Art deco chapels at Loyola University – Chicago

My wife is an architect; I have been well trained. If ever I go somewhere by myself, my chief responsibility is to take a ridiculous amount of photos of the churches I visit.
So for your enjoyment, some nice examples of art deco sacred architecture (mixed with some gothic elements). The main chapel at Loyola, Madonna [...]

More outside the walls…

This is particularly troubling. Secular atheists want to appropriate beauty and art for their own means. From the British Magazine Standpoint, an article by Alain de Botton proposing the creation of a secular religion.
…What would such a peculiar idea involve? For a start, lots of new buildings akin to churches, temples and cathedrals. We are the only [...]

Stepping outside St. Blog’s…

You’d never imagine the strange theories that abound. Consider this from a popular economics blog, EconLog:
Religious architecture and art were to medieval feudalism what advertising and commercialism are to modern capitalism: A rather effective way to build support for the status quo using aesthetics instead of argument. My claim, in short, is that Notre Dame played [...]

Stroik sighting!

From everyone’s favourite contemporary Catholic architect Duncan Stroik, here are pictures of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadeloupe in Wisconsin – construction in progress (but nearing completion).

The Gift of La Sapienza

(photo by ex novo from flickr)
On this Solemnity of Pentecost, I am reminded of a piece Zenit’s Elizabeth Lev wrote on the church of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome, designed by Francesco Borromini. Ms. Lev originally wrote back in January after students and faculty at the University of Rome (La Sapienza) protested the Pope’s visit [...]