Roman Catholic Marian Churches - Progression of Architecture and Belief

Progression of Architecture and Belief

A series of articles on
Roman Catholic
Mariology
General articles
  • Mariology
  • Encyclicals
  • History
  • Popes
  • Saints
  • Societies
  • Veneration of the Blessed Virgin
Devotions
  • Acts of Reparation
  • Consecration to Mary
  • First Saturdays
  • Hearts of Jesus and Mary
  • Immaculate Heart
  • Rosary
  • Scapular
  • Seven Joys
  • Seven Sorrows
Dogmas and doctrines
  • Assumption
  • Co-Redemptrix
  • Immaculate Conception
  • Mediatrix
  • Mother of God
  • Mother of the Church
  • Perpetual virginity
  • Queen of Heaven
Expressions of devotion
  • Art
  • Churches
  • Hymns
  • Music
Key Marian apparitions
  • Banneux
  • Beauraing
  • Fátima
  • Guadalupe
  • La Salette
  • Laus
  • Lourdes
  • Miraculous Medal
  • Pontmain

Through the centuries, the progression of Medieval architecture towards Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and eventually modern Marian church architectures may be viewed as a manifestation of the growth of Marian belief - just as the development of Marian art and music were a reflection of the growing trends in the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic tradition.

A good example of the continuation of Marian traditions from the Gothic period to the present day is found at St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków in Poland. On every hour, a trumpet signal called the hejnał (meaning "St. Mary's dawn" and pronounced hey-now) is still played from the top of the taller of St. Mary's two towers, the noon-time hejnał being heard across Poland and abroad broadcast live by the Polish national Radio 1 Station. St. Mary's in Kraków also served as an architectural model for many of the churches that were built by the Polish diaspora abroad, particularly St. Michael's and St. John Cantius in Chicago, designed in the so-called Polish Cathedral style.

Popes have at times viewed the existence of Marian churches as a key to the spread of Marian devotions, e.g. as he entrusted Europe to the Virgin Mary, Pope John Paul II stated:

Thanks to the countless Marian shrines dotting the nations of the continent, devotion to Mary is very strong and widespread among the peoples of Europe.

Read more about this topic:  Roman Catholic Marian Churches

Famous quotes containing the words progression of, progression, architecture and/or belief:

    Measured by any standard known to science—by horse-power, calories, volts, mass in any shape,—the tension and vibration and volume and so-called progression of society were full a thousand times greater in 1900 than in 1800;Mthe force had doubled ten times over, and the speed, when measured by electrical standards as in telegraphy, approached infinity, and had annihilated both space and time. No law of material movement applied to it.
    Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)

    Measured by any standard known to science—by horse-power, calories, volts, mass in any shape,—the tension and vibration and volume and so-called progression of society were full a thousand times greater in 1900 than in 1800;Mthe force had doubled ten times over, and the speed, when measured by electrical standards as in telegraphy, approached infinity, and had annihilated both space and time. No law of material movement applied to it.
    Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)

    Polarized light showed the secret architecture of bodies; and when the second-sight of the mind is opened, now one color or form or gesture, and now another, has a pungency, as if a more interior ray had been emitted, disclosing its deep holdings in the frame of things.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    And when religious sects ran mad,
    He held, in spite of all his learning,
    That if a man’s belief is bad,
    It will not be improved by burning.
    Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802–1839)