CIX!
On the urging of several members of this forum, I've decided to post my reflections on my month in Florence even though it's not a Byzantine topic, so here goes! This first bit is the serious bit - the lighter moments will follow in another post.
Back in April, I saw a leaflet in my college's chaplaincy lounge, "How Would You Like To Be A Volunteer Cathedral Guide In Europe This Summer?". It sounded interesting, so I contacted these folks. After sending me some material, I realised that this was an oecumenical organisation of youth volunteer guides (ARC, it's called) for European cathedrals in summer, aimed at giving tourists a welcome in their own language to the cathedrals, explaining the symbolism and monuments in the context of the Christian faith that built the cathedrals.
The organisation's website is
www.arc-europe.de [
arc-europe.de] . Having started out as a french group, they are now almost everywhere in western europe. I could take my pick of places such as Trier, Bonn, Erfurt, Speyer, Paris, Rheims, Annency, Ghent, Florence, Venice, Rome... basically anything from a small French village Cathedral to a major European capital Cathedral. Thus I filled out a form and attended a short interview. I was picked for Florence, probably because I indicated an interest and some pre-existing knowledge of Renaissance art, culture, music and thought.
The smaller cathedrals would have perhaps something like five or six volunteers, one each for English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch and Italian. My own had two each for English, French, German and Italian, making a total of ten volunteers. The programme was to last three weeks - after an initial two day crash course on the Cathedral and its history, we were to start giving tours of about 40 minutes each. One imagines that in perhaps some of the smaller village cathedrals, the volunteers might be relatively less busy - in my own Florence Cathedral, the English, French and German guides were giving 5-6 tours each every day. We worked Mon-Fri from 10 a.m. till 5 p.m. with a lunchbreak from 1 - 2.30 p.m., hence we got evenings and weekends off.
So I arrived on 24th July in Florence, in the blazing heat of 40 degrees Celsius (for those of you on the illogical system, that's about 110 F). As with all ARC projects, volunteers were not paid, but were provided with food and accomodation for the duration of their work period, and tips from the tourists would be divided equally between the Cathedral (to offset the cost of food and accomodation) and the volunteers (covering our transport costs and some small excursions). In the summer heat of Florence, we found the money went quite well to the gelato. In Florence, we stayed in a lovely 14th Century Benedictine convent of Santa Marta, some 20 minutes by bus outside the centre of Florence, slightly in the hills so it was a few degrees cooler. We were always woken at 7 by the bells and the nuns chanting at Mass (they still use Gregorian!). Breakfast and dinner were taken at the garden terrace overlooking the convent vineyards and olive groves - it was stunning to watch the sunset over the Tuscan countryside. The nuns' chapel had frescoes by a student of Giotto's. With the exception of the mosquitoes, which were of a commando standard, the convent was an oasis of calm.
Food was consistently good - these nuns cook like devils! Lunch was had in the Cathedral staff refectory, and even there we always had a starter and a main course. Such civilisation!
Our two day crash course was conducted by Msgr Timothy Verdon, an American by birth, who now lives in Florence and is a Canon of the Cathedral. Msgr Verdon was ordained less than 10 years ago, and is a highly respected Art Historian (his bio may be found at
http://osp.stanford.edu/program/florence/faculty/verdon.html ). When he decided to take the step toward priesthood, the Archbishop of Florence insisted he continue teaching as a lecturer for Stanford in Florence, and also set up a new department - Catechesis through Art, which explains the faith through the Florentine artistic legacy of the ages. Msgr Verdon also took us through several tours of various parts of the city and other historic churches, explaining the history and significance of each.
Us volunteers also found out quite happily that our cathedral guide badges gave us free entry to all churches which charged admission to tourists, discounted entry into most museums, and a 20% discount on books in museum shops.
In case anybody's wondering, I gave my tours in English! The other English-speaking guide was a Polish boy studying in Cambridge. By default, we were the English guides, even though the other guide ended up giving two tours in polish and I ended up giving one in Mandarin Chinese.
Russian Parish Alas, I should like to have made this a significant part of my little reflection essay, but on my first sunday morning in Florence, I washed up and made my way to the Moscow Patriarchate Russian church (which dates from 1902 and has onion-domes, a bit of a dead giveaway)... to find a notice on the door saying the priest was on his August holiday and would return slightly before OC Dormition. Slightly peeved at not only being unable to attend Litugy on Sundays but also on OC Transfiguration, I figured this meant I'd be attending Roman services. Oh, why not, this would give me a chance to investigate the state of the modern Latin church in Italy - more about this in a bit.
The Cathedral of Florence The Cathedral of Florence is the world's fourth largest cathedral. Without boring you on the details, there are three particular points of interest to Byzantinists and Easterners regarding the Cathedral. The first is the Baptistery of St John the Baptist, which was newly-completed in Dante's time, and has stunning Byzantine mosaics in its dome. The Last Judgement and lives of Christ, the Baptist and Jacob are purely Greek in style and execution. Those mosaics are breathtaking and perhaps the best mosaics in Western Europe outside of Ravenna and Venice. Second is an important relic - the skull of St John Chrysostom. Third is a large marble slab with inscription commemorating the pseudo-Council of Florence, held in that very Cathedral.
Also of interest to Byzantinists is the tomb of Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople, who was in Florence during the council with great hopes for union and died during the course of the talks. He is buried in the Dominican Church of Santa Maria Novella, and his tomb has him depicted as a Byzantine patriarch in full pontificals (sans Mitre), in what the Italians must have thought was an icon-like style portrait. Slightly odd it looks amidst all the other Renaissance tombs and memorials.
Art of the Renaissance I am convinced that Blessed Seraphim Rose was correct when he described the religious art of the Renaissance as a degenerate form. All those putti and highly emotionalistic depictions of sacred persons... it's all very pretty but doesn't inspire one towards prayer. Even now, as a lover of both East and West, I cannot reconcile myself to the so-called religious art of the West from the Renaissance onwards. I can only imagine how the Eastern clergy at the pseudo-council of Florence must have felt. Even Giotto's art starts to show that downward slide. It's very interesting to see how the trends develop. The perspectives of East and West are so different - what the West calls a great leap forward in the development of religious art, the East calls a degeneration.
Relics The modern Western church has also lost the sense of what relics truly are, a sense that was once shared between them and us. The Cathedral of Florence is rich in relics - three early Florentine bishop-saints are in the crypt, and so many relics are in the various side-chapels, the sacristies, the museum and suchlike. The other churches of the city too, are filled with bodies of Saints and other important relics. But I found myself the only person venerating them, and it felt quite odd. Even the modern RCs don't do this anymore. Everywhere I went I would ask in broken italian or in latin if it were possible "venerare cum osculo" - to venerate them with a kiss. The reactions of the clergy would range from mild amusement and surprise to complete bewilderment. Msgr Verdon confided in me that relics are generally no longer considered very important in the spiritual life of modern RCs, and that on various meetings with Easterns, for example when some time back some pieces of the skull of St John Chrysostom were given to the Patriarch of Serbia and when there were Orthodox representatives at a service with important relics of an early saint, the RCs found the way the Easterns "slobbered all over the relics" to be "slightly embarrassing". Having made friends with the sacristan, I managed to get some bits of cloth touched to some important relics, and those of you who've helped me along after my unfortunate encounter with the pickpockets of Florence can expect some of these bits of cloth to reach you soon!
Conservatism of the Mass Not having attended Mass in every parish church of Florence, I cannot speak about the diocese as a whole, but from what I've seen, the general liturgical practice remains quite conservative. Fiddlebacks were in use in most places, and these weren't old fiddlebacks, they were newly made ones. Mass in many churches faced the right way during the Mass of the Faithful, and most churches had not destroyed the old high altars. There was a laudable use of chant and latin in most places. One of the most edifying masses I attended was in the 10th C basilica of San Miniato, across the river from the historical centre of Florence, on a hill. The basilica is administered by Olivetan benedictine monks,and the mass was in italian, except for the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, which were sung in beautiful latin chant by the two monks (priest and server). No microphones were used, the celebrant wore a lovely green fiddleback and the mass was celebrated facing the right way. Quite, quite spiritual and I felt good afterwards, not disgusted as with most celebrations of the New Rite. If the New Rite were celebrated like this everywhere, I could accept it... Also it seemed the general practice to conclude Mass with the seasonal Marian antiphon in Latin Chant, which was rather nice.
As a sort of treat for the tourists whom I led around the Cathedral, I would end the tours by taking them to a large 15th C choirbook on a stand and sing a page of the chant for them, to give them an idea of the accoustics of the cathedral and how the cathedral might have sounded like when in use. While I liked showing off my singing a little, and it made them contribute a bit more towards our tips and come up to thank me for the tour, what surprised me was that without exception, a few tourists at the end (almost without exception from North America) would not only thank me for the tour, but to say how glad they were to hear chant in a church for the first time after some forty years. Apparently a great number of them expressed surprise at hearing it, for they had been under the impression that gregorian chant and latin had now been banned from the church. This I found slightly disturbing - that any RC would think that latin and chant had been banned.
Eastern Fashions Icons seem dreadfully popular in Italy. Not just the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, but other icons too. Greek and Russian ones are all over the place, as are the heretical icons of the Trinity and the Holy Family (with St Joseph holding the Christ-child). Eastern things seem chic, as I realised by the number of people who asked me what my prayer rope and lestovka were. I would explain in a mix of broken italian and latin what they were, how the prayers were said and these people always seemed fascinated and would try it on their own rosaries. Who knows, perhaps a few good seeds were sown. Incidentally, while looking in the St Paul's media centre near the cathedral, I found an italian translation of the Akathist Hymn, apparently made in 1999 for the Jubilee, and judging from the number of copies they had in stock, must be quite popular. Oddly, the translation is of the Hymn only, and doesn't include either the Canon or even the beloved Kontakion "Ti Ypermakho/Vzbrannoy Voyevodye/To Thee the Champion Leader". I figured I had to buy a copy of the booklet, which gives a sort of liturgical setting for singing it as a votive service - many elements are Byzantine, but it just seems plain weird to me. Even stranger still was the CD of the hymn sung in Italian. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I noticed beneath the words "AKATHISTOS alla Madre di Dio", the line "Esecuzione corale con organo e con chitarra". The Akathist with organ and guitar??? The version with organ isn't so bad, but the version with strummed guitar is simply abominable.
I am also tempted to give the Italians the prize for tackiest item in church - to save on candles, some places now have long plastic candles with a lightbulb on the end, and once you make a donation into the box, you place one of these into the candle pricket, which has little upright plugs which plug into the "candle", making it light up. naturally, the whole thing is plugged into an electrical socket in the wall. I don't know, but I find these absolutely repugnant, they're ugly and in such bad taste. I recall with amusement one evening when a lady lit up one of these right before a church was about to close, and as soon as she'd put the "candle" in, the sacristan walked past the pricket and pulled the plug, so her beloved "candle" went off. I struggled very hard not to laugh when I heard her squeal of dismay.
In conclusion, I had a wonderful time, highly educational and very edifying in most ways. I'd love to do it again next year at some other city. The organisation can always do with more english-speaking guides, from either side of the Atlantic really. All that is required is a willingness to learn, as all training is given on the job - no background needed in art history or history or religion, although it will help. The website of the organisation is
www.arc-europe.de [
arc-europe.de] and if you know of any young people between the ages of 18-30 who might like to do something like this next summer, please do let them and us know!
I am truly upset now!
