Holy Friday 2023

 

This year the procession started from St. Michael the Archangel Cleveland, it then proceeded to St. Colman, and concluded at La Sagrada Familia. This is what Catholics do (or once largely did) on the Friday of Jesus' crucifixion. In alternating years the start and terminus is exchanged between Michael's and La Sagrada. Colman's is in the middle (geographically), a few years ago it was St. Patrick's.

I was outside waiting for it to start, and a fellow asked me about it. He did not know the day. I told him. He said he saw a hearse (during his walk), and thought it was a funeral. I said, "no", answering to what he thought, it was part of the procession;but he was right, it was a funeral procession, but the body was not now on earth.

There are two kinds of rude idiot photographers. One type has expensive equipment, and the other has a telephone. Both like to be as close as possible, and being an obstruction is the bonus.

This year they turned on to Clark, a main street. The path has been subject to changes.

Bier carrying the Corpse.

Women of the parish carrying the Sorrowful Mother.

The women of Jerusalem. Veronica holds the veil.

click past years: 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2022

Procession with St. Michael's in the background. This church was the tallest building in Cleveland for a time.

A new generation rides.

head of St. Michael Archangel

Cracks in Time

At one time at the top of the center facade of the church there was a statue of St. Michael. The statue crumbled over time. The head was placed in the courtyard. Yesterday, i saw the fotos of another photographer, and i was appreciative of her profile shot. Over the years, the head was further cracking. The cracks gave a pleasing pattern to the eye. I have photographed this statue in the past, and went back to-day. 

15 March 2021

30 September 2011

30 December 2012

7 June 2014

15 March 2021

15 March 2021

 

Jesus saves Scranton

Scranton Road Bible Church (again)

 

If you pay attention to the world, you would know that the odds of this church being a Baptist one extremely good. It has had a few names, and its current name was used before. The congregation has been on a building expansion program. The sign is a new one, replacing an older identical one. The sign directly faces St. Michael the Archangel Catholic, once the largest and still the tallest church in the city. Baptists have a long history of antipathy to Catholics.

St. Michael the Archangel

The church was started on the east side in 1869, and moved here (then referred to as the south side) in 1874. This building was built in 1893. St. Michael's was built from 1889 to 1892, a previous church was built in 1883, and burned in 1891 as the new church was going up.

The Spanish Influenza killed many of the Baptists in 1918. Czech Baptists began services there then, eventually the congregation became Czech speaking. The new name was “West Side Czecho-Slovak Baptist Church” in 1942.  In 1962, a Parma church was built, and the language was English again at Scranton.

 iron cage for a previous air conditioner

There has been an influx of money for infrastructure on the street and nearby. New surface has just been placed on the intersecting Clark, the road markings have not been finished. Several other street improvements have been made. On the third corner of the intersection, a remodel of the Carnegie Library has been completed.  Still, the neighbourhood has a rough and sketchy side.

lightning rod

 New copper lightning rod on the shorter steeple of St. Michael the Archangel, Cleveland O.

 Early this morning, it was done, with a telescoping shaft and attached man basket.

 moment of attachment

Good Friday Procession Cleveland

The Angelus bell rang at noon to start the procession from St. Michael's. The marchers would go to St. Patrick's, and then finish their pilgrimage at La Sagrada Familia.  On odd numbered years this is the path, on even numbered years it is reversed.

 before starting people assembled and conversed

Now, in a supposed Christian country, this should not need an explanation. The police blocked off traffic as little and as short as possible, yet a few drivers felt confusion and bother.

Jesus hung on the cross from about noon to three. These hours on this day are supposed to be devoid of work and play. Very little in these Christian cities in the United States stopped. Not every Christian, believes in this tradition. And such practices interferes with commerce, and are not well tolerated.

Later in the day, Saint Rocco's in Cleveland also processes. There is little of this sort of activity about the area. Such things were done more so in the past. Such activity is a communal presence made visible to the world.

Bishop Koudelka

Joseph Maria Koudelka *1852 Chilstova, Bohemia; Superior, Wisconsin 1921†.

Between the suppressed St. Procop Catholic Church and Interstate 90 there lays St. Mary's Cemetery. When entering from West 41st there is the Priests' Circle. A dozen, mostly German, priests are buried. One was a bishop. His monument has Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The sheep on the left stands on two legs, recently twisted wire was inserted in the stump of a third leg. A plaque has been absent for awhile, scrappers? and neglect.

Koudelka's family came to America (Wisconsin) in 1869. He entered the seminary in Milwaukee and transferred to Cleveland in 1874. Koudelka was ordained a deacon in February 1875 and was given charge of St. Procop. Procop's was the first Czech (Bohemian) parish on the west side of Cleveland, founded in 1872. In October of '75, Fr. Koudelka said his first Mass. In May 1882 Koudelka went to St. Louis, Missouri to edit a Catholic Czech publication. His parish refused any other priest, and was put under an inderdict (Bishop Gilmour suspended access to sacraments) from February '84 to July '85 when an acceptable priest was named pastor.

In 1883 a mission of German speaking St. Mary Cleveland was raised to a parish. The first pastor was Joseph Koudelka, he was called back from St. Louis. Koudelka was a polyglot, a writer, and an artist and well received by the Germans. His new St. Michael's was for years the most impressive church in the city, and is still a landmark from miles away in many directions.

In 1908 [February 25], he was ordained an auxiliary bishop for special pastoral care for the Slavonic peoples. The Catholic Church in Cleveland suffered ethnic rivalries. There was a division between "the English" and "the Germans". The "English" were Irish; and "the Germans" were those whose first language was not English. There were no real English, and inside the city most of the "Germans" were not German. Cleveland's bishop was Ignatius Horstmann, *1840 Philadelphia, 1908 [May 13]†. The Irish clergy boycotted the ordination of the first auxiliary, and none signed the book of witness. This was reflected nationally too, Irish bishops were not fond of the 'new migration' from Europe.

In 1911 Koudelka was auxiliary in Milwaukee. In 1913 he became bishop of Superior, Wisconsin. When he died, his requiem was held at St. Michael's, and he was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery Cleveland.

portrait on episcopal chair at Saint Michael Cleveland

previously posted at: http://bones1234.blogspot.com/2012/08/bishop-koudelka.html
a related essay: http://bones1234.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-pastoral-care-of-sheep.html
another such: http://bones1234.blogspot.com/2012/09/kasimir-reichlin.html

More from St. Michael's

Outside the main entrance to St. Michael's on Scranton in Cleveland, there are two remaining archangels, Gabriel (who has lost his horn), and Raphael (who has retained the fish). Between the landmark pair of uneven steeples, on the gable point of the roof there is an empty pedestal. For years there had been a third archangel, Michael, 22 feet tall. Over time the statue deteriorated, and a fear that it would crash below had it removed. The head was saved and placed in the rectory garden. Saint Michael's is a beautiful and active church and parish. In the sunlight, with the electric lights out, the inside church is peaceful and very comforting. There is color and volume. The space on the perimeter surfaces in all three dimensions is full of image, and the large volume between wall, floor and ceiling gives a balance; and within this space there is calm suited to be near the presence of Jesus.Huge earthquakes hit Peru. A slave, whose name is lost to history, transported from Angola had painted a mural of Christ during His crucifixion on a wall in the poorest neighborhood in 1651. That image is called Señor de los Milagros de Nazarenas. Jesus, under that title is the patron of the city. Outside that wall converts, often slaves prayed. In 1655 earthquake, the building fell, but not the portion of the painted wall. This devotion of the poorest Peruvians became troublesome to the bishop and the government. It was ordered to be painted over and destroyed, attempts failed. Eventually a church was built around it. On the 20th of October 1687 a catastrophic earthquake hit, causing a tsunami in Japan. Most of Lima was destroyed, but not that painted wall. The 28th of October 1746 Lima, Peru was shook by another earthquake. Thousand died as thousands died during the other quakes, the painting survived. People came to that wall and began a procession, and the trembling stopped. The next year, when an oil painting copy of was mounted on a litter of Señor de los Milagros, a second painting accompanied it. It was that of the Ecuadorian Virgen de la Nube, Our Lady of the Cloud.

Every October it is borne on a silver litter by purple cloaked cargodores and taken through streets of Lima to visit churches. The processions start on the 18th. Crowds of a million are estimated in the city. Peruvians have brought this custom, with them, when they have emigrated. The first procession in the US, was in NYC 1972.

Cleveland's church of Saint Michael the Archangel joins in the observance, a little early in the month—this Sunday. It will be the tenth Cleveland procession.

a retablo of Señor de los Milagros, Our Lord of Miracles

Virgen de la Nube, Our Lady of the Cloud

Bishops, bullet holes, and butts

Some parishes were saved from Lennon's destruction. One that survived, and was not certain until they read the letter of 14 March '09, was Saint Michael the Archangel. Saint Michael's had some old debt then demanded by the diocese. Nearby Blessed Sacrament, St. Procop, and St. Barbara had cash reserves and were closed. Saint Michael is now debt free, money from Blessed Sacrament's patrimony was used to pay off the bishop's demands.

El Señor de los Milagros (with the Trinity; Mary, Mother of Sorrow; Mary Magdalen)

Saint Michael's had been a German parish, it is now a territorial parish with a congregation of the Americas. There are English, and Spanish language Masses offered. There is a lively sacramental and devotional life at Michael's. There is a Good Friday procession between La Sagrada Familia and Michael's stopping at Patrick's. There is an October procession of the Peruvian celebration of El Señor de los Milagros, people parade in purple. Holy Name Society is active, as are some other parish organisations.

The first pastor was Bohemian born, Joseph Koudelka. He was administrator of St. Procop, while he was a deacon. He was later pastor for more than one church simultaneously. He was sent to Europe to recruit priests for Slavonic parishes. He was the first auxiliary bishop in Cleveland. Few English speaking priests came to his ordination 1908. Later he was a bishop in Wisconsin.

Koudelka oversaw the building of Saint Michael's, he was also an artist. It is an example of high gothic revival, now blackened from years of steel mill, factory, and vehicle soot. It, once even more than now, did not have undecorated space; an art term would be 'horror vacui' or 'cenophobia'. Its complement of statues was over an hundred. This artistic busyness, in a church, is meant to be both beautiful and instructive. What is physically distinct from a great distance and many spots are the two dissimilar spires. A while back, July 2009 (after the letter) the larger spire's cross was taken down, at the insistence of a restoration contractor. The verdigris copper cross had been there for more than a century. It's wooden base suffered some rot. It has a few bullet holes. It now stands, near the center of the nave wall, near the main entrance. A replica cross is planned to replace it, when funds allow. A continuing restoration is in progress, inside and out.

exit hole

In one of the holy water founts in the narthex someone dropped a cigarette butt. It was dissolving. The doors were wide open. A beautiful church, with a welcoming congregation is open to even disturbed, and disrespectful people. There were several incidents in the past. The building has been spray painted. The neighborhood is not so comfortably hospitable. I remember, indistinctly, the sexual assault of a religious sister by a man hired for occasional work.

Views from a department store

When Cleveland had people shopping in the department stores of downtown, Higbee's was the top of the line. Its twelve floors were part of the Terminal Tower complex. The central tower, sat over trains, and once was the tallest building between New York City and Chicago.

The elevators were five on one side, and five across from them.  They were modeled after those in the transoceanic liners like the Normandie and the Titanic. Plastic jambs and lintels were formed to resemble marble. Handsome veneers on the outside door, with long vertical inlays where they met. On each door there were art nouveau stencils. These will remain when the lower floors are converted to a casino.

Now, I have pointed out, St. Michael's is visible from many points in the city. From the Higbee's building looking along W. 2nd, beyond the neon guitar, and the Lorain-Carnegie bridge, is the taller steeple of St. Michael's. The shorter one is directly in line and behind.

Daughters of St. Paul had a bookstore at Ontario Street, kitty corner from Higbee's, now there are lawyers' offices there, and the property has been sold in speculation to a parking lot magnate. The sisters left behind a statue of Paul [it must not have been on Lennon's inventory].
___________________________________
Postscriptum 2 November 2011: The building and the block, that had the bookstore, has been demolished.

The Blonde Gardener

Hæc cum dixísset, convérsa est retrórsum, et vidit Jesum stantem : et non sciébat quia Jesus est. Dicit ei Jesus : Múlier, quid ploras ? quem quæris ? Illa exístimans quia hortulánus esset, dicit ei : Dómine, si tu sustulísti eum, dícito mihi ubi posuísti eum, et ego eum tollam. Dicit ei Jesus : María. Convérsa illa, dicit ei : Rabbóni (quod dícitur Magíster).

When she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing; and she knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith to her: Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, thinking it was the gardener, saith to him: Sir, if thou hast taken him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith to her: Mary. She turning, saith to him: Rabboni (which is to say, Master). ―John xx. 14-16.St. Michael the Archangel, Cleveland, Ohio, has some fine windows from the old country. The old country being catholic south Germany. Mary Magdalen the Myrrh Bearer went to the sepulchre to anoint Jesus, for he died on the Parasceve and was quickly put into the tomb. Before the window illustration, a great deal of drama in the garden had happened again.

Mary first, finds the tomb open and empty. She brings Peter and John, they confirm and are stunned and leave. She looks into the sepulchre and sees two beings, whom introduce themselves as angels, and they speak to her. Then she is interrupted by the gardener, whom is the Risen Jesus.

In this window, the wounded and glorified Jesus holds a shovel. This is something, that is not generally seen. Its iconic inclusion shows him as the Gardener. The Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Garden of Paradise, a beginning and ending drama in the Garden. It is a satisfying completion.

Magdalena is blonde. Jesus is blonde.