Thursday, January 19, 2012

A Monastery Made of Six-Million Matchsticks


Michelangelo spent only three years carving David. Da Vinci’s depiction of The Last Supper required just three. This giant model of the Rila Monastery by Bulgarian artist Plamen Ignatov demanded 16 years of dedication.

Officially known as the Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, it is Bulgaria’s largest Eastern Orthodox Monastery. It was founded in the 10th century — reportedly growing from a cave that housed the monastery’s founder. After being rebuilt at the end of the 15th century, it long served as a repository for Bulgarian culture during times of foreign occupation — including nearly 500 years of Ottoman rule. The Rila Monastery is now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site and receives nearly a million visitors annually.

The model is currently on display in the Bulgarian capitol of Sofia at the National Archaeological Museum.




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Posted by J.Sanidopoulos at 10:30 AM
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"I teach them all the good I can, and recommend them to others from whom I think they will get some moral benefit. And the treasures that the wise men of old have left us in their writings I open and explore with my friends. If we come on any good thing, we extract it, and we set much store on being useful to one another." - Socrates
"In imitation of the method of the bee, I shall make my composition from those things which are conformable with the truth and from our enemies themselves gather the fruit of salvation. But I shall reject all that is worthless and falsely labeled as knowledge." - St. John the Damascene

All Saints Celebrated In January

Sisoes, the great ascetic, before the tomb of Alexander, King of the Greeks, who was once covered in glory. Astonished, he mourns for the vicissitudes of time and the transience of glory, and tearfully declaims thus: "The mere sight of you, tomb, dismays me and causes my heart to shed tears, as I contemplate the debt we, all men, owe. How can I possibly stand it? Oh, death! Who can evade you?"

"Ascend, ascend, brethren, ascend with eagerness and resolve in your hearts, listening to him who says: ‘Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of our God, Who maketh our feet like those of the deer, and setteth us on high places, that we may be victorious with His song.’" - St. John Climacos

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." - Galatians 6:14

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 18:3