelle piazze. In seguito questo uso scomparve e in alcuni paesi, per mantenere la tradizione, l’orso fu sostituito da una persona appositamente mascherata che ripeteva la stessa pantomima.
A Putignano, in Puglia, chi impersonificava l’orso girava per le vie del paese, fermandosi nelle piazze: lì, al suono di tamburi, si metteva a ballare la tarantella, tra i presenti disposti in cerchio che battevano le mani a tempo e lo punzecchiavano e colpivano con qualche sberla. A volte, a seconda del tempo, l’orso imitava o no l’atto del costruire il suo rifugio (u pagghiar’).
Questi riti riproponevano comunque una tradizione antica che celebrava la festa del ritorno della luce e della bella stagione, con la sconfitta delle forze del buio e del freddo. Nello svolgimento di questi riti traspare la simbologia dell’orso (che con l’inverno va in letargo e si risveglia a primavera), interprete della forza primitiva della natura. L’orso può anche essere accostato alla figura dell’”uomo selvaggio”. In entrambe le raffigurazioni rappresenterebbe comunque il binomio natura - uomo.
IL NUMERO “QUARANTA” NELLA BIBBIA
Il giorno della Candelora fa riflettere sul numero 40, un numero che ovviamente rappresenta la purificazione così come ricorda il libro della Genesi quando racconta che il diluvio è durato quaranta giorni e quaranta notti. (7,12), oppure, come dice Matteo al capitolo 4,2, quando racconta del digiuno di Gesù nel deserto per altrettanti giorni ed altrettante notti. Che dire poi dei ricordi di san Paolo, quando, scrivendo ai cristiani di Corinto, racconta loro di avere ricevuto 40 frustate dai giudei. (2Cor. 11,26)
Nella Bibbia il numero 40, ovviamente col suo preciso significato religioso, ricorre molte volte: Abramo implora Dio di salvare Sodoma se vi avesse trovato almeno 40 giusti (ma dovette scendere a meno di dieci che non furono trovati); e per salvarsi da Esaù dovette offrirgli 40 vacche. In Egitto, Giuseppe impiegò 40 giorni per imbalsamare il corpo del padre; e usciti dall’Egitto, Mosè rimase sul Sinai per 40 giorni e 40 notti; e quando fu costruito il tabernacolo occorsero 40 basi d’argento. Peggio se la videro gli esploratori della terra di Canaan all’arrivo verso la terra promessa: impiegarono 40 giorni, durante i quali se la spassarono, ma ebbero in cambio 40 anni di punizioni. Il giudice Abdon ebbe 40 figli, e il filisteo perseverò nell’insistenza per 40 giorni, come ricorda Samuele (1 Sam. 17,14).
Anche il grande profeta Elia rimase sul monte Oreb per 40 giorni e 40 notti e Giona predicò la penitenza agli abitanti di Ninive per 40 giorni e fu ascoltato. Quaresima dunque davvero 40 giorni (e 40 notti) di vera interiore penitenza, un digiuno non semplicemente corporale ma soprattutto spirituale.
Per la prima volta alla sfilata dei Carri del Carnevale di Viareggio un carro allegorico dedicato ai Templari:
In nome di chi…
di Carlo Lombardi e Roberto Vannucci
questa la spiegazione degli autori alla presentazione del bozzetto del carro:
Che cosa ci può essere di più sconcertante e avvilente per la dignità umana che lottare in nome della guerra per il bene dei propri popoli?
Quale bene, di qualsiasi popolo contro qualsiasi male si tratti, può far spargere tanto sangue in suo nome?
Non è possibile che queste sanguinarie guerre, esistenti sin dai tempi dei tempi, possano trovare la parola fine?
E’ questo il breve ma forte messaggio che le due costruzioni vogliono portare all’attenzione del pubblico. E’ la pace tra i popoli il messaggio che si evince da ogni testo sacro: non ci sono confini, non ci sono differenze di razze e di religioni che possano creare barriere per la costruzione di un mondo pacifico.
Il nostro Carnevale diventa un palcoscenico sul quale due guerrieri si affrontano l’uno di fronte all’altro, non animati da sentimenti di odio e violenza, ma mossi dalla forza dell’amore, della giustizia e della fratellanza, che sono le fondamenta necessarie per la costruzione della PACE UNIVERSALE per la salvaguardia delle generazioni future.
Una sola riflessione:
i Templari sono conosciuti ai più per le grandi battaglie che si conclusero con la caduta di san Giovanni d’Acri, pochi vogliono ricordare come i Poveri Cavalieri di Cristo, operarono soprattutto attraverso la mediazione politica evitando quando possibile inutili spargimenti di sangue e cercando la battaglia solo come ultima ratio.
Ricordiamo come tra le vari accuse mosse nel processo per eresia vi era l’accusa di intelligenza con il nemico.
For the first time the parade of floats of the Carnival celebrations in Viareggio had a wagon dedicated to the allegorical Templars:
”On behalf of those who …
Carlo Lombardi and Roberto Vannucci“
This is the explanation by the authors presented with the sketch of the wagon:
What may be more disconcerting and disheartening for human dignity that fight in the name of war for the good of people?
What “good”, coming from whomever is fighting any evil, may spilt blood in its name?
Is it not possible that these bloody wars, existing since the time of the times, can find their way to the word “stop”?
That is the short but strong message that the two wagons try to bring to the public. And ‘peace among peoples is the message that can be seen from any sacred text: there are no boundaries, there are differences of races and no religions can create barriers for the construction of a peaceful world.
Our Carnival becomes a stage on which two warriors face each other in the line of sight, not motivated by feelings of hatred and violence, but moved by the strength of love, justice and brotherhood, which are the necessary foundations for the construction of UNIVERSAL PEACE in order to safeguard future generations.
One reflection:
The Templars are known more for the big battles that ended with the fall of St. John of Acre, few want to remember that as the Poor Knights of Christ, they worked mainly through political mediation whenever possible and avoided unnecessary bloodshed, looking for battle only as a last resort.
We recall how the various allegations in the trial for heresy were accused of intelligence with the enemy.
Parece que la desfachatez y fanatismo de los musulmanes no tiene límite. Al maltrato de mujeres y homosexuales, el empleo de la violencia contra los niños o el terrorismo internacional, se une también una ofensiva que pretende imponer la sharia en Europa.
La última, ha sido atacar al deporte europeo. Barsia Kaska, un abogado turco experto en derecho europeo, ha solicitado que la UEFA imponga una sanción al Inter de Milan por llevar una camiseta que atenta contra el Islam. Ocurrió en el partido de Liga de Campeones, que enfrentó al equipo italiano contra el Feberbahce turco, en el estadio de San Siro el pasado 27 de noviembre.
Kaska, seguidor del Fenerbahce, vio cómo su equipo perdía ese partido por 3-0. Pero más le dolió ver la camiseta que portaba el Inter: una enorme cruz roja sobre fondo blanco.
Su imagen ha sido portada en varios medios turcos, acompañada casi siempre de otra: la de un templario, perteneciente a la orden de los legendarios monjes soldados, fundada poco después de la conquista de Jerusalén (1099), en la primera cruzada y que estaba, según cuenta la leyenda, en posesión nada menos que del Santo Grial.
“Esta cruz me recordó a los días sangrientos del pasado”, indica Kaska. Y, tras ver la derrota, presentó una denuncia ante un juzgado que remitió a los comités disciplinarios de la UEFA y la FIFA, en Suiza, pidiendo la anulación de los tres puntos conseguidos por el Inter por “manifestar de forma explícita la superioridad racista de una religión”, según recoge la propia denuncia.
La camiseta protagonizó el editorial “¿Cómo lo permitió la UEFA?”, del célebre comentarista Mehmet Y. Yilmaz, un día después de la paliza italiana al Fenerbahce. “¡Los tres goles de este Inter cruzado deberían ser eliminados!” fue el titular elegido por la redacción de deportes del rotativo islamista Radikal.
CABALLEROS TEMPLARIOS
Los Caballeros Templarios o La Orden del Temple fue una orden medieval de carácter religioso y militar cargada de tintes legendarios, nacida después de la primera cruzada. Fue fundada en Jerusalén, en 1118 por nueve caballeros franceses, con Hugo de Payens a la cabeza.
En sus inicios su denominación oficial fue Orden de los Pobres Caballeros de Cristo (Pauperes Conmilitones Christi); pero más tarde fueron conocidos comúnmente como Caballeros templarios o Caballeros del Templo de Salomón (Milites Templi Salomonis), denominación surgida tras instalarse en el antiguo templo de Salomón. La designación de Orden del Temple es la traducción al francés de la denominación en latín, siendo muy extendida dados los amplios lazos Templarios con Francia.
La cruz de San Jorge presente en el escudo del Barcelona ha provocado en los últimos días una gran controversia en los países islámicos, que ven este símbolo como un recuerdo de las Cruzadas. Las autoridades de Arabia Saudí han ordenado retocar el escudo de tal manera que sólo aparece el brazo vertical de la cruz.
Según una información de ‘La Vanguardia’, basada en el testimonio de dos ciudadanos españoles residentes en Riad, en la capital saudí es imposible comprar una camiseta del Barça con el escudo oficial.
Además, el diario asegura que las prendas culés con el escudo “religiosamente correcto” se pueden adquirir también en otros países islámicos como Argelia.
Meras falsificaciones
El club, no obstante, asegura que tal modificación de su emblema no es sino una mera falsificación, a la que es completamente ajeno y ante la que no puede hacer nada.
“Todas las camisetas oficiales que salen del Barcelona no tienen ningún tipo de retoque en los escudos, así que estos de los que se habla son una simple falsificación contra la que no podemos hacer nada”, explicó a EL MUNDO Jordi Bardia, portavoz del club azulgrana, quien precisó además que este tipo de equipaciones sólo se pueden adquirir en circuitos comerciales no oficiales.
Lo cierto es que no es la primera vez que fútbol y religión se entremezclan. El actual portero del Deportivo de La Coruña, el israelí Dudu Aouate, judío practicante, pidió a su anterior club, el Racing de Santander, que en su uniforme no figurara una cruz que el conjunto cántabro llevaba como parte del anagrama de un patrocinador. O el pasado 27 de noviembre, cuando el Inter de Milán recibió al Fenerbahçe turco en San Siro luciendo una camiseta blanca con una cruz roja, que recuerda el centenario del club y que fue criticada por la prensa turca.
It’s a new Da Vinci code, but this time it could be for real.
An Italian musician and computer technician claims to have uncovered musical notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” raising the possibility that the Renaissance genius might have left behind a somber composition to accompany the scene depicted in the 15th-century wall painting.
“It sounds like a requiem,” Giovanni Maria Pala said. “It’s like a soundtrack that emphasizes the passion of Jesus.”
Painted from 1494 to 1498 in Milan’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the “Last Supper” captures a key moment in the Gospel narration of Jesus’ last meal with the 12 Apostles before his arrest and crucifixion, vividly depicting the shock of Christ’s followers as they learn that one of them is about to betray him.
Pala, a 45-year-old musician who lives near the southern Italian city of Lecce, began studying Leonardo’s painting in 2003, after hearing on a news program that researchers believed the artist and inventor had hidden a musical composition in the work.
“Afterward, I didn’t hear anything more about it,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “As a musician, I wanted to dig deeper.”
In a book released Friday in Italy, Pala explains how he interpreted elements of the painting that have symbolic value in Christian theology as musical clues.
Pala first saw that by drawing the five lines of a musical staff across the painting, the loaves of bread on the table as well as the hands of Jesus and the Apostles could each represent a musical note.
This fit the relation in Christian symbolism between the bread, representing the body of Christ, with the hands, which are used to bless the food, he said. But the notes made no sense musically until Pala realized that the score had to be read from right to left, following Leonardo’s particular writing style.
In his book — “La Musica Celata” (”The Hidden Music”) — Pala also describes how he found what he says are other clues in the painting that reveal the slow rhythm of the composition and the duration of each note.
The result is a 40-second “hymn to God” that Pala said plays best on a pipe organ, the instrument most commonly used in Leonardo’s time for spiritual music.
Alessandro Vezzosi, a Leonardo expert and the director of a museum dedicated to the artist in his hometown of Vinci, said that he had not seen Pala’s research but that the musician’s hypothesis “is plausible.”
Vezzosi said that previous research has indicated that the hands of the Apostles in the painting can be substituted with the notes of a Gregorian chant, though so far no one had tried to work in the bread loaves.
“There’s always a risk of seeing something that is not there, but it’s certain that the spaces (in the painting) are divided harmonically,” he told The AP. “Where you have harmonic proportions, you can find music.”
Vezzosi also noted that though Leonardo was more noted for his paintings, sculptures and visionary inventions, he was also learned in music. Da Vinci played the lyre, designed various instruments and his writings include some musical riddles, which must be read from right to left.
Reinterpretations of the “Last Supper” have popped up ever since “The Da Vinci Code” fascinated readers and movie-goers with suggestions that one of the apostles sitting on Jesus’ right is Mary Magdalene, that the two had a child and their bloodline continues.
Pala stressed that his discovery does not reveal any supposed dark secrets of the Catholic Church or of Leonardo, but instead shows the artist in a light far removed from the conspiratorial descriptions found in fiction.
“A new figure emerges: he wasn’t a heretic like some believe,” Pala said. “What emerges is a man who believes, a man who really believes in God.”
For the first time in Italy in the last 700 years and 889 years since of the foundation of the Order, the International Chapter of Investiture of the Order of the Temple of Jerusalem will meet in the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, Italy.
The Order will be represented by a Spanish delegation with H.E. Fr+ ManuelQuintnilla, Prior fo Spain and magistrates and high officers of the Spanish Armed Forces, a delegation of the United States with Sor+ Janet Wintermute being the Italian representation made by Fr+ Raffaele Pariente, Prior of Italy with his Consiglio Priorale and Knights and Dames of the Bailiff of Magna Grecia, under Bailiff Fr+ Gennaro Nappo.
The Chapter will be followed by a Eucharist Celebration, presided by Fr. Egidio Silviglia (OFM) and con-celebrated by the Chaplains of the Order, in memory of all those who have fallen fighting for Peace. The musical service will be performed by the “Agape Fraterna” Choral.
Chapter Knights and Dames with their guests will be invited to a fraternal meal at the Palazzo Petrucci.
Ufficio Stampa Priorato Generale d’Italia
OSMTJ-OSMTHU
Per la prima volta in Italia dopo quasi 700 anni, e a 889 dalla fondazione dell’Ordine, il prossimo 11 novembre 2007, si Riunisce il Capitolo Internazionale d’Investitura dell’Ordine del Tempio di Jerusalem, Presso la Basilica di San Domenico Maggiore in Napoli.
Saranno presenti una folta delegazione Spagnola, guidata dal Priore Generale di Spagna S.E. Manuel Quintanilla, composta da magistrati e alti graduati delle forze armate spagnole, la delegazione degli Stati Uniti d’America guidata dalla sr. Janet Wintermute, la rappresentanza Italiana guidata dal Priore Generale fr. Raffaele Pariante, composta dal Consiglio Priorale e dai Cavalieri del Gran Balivato Magna Grecia, guidati dal Balivo Ing. Gennaro Nappo.
Il Capitolo sarà preceduto da una Celebrazione Eucaristica, presieduta da fr. Egidio Siviglia (OFM) e concelebrata dai cappellani dell’ordine, in suffragio di tutti i caduti per la Pace. Il servizio musicale sarà curato dalla Corale “Agape Fraterna”.
I Cavalieri Capitolari a termine della cerimonia spezzeranno il pane fraterno presso Palazzo Petrucci.
Ufficio Stampa Priorato Generale d’Italia
OSMTJ-OSMTHU
Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece “The Last Supper” has not aged well. After centuries of degradation, the painting can now be seen by only a handful of viewers at a time in an effort to hide it from outside pollutants. Now, officials have put a 16-billion pixel image of the painting online for anyone to see. The resolution is 1,600 stronger than an image taken on a 10 megapixel camera.
The high-resolution allows viewers to look at details as though they were inches from the art work, in contrast to regular photographs, which become grainy as you zoom in, said curator Alberto Artioli.
“You can see how Leonardo made the cups transparent, something you can’t ordinarily see,” said Artioli. “You can also note the state of degradation the painting is in.”
Besides allowing experts and art-lovers to study the masterpiece from home, Artioli said the project provides an historical document of how the painting appears in 2007, which will be valuable to future generations of art historians.
Although there appeared to be problems with the Web site late Saturday, it was accessible earlier in day.
The work, in Milan’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, was restored in a painstaking effort that wrapped up in 1999 — a project aimed at reversing half a millennium of damage to the famed artwork. Leonard painted “The Last Supper” dry, so the painting did not cleave to the surface in the fresco style, meaning it is more delicate and subject to wear.
“Over the years it has been subjected to bombardments; it was used as a stall by Napoleon,” Artioli said. The restoration removed 500 years of dirt while also removing previous restoration works that masked Leonardo’s own work.
Even those who get to Milan have a hard time gaining admission to see the “Last Supper.” Visits have been made more difficult by measures to protect it. Twenty-five visitors are admitted every 15 minutes to see the painting for a total of about 320,000 visitors a year. Visitors must pass through a filtration system to help reduce the work’s exposure to dust and pollutants.
Slavisa Pesci, an amateur scholar and information technologist, has made some interesting remarks that caused some Leonardo Da Vinci related websites to suffer and crash because of the onslaught of traffic that came from conspiracy theorists and Dan Brown fans.
Pesci said that when he superimposed a reversed image of the fresco “Last Supper” on top of an image of the original, you could see what appears to be a Knights Templar holding a baby. Add to that he also said you could clearly see a goblet before Christ, showing the scene when he blessed bred and wine for the Eucharist. If you understand Italian, there is a video, which explains the theory, but if you do not the images speak volumes. (http://tinyurl.com/22w4o6)
Some of you might already know the rumor and hype that was given to the “Last Supper” after reading one or two books. Recently, The Da Vinci Code made famous by author Dan Brown proposed that there was more to the painting than one would believe arguing in his book that Jesus married Mary Magdelene and fathered a child, later the blood of Christ was the real Holy Grail. Both points were “proven” by looking at the fresco.
“I came across it by accident, from some of the details you can infer that we are not talking about chance but about a precise calculation,” Pesci told journalists when he unveiled the theory earlier this week.
Calculations that many in the art world and those in the world of mathematics cannot deny, it is well known that math played a huge role in how Da Vinci painted. Using a fifty percent opacity level, one blog was almost able to duplicate the actions of the video. (View it here)
It is with technology that we are able to do the fancy tricks and superimpose the images and get these results, but whether they were intended remains the subject of much debate. The websites leonardodavinci.tv, leonardo2007.com, and cenacolo.biz/ each list errors and are still down as of Sunday night. The sites originally held more information and information regarding the new information about the “Last Supper” fresco.
An Italian archeologist says the Holy Grail — a cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper — is buried beneath a church in Rome.
Alfredo Barbagallo said ancient records show the cup is buried in a chamber beneath the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, one of the seven churches Christian pilgrims used to visit when they came to Rome, The (London) Telegraph said Thursday.
The archeologist said he spent two years studying medieval iconography inside the basilica, and a description of the chamber in a guide to the catacombs written in 1938 by a Capuchin friar named Giuseppe Da Bra.
He said the cup, given the name the Holy Grail in the Middle Ages, disappeared in A.D. 258 after a deacon named Lorenzo — with whom Pope Sixtus V reportedly entrusted treasures of the early Church — was martyred.
A Vatican spokesman said no decision has been made on the possibility of opening the catacombs, the newspaper said.
