MY SUNDAY BEST MEME #61 - METÉORA

Welcome to the meme, "My Sunday Best", which is a photographic and creative meme that allows you to showcase your talents in imaging. Every Sunday, you can post here showing an image you have created using your camera, (and/or) image processing software, and/or painting and drawing in the conventional way and have scanned in.

The rules are simple:
1) Create your image and post it up on your blog;
2) Put the "My Sunday Best" logo image link somewhere on your post so people can click and come by here;
3) Leave a comment here once you have posted;
4) Visit other posters' blogs and be amazed with their creativity!

Please do not use this meme to advertise your goods or services. This is a creative meme and any inappropriate links or comments shall be removed immediately!

The Metéora (Greek: Μετέωρα, pronounced [mɛˈtɛoɾɐ], lit. "middle of the sky", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above" — etymologically related to "Meteorite") is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos. The six monasteries are built on natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. The nearest town is Kalambaka.

The Metéora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. All of the monasteries that are located at Metéora are perched on high cliffs and accessible by staircases cut into the rock formations. They were created to serve monks and nuns following the teachings of the Greek Orthodox Church. Much of the architecture of these buildings is Athonite in origin. Of the six intact monasteries, the Holy Monastery of St. Stephen and Monastery Roussanou are inhabited by nuns.

This post is part of the My Sunday Photo meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

ST FRANCIS, MELBOURNE

St Francis' Church is the oldest Catholic church in Victoria, Australia. Located on the corner of Lonsdale Street and Elizabeth Street, it is one of only three buildings in central Melbourne which predates the Gold Rush of 1851. The church's foundation stone was laid on 4 October 1841, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, to whom the church is dedicated.

It was commissioned by Fr Patrick Geoghegan, the first Catholic priest in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, which became Victoria in 1851. In 1848, St Francis' became the cathedral church of the first Catholic Bishop of Melbourne, James Goold, and continued as a cathedral until 1868, when the diocesan seat was moved to the still unfinished St Patrick's Cathedral (which was not formally consecrated until 1897). 

Centrally located in the Melbourne's CBD, St Francis' has never lost its place as one of the city's most popular and widely used churches, and today is the busiest church in Australia, with more than 10,000 worshippers attending each week. Since 1929, it has been a centre of Eucharistic Life in the care of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.

The church is listed with Victorian Heritage Register, the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and the Australian Heritage Commission. Although there have been many changes made to the building, including the erection of a new tower, a gift from the Grollo family, to house the original 1853 bell imported from Dublin, the church remains essentially as it was designed by Samuel Jackson.

This post is part of the Our Beautiful World meme,
and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme,
and also part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

ST FRANCIS, MELBOURNE

The ‘Mother Church of Victoria’, St Francis’ Church, was built between 1841 and 1845 on the block of land originally reserved for the Catholic Church in Melbourne. Soon after Melbourne’s pioneer priest, the Franciscan Fr Patrick Geoghegan, arrived in 1839, a temporary chapel made of second-hand floorboards was erected on the site of the future St Francis’ Church. When sufficient funds were raised to finance a permanent building, Geoghegan commissioned the architect Samuel Jackson to design the present church, which he dedicated to St Francis’ of Assisi.

The foundation stone of St Francis’ Church was laid on 4 October 1841. The first mass was celebrated in the completed nave of the church on 22 May 1842. And the church was blessed and opened on 23 October 1845. St Francis’ became Melbourne’s first Catholic cathedral with the arrival of Bishop James Alipius Goold in 1848. Its cathedral status ended when the nave of the partially built St Patrick’s Cathedral was opened for worship in the late 1860s.

Although the church may be dwarfed by the huge office blocks surrounding it, it is still a wonderful place to visit and find some spiritual sustenance. The beautiful ‘Ladye Chapel’ on the western side of St Francis’ Church was constructed in the mid 1850s and blessed on 31 May 1858. This is an awe-inspiring place for quiet reflection or prayer.

This post is part of the Our Beautiful World meme,
and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme,
and also part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

2015 - MY REVIEW OF THE YEAR IN IMAGES

Today's post is a review of some of my photos from 2015. Each of the twelve photos represents a post of mine for each of the twelve months.


This post is part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
and also part of the Saturday Show Off meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme,
and also part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme.

January: Colmar, France

February: Bangkok, Thailand

March: Melbourne, Australia

April: Perth, Western Australia

May: Alonnisos Island, Greece

June: Melbourne, Australia

July: St Petersburg, Russia

August: Fremantle, Western Australia

September: Canberra, Australia

October: Melbourne, Australia

November: Te Anau, New Zealand

December: Melbourne, Australia

ST PHILLIP'S CHURCH

Phillip Island is an Australian island about 140 km south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. Named after Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, Phillip Island forms a natural breakwater for the shallow waters of the Western Port. It is 26 km long and 9 km wide, with an area of about 100 km2. It has 97 km of coastline and is part of the Bass Coast Shire.

St. Philip’s Anglican Church on Phillip Island, was built in 1870; Rose family Memorial stained glass window given by Lucy Rose, sister of William and Hugh, who lived here 20yrs to 1910; was installed in 1912. Lucy returned to England giving the Anglican Church her property in Rose Avenue. It was named Clergy Rest and was used by clergy for holidays. The Parish Hall was built in 1936.

Cowes Island Craft Market is held every second Saturday of the month at St Phillips Parish Hall in Thompson Ave. The market offers craft, clothes, plants and produce for sale.

This post is part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

ST ROSE OF VITERBO

Viterbo is an ancient city and comune in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It conquered and absorbed the neighbouring town of Ferento in its early history. It is approximately 80 kilometres north of GRA (Rome) on the Via Cassia, and it is surrounded by the Monti Cimini and Monti Volsini. The historic centre of the city is surrounded by medieval walls, still intact, built during the 11th and 12th centuries. Entrance to the walled centre of the city is through ancient gates.

Apart from agriculture, the main resources of Viterbo's area are pottery, marble, and wood. The town is home to the Italian gold reserves, an important Academy of Fine Arts, the University of Tuscia, and the Italian Army's Aviation Command headquarters and training centre. It is located in a wide thermal area, attracting many tourists from the whole of central Italy.

The city is home to the Church of St Rose of Viterbo, which was built, thanks to a bishop, in the middle of a temple dedicated to the Poor Clare nuns. In the mid-fourteenth century the temple was dedicated to the lady who later became the patron saint of Viterbo. The decoration of the building was commissioned to Benozzo Gozzoli, who in the mid '400 created a cycle of frescoes depicting episodes from the life of the saint. But, following the work of editing and enlargement of the church undertaken two centuries later, Gozzoli's work was lost.

Rose of Viterbo, T.O.S.F. (c. 1233 – March 6, 1251), was a young woman born in Viterbo, then a contested commune of the Papal States. She spent her brief life as a recluse, who was outspoken in her support of the papacy. Otherwise leading an unremarkable life, she later became known for her mystical gifts of foretelling the future and having miraculous powers. She is honoured as a saint by the Catholic Church.

The reconstruction of the nineteenth-century was inspired by the structure of the Renaissance church of S. Mary of Fortresses. The building, made entirely of granite, was completed in 1913 by Foschini, which added a new dome, larger and made of majolica, but no longer visible. The Church is located a short walk from the house where the saint lived and died. Inside the Church, lying in a catafalque of glass, you can see the mummy of St Rose. This is the body of a young, 20-year-old woman, which bears the signs of an embolism which probably was the cause of her death.

This post is part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

KALAMATA CATHEDRAL, GREECE

In the heart of the historic centre of the Greek city of Kalamata (well-known for its olives) is the Byzantine Metropolitan and Cathedral Church of the Presentation of Christ. This cathedral, the pride of all Messenians, was founded on January 25, 1860 and inaugurated on 19 August 1873 by the then Archbishop of Messenia Procopius Georgiadis.

The church houses the miraculous icon of "Our Lady of the Visitation", this being the Protectress and Patron Saint of Kalamata, and the whole of Messenia. According to the story, during the period of Turkish rule, the icon was found in a barn by a stableman, after a vision he saw. The remarkable thing about it was that while the back was severely burned, the front of the icon was intact. Since 1889, every year a procession of the holy icon through the town takes place.

This post is part of the Weekly TopShot meme,
and also part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.