2008-09(Sept)-23 St. Catherine’s, Art Institute

http://picasaweb.google.com/terricallaway/StCatherineSArtInstitute#

We had a pretty quiet week - with the LSU-AU game as the main event of the weekend. Because we still do not have internet, we could not watch the game (we will be using something like slingbox to get American TV), our friends who do, taped the game and we watched it at 10 Sunday morning. The kids were great to keep the results a secret, although I bet they would have done something if Auburn had won!

Before the game, I went to Mass at St. Catherine's. This is the oldest Roman Catholic Church in Russia - in St. Petersburg, on Nevsky Prospect (the main street in the city center) close to the Neva River and the Hermitage. It was first built in 1705, and was a grand, beautiful church. With the revolution, Catholicism was persecuted. With Soviet times Catholicism was banned. During those times, the building fell into great disrepair. It, like a majority of churches was used by the state for offices, warehousing, events - at different times in the 1900s. I was told that the last fire (1984) of the interior of the structure was probably a blessing as the building was almost completely restored as a hall for the Philharmonic Orchestra. If the building was given to the Orchestra, it most likely would not have been returned to the Catholic Church. The Soviets 'allowed' religion (especially in the 70s, 80s and 90s. However, there was someone at the door taking names of those who entered. So most people would not risk being recognized as a religious person. Today, after my Russian lesson, I was waiting for my driver in front of a Russian-Orthodox church and saw many people, including a few young people going in and out of the church in the middle of the afternoon. However, it is fair to say that many here are not believers, and most of those that believe in God do not participate in any religious activities.
Back to St. Catherine's, currently, only 1/3 of the interior of the building has been restored. However, it is beautiful, as the pictures show. Parts have been patched rather than repaired. In other places the ruins remain; almost a reminder of what once was. If you want to learn more details, these sites say it better than I can.

http://www.catherine.spb.ru/page_e.phtml?query=interior_eng

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_of_St._Catherine

There are four Masses per Sunday - I think there are two in Polish, and one each in English and Russian (or maybe two in Russian and one in Polish, regardless; we attend the English Mass). We have not had the same priest more than a few times. Apparently priests do alot of traveling! There was a Canadian of Asian descent who sounded like an American (from Vancouver, I think); An Irishman (surprise, surprise); several from Africa; a couple of Americans. The congregation seems to have many Afrikaners, Indians, Asians, and Americans. Also there are many tourists there in the summer. One Sunday, a group of men from Italy presented the music on pipe instruments. The men were all ages - twenties to seventies, it seemed to me. They played and sang in lovely harmony.

Saturday, two of my friends and I returned to the craft show at the Art Institute- I bought two paintings from an artist that I plan to bring back with me, and a bit of jewelry. Mainly I wanted to see the inside of the building again - there is an incredible contrast between the vendors/ all the foot-traffic of the buyers and the incredible ceilings, floors, walls - paintings and sculptures, doors - all of it is amazing. Of course I didn't concentrate on what I needed to buy, especially with Christmas coming. So I guess I'll just have to return next month!

I did get a couple of questions from my last email, so I thought I'd answer one this week: Are you picking up any Russian?
I try to go to Russian classes twice a week. Because the alphabet is different (Cyrillic) it is pretty hard. However, many words are similar so that helps. I do recognize some words on signs - I know the word for home, purse, pharmacy, restaurant, saint, petersburg, stop, flower, rainbow, prospect (large street), Russia, wine, metro (subway), cafe, road, river, bar, zoo, please, thank you - I can recognize them, not speak them! So far I have been to 6 lessons; I actually have homework after class. But I really cannot read or speak enough to get out of trouble. On the street level of our building, there is a small market. I normally get vegetables there. At first I pointed to the tomatoes and used my fingers to tell the young man how many I needed. Today I actually asked for four tomatoes (pomadors) in Russian. I recognized the cost and then I think he asked me to say it in English - 20 rubles. Progress!

Until next time!