Santa Catalina Monastery was built in 1579 and was enlarged in the 17th century.
The floor plan. It is layed out with streets and laneways with lots of cells for the nuns to sleep in and courtyards for whatever nuns do in courtyards. It took a couple of hours to meander through.
Over 20,000-square-meter monastery was built predominantly in the Mudejar style, (a style of medieval Iberian architecture and decoration, particularly of Aragon and Castile, strongly influenced by Moorish taste and workmanship) and is characterized by its vividly painted walls. There are approximately 20 nuns currently living in the northern corner of the complex; the rest of the monastery is open to the public.
View of the monastery church from outside with walls and dome of white volcanic Sillar stone.
The courtyards are beautiful and peaceful.
Brick pavement and arches with stone walls and columns and murals.
"Traditionally, the second daughter of upper-class families entered a nunnery, supposedly to live in poverty and renounce the material world. In fact, each nun at Santa Catalina had between one and four servants or slaves, and the nuns were able to invite musicians to perform in the convent, have parties and generally live the style to which they had become accustomed while growing up."
While most of the laneways and courtyards are a vibrant orange the Orange Tree Cloister" is aquamarine blue.
Just one of numerous kitchens.
Not a bad little apartment.
A street in the monastery.
A little bit of Popery never hurt anyone, did it??? No need to answer that.
There were dozens and dozens of paintings and murals depicting Catholicism they made us feel a little creepy so we preferred to focus on the beautiful architecture.
The laundry.
Stories abound of underground tunnels that connected the Monastery with nearby church properties that enabled easy access and resulted in many aborted pregnancies. Skeletons of babies being discovered concealed in walls. A Swedish missionary that we met told of going to a lecture in the early 1970s where details were revealed due to earthquake damage.
Although officially denied by the church, the skeletons in the wall did cause something of an "earthquake" that affected the faith of many Catholics in the community.
The very idea of being concealed in a convent seems to me to contradict Jesus words; "I do not request that you take them out of the world, but that you watch over them because of the wicked one." (Matthew 17:15) And rather than hide away in silence Jesus ordered all Christians to "go" and do what he had been doing; "Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit" (Matthew 28:19)
Having left the cloister, we walked to Rio (River) Chili and wanderd through the beautiful and quiet streets to Mirador de Yanahuara. These are the "el mirador e de Yanahuara" (arches), a popular spot for locals and tourists to view the city and its background volcanoes.
El Misty, the active volcano with just a touch of snow on top.
In the evening we enjoyed association with our spiritual brothers and sisters at the midweek meeting of the Belaunde Congregation.
Gina, Freddie and daughter Damaris
Communicating with bits of English and Spanish.
Our new friends, Christine and Nick, who were on the Assembly Hall construction with Steve and Jaye Begg.
Lloydnalex
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