Through My Lens: Mission Abbey Church
As is my custom, this being the Season of Lent, I’m going to post a series of church photos. Unlike previous years, this year I’m going to focus on a single place of worship, one I feel an appropriate follow-up to last year’s tour of European cloisters. And, unlike previous years, this year we’re on this side of the pond.
And so, for today, the First Sunday of Lent, here’s a photo of the church of the Mission Abbey, located east of Vancouver in the town of Mission. Its official name is Westminster Abbey and Seminary of Christ the King.
Merry Christmas!
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
Through My Lens: San Jeronómo Monastery Outtake
The thing is, when you troll through dozens of photos to find the ones you want to post for a Lenten series on cloisters, you’re bound to end up with more photos than you could possibly use.
Here is another look at the Cloister of the Monasterio de San Jerónimo in Granada, Spain.
Happy Easter!
Detail of the Cloister of Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, October 2007
Through My Lens: Majolica Cloister of Monastero di Santa Chiara
Today’s cloister has a splash of colour, which I thought appropriate considering it is Palm Sunday ― always a joyous day of celebration in the Lenten calendar.
This is the Majolica Cloister of Monastero di Santa Chiara in Naples, Italy, which was built in the fourteenth century as both a Franciscan monastery and a convent of the Order of Saint Clare, also known as the Poor Clares. During the eighteenth century, the garden of the cloister was completely transformed by the addition of the majolica-tiled pillars you see in the photo. (Majolica tiles are common throughout the Mediterranean region.) The pillars line two intersecting pathways that divide the garden into quarters.
It had only just stopped raining when we popped in to take a quick look at this cloister in October 2002. It was far too short a visit ― my friends and I had a train to catch ― but someday I hope to go back and photograph it properly.
Through My Lens: Cloister of the Monasterio de San Jerónimo
The Monasterio de San Jeronómo is in Granada, Spain. I didn’t realize this Hieronymite monastery had a cloister until I wandered inside to explore ― I was so pleased to see it. I was particularly entranced by the staircase at the end of the walkway in this photo. Carved into the stone above the two arches are the words, “Soli Deo honor et gloria.”
This cloister is my photo choice for the Fifth Sunday of Lent.
Through My Lens: Cloister of Silence of the Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás
We’re still at the Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás in Ávila for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. This is a photo of the Cloister of Silence ― the second of the three interconnected cloisters. It contains 18 arches at ground level and 38 on the upper level and is where the monks were buried.
I love this stone well. I remember the feeling I had when I walked into this cloister ― it was as if I’d passed into Narnia and was wandering through the ruins of Cair Paravel with Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy.
Through My Lens: Cloister of the Monarchs of the Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás
My photo choice for today, the Third Sunday of Lent, is the Cloister of the Monarchs of the Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás in Ávila, Spain.
Work on this Dominican monastery started in 1482 and was completed in 1493. Real is Spanish for “royal” ― the cloister includes a palace built for Ferdinand and Isabella, who are commonly known as the Reyes Católicos (Catholic Monarchs).
I thought I’d died and gone to cloister heaven when I walked into this monastery. There are three sets of interconnected cloisters; the Cloister of the Monarchs is the third and largest one and contains 40 arches at ground level and 56 arches on the upper level.
Through My Lens: Cloister of Abbaye Saint Michel de Cuxa
For the Second Sunday of Lent, we’re hopping across the Channel to France. This photo is of the Cloister of Abbaye Saint Michel de Cuxa, a Benedictine abbey located in the French Pyrenees.
The abbey was built in 878, abandoned during the French Revolution, and restored to a monastic community in 1919. Its cloister dates back to the twelfth century, but many of the columns were removed in the early twentieth century by an American sculptor and are now on display at The Cloisters Museum and Gardens in New York.
I took this photo in November 2000. It was on this jaunt around southern France that I came to realize how much I value the beauty and the silence of monastic cloisters. I’ve been on a mission to photograph them ever since.
Through My Lens: Little Cloister of Westminster Abbey
This year, for Lent, I’m going to take you on a photographic tour of European cloisters.
For the First Sunday of Lent, here is a photo of the Little Cloister at Westminster Abbey in London that I took in 2007. That’s Victoria Tower behind.
There and Back Again 