Showing posts with label Dublin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dublin. Show all posts

Friday, December 13, 2013

The Church of Ireland's Library Uncovered a Photographic Treasure 115 Years Old - Part 1 of 2

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)


Posted: 10 Dec 2013 01:12 AM PST
What a treasure looks like. Boxes of lantern slides -- the precursor to 
photographic slides and slide projectors


In 2011, Rev. Stephen White brought to Dublin several old cardboard boxes found in the old Church of Ireland Killaloe deanery in Limerick.  He brought them to Dr. Susan Hood, the archivist for the Church of Ireland's Representative Church Body Library.

Dr. Hood understood she had 
    Coming ashore at Jaffa Port (Credit: RCB Library, 1897). Note the
    Turkish flag flying

just received a photographic treasure: hundreds of century-old "lantern slides" of  sites in Ireland, India, and the Holy Land.


Dr. Hood deserves credit for preserving the images, digitizing them last year and posting them on the RCB's homepage.  

We thank her for granting us permission to publish the RCB photographs.

Last year, Dr. Hood and BBC undertook an investigation into discovering the name of hitherto anonymous photographer.  They were able to identify him as David Brown, a soap manufacturer from Donaghmore who was also an amateur photographer.  In 1897 he joined a pilgrimage led by his brother in law, a Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland.

We present here Part 1 of the RCB Library Collection.  

Click on pictures to enlarge.  Click on the caption to view the original.


Damascus Gate (Credit: RCB Library, 1897) 
View inside Damascus Gate HERE


View Herod's Gate HERE
View Lions Gate HERE

Jews praying at the Western "Wailing" Wall.  The day is a Sabbath or Jewish Festival since the men are wearing their Sabbath finery, including fur hats. The photograph is very unusual since in virtually all of the other 19th century pictures at the Wall men are not wearing their customary prayer shawls (talitot) perhaps because of a Jewish prohibition of carrying objects on the Sabbath, or because of the harassment of Muslim authorities.
 (Credit: RCB Library, 1897)


Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The man on the right is believed to be the photographer, David Brown. Note
the Turkish soldier on duty inside the Church.  (Credit: RCB Library, 1897).  A Turkish soldier was also on guard
in Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus). See below.


Joseph's Tomb (Credit: RCB Library, 1897). Certain 
pictures, such as this one, were almost obligatory to
all visiting photographers assembling a travelogue.

Turkish guard inside Joseph's Tomb (Library
 of Congress 1900)















 

 

A "hides market," according to the RCB's Library caption, but no location is given. Actually, the photo is taken
in Jerusalem at the entrance of the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. Looming over the complex on the hill is the Tifferet Yisrael Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter  (Credit: RCB Library, 1897). The synagogue was destroyed along with the Jewish Quarter in 1948.


Thursday, February 14, 2013

St. Valentine, The Real Story

St. Valentine, The Real Story
By David Kithcart
The 700 Club


Flowers, candy, red hearts and romance. That's what Valentine's day is all about, right? Well, maybe not.

The origin of this holiday for the expression of love really isn't romantic at all -- at least not in the traditional sense. Father Frank O'Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, tells the real story of the man behind the holiday -- St. Valentine.

"He was a Roman Priest at a time when there was an emperor called Claudias who persecuted the church at that particular time," Father O'Gara explains. " He also had an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people.

This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died."

"I think we must bear in mind that it was a very permissive society in which Valentine lived," says Father O'Gara. "Polygamy would have been much more popular than just one woman and one man living together.

And yet some of them seemed to be attracted to Christian faith. But obviously the church thought that marriage was very sacred between one man and one woman for their life and that it was to be encouraged.

And so it immediately presented the problem to the Christian church of what to do about this."

"The idea of encouraging them to marry within the Christian church was what Valentine was about. And he secretly married them because of the edict."

Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against command of Emperor Claudius the second. There are legends surrounding Valentine's actions while in prison.

"One of the men who was to judge him in line with the Roman law at the time was a man called Asterius, who's daughter was blind. He was supposed to have prayed with and healed the young girl with such astonishing effect that Asterius himself became Christian as a result."

In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius' daughter. He inspired today's romantic missives by signing it, "from your Valentine."

"What Valentine means to me as a priest," explains Father O'Gara, "is that there comes a time where you have to lay your life upon the line for what you believe. And with the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that -- even to the point of death."

Valentine's martyrdom has not gone unnoticed by the general public. In fact, Whitefriars Street Church is one of three churches that claim to house the remains of Valentine. Today, many people make the pilgrimage to the church to honor the courage and memory of this Christian saint.

"Valentine has come to be known as the patron saint of lovers. Before you enter into a Christian marriage you want some sense of God in your life -- some great need of God in your life. And we know, particularly in the modern world, many people are meeting God through his Son, Jesus Christ."

"If Valentine were here today, he would say to married couples that there comes a time where you're going to have to suffer. It's not going to be easy to maintain your commitment and your vows in marriage. Don't be surprised if the 'gushing' love that you have for someone changes to something less "gushing" but maybe much more mature. And the question is, is that young person ready for that?"

"So on the day of the marriage they have to take that into context," Father O'Gara says. "Love -- human love and sexuality is wonderful, and blessed by God -- but also the shadow of the cross. That's what Valentine means to me."

https://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/churchandministry/churchhistory/st_valentine_the_real_story.aspx