Treasures
St Mary’s is full of treasures and devotional objects. Around the walls of the aisles are located the Stations of the Cross, painted in oils by L. Chovet of Paris and selected for St Mary’s by Cardinal Moran in 1885. In the western transept is a marble replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta, the original of which is in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. This sculpture was brought to Australia for display in David Jones Ltd. department store and was later donated to the cathedral.
Located previously in the crypt, where it was touched in the evening by the setting sun, was the Grave of the Unknown Soldier, a realistic depiction of a dead soldier sculpted by G.W.Lambert. Although previously visible to the public from above, the tomb has now been moved into the aisle of the cathedral, to give the public greater access to it.
The crypt has an extensive mosaic floor, the achievement of Peter Melocco and his firm. This design has as its foundation a cross elaborately decorated like a vast Celtic illuminated manuscript, with rondels showing the Days of Creation and the titles of the Virgin Mary.
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Read more about this topic: St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Famous quotes containing the word treasures:
“Oh youth, youth! You don’t worry about anything; you seem to possess all the treasures of the universe—even sorrow gives you pleasure, even grief suits you.... And perhaps the whole secret of your charm lies not in your ability to do everything, but in your ability to think that you will do everything.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)
“The Church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for cash down.”
—Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899)
“The treasures of Cathay were never found.
In this America, this wilderness
Where the axe echoes with a lonely sound,
The generations labor to possess
And grave by grave we civilize the ground.”
—Louis Simpson (b. 1923)