![[Unam Sanctam]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymQ2adTjpZ1ABhPBbBBquiPCxeQrc4Jy_97vOikT0wGQeJleriiXQy6ebnb0jrYe-TfvcK77txStB4aIwVAdD41ZdMkVfNtFGC0JX6LBV9B8mfeRZaIAM7Sj-011ag3DiKQzv/s1600/headerdivinemercy.jpg)
Was actually quite looking forward to visit this Church when I went to KL but unfortunately, I could not make it. So, I nicked these pics for you instead.
Easily, it's the most beautiful of the Malaysian Churches (that I know of). It used to be the Chinese Church. The slightly less elaborate but still very beautiful and recently restored St. Anthony's used to be the Tamil Church. I guess the main Church for the English speakers would have been the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
Click on the links above for photos of my trips to those Churches.
Easily, it's the most beautiful of the Malaysian Churches (that I know of). It used to be the Chinese Church. The slightly less elaborate but still very beautiful and recently restored St. Anthony's used to be the Tamil Church. I guess the main Church for the English speakers would have been the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
Click on the links above for photos of my trips to those Churches.
The interior. Paint the apse a dark blue and stick some gold stars in and bang. Perfect.
Many of the old Churches would have looked like this, a little less elaborate perhaps, but pretty close. Too bad the wreckovations following Vatican II deprived most of us of much of our heritage, most of all our patrimony of sacred music. But here, at least, in the heart of KL, you can still glimpse a bit of our architectural past, its truly breathtaking stained glass, the majestic arches and vault and the old high altar. Truly a Domus Dei et Porta Caeli, a house of God and Gate of Heaven.
Side view
Steeple detail.
6 comments:
Only those stained glass in the sanctuary were original, those you see by the side as you walk along the aisle were added just several years ago. Also there used to be several more statues around the sanctuary, i.e. The Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Fatima, St Michael, St Joseph. Also two female martyr saints by the north and south transepts, possibly St Barbara and St Catherine. I wonder what happened to them.
It does look good. I try to see the potential in churches than the actual current church. I went to Old Mass a few weeks ago ( a luxury you don't have unfortunately ) at what was a very very beautiful old english church. However it had been recovated inside.
But it was nice to look at it and just imagine what it must have been like - absolutely gorgeous!
Joee, those old Churches normally do look gorgeous. All the pennies of the poor going into them.
Kinda makes you wonder what possessed(?) those hippies to takes it all out.
Those old churches are really awesome...Thank god for bulding us such a nice place....Although some of them may say this is a form of materialistic worship,that's not true.They were building those churches maybe is because they really put their belief in the highest level of their heart,that's why they including the poor were willing to use the money to build those majestic look churches and churches at that time also acted as temporary refuge camp for the poor and the people who were injured during the war.
Anyway,we should thank god and praise him for giving us such a peaceful place to pray,to surrender our heart to them....
Many old these old Churches were built on the pennies of the faithful who realize that by contributing, they were being part of something larger than themselves. They selflessly contributed the little they had so that we can enjoy such beauty today.
The Church was also a statement, a proclamation of God's presence here in stone. The very solidity of the edifice a testament to the firmness of their faith in God.
Too bad our modern Church buildings, though we have so much more technology and consider ourselves so advance, cannot compare to the architecture of old. I really don't think it's the problem of the architects. It's us.
The original stain glass (behind the altar) date back to the early 1900s, (if I remember correctly) made in France and a very fine example of the style of that time. They were restored in 1992 or so after much damage by time, diesel fumes, and the occasional cricket ball I was told. I was told that during the war (WWII), they sandbagged the sides of the church to protect the stained glass from the shock of aerial bombing.
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