As I said earlier, on Holy Innocents/Childermass, I would re-do the Magnificent Altars thread, this time with pictures imbedded rather than linked, so here goes:



Lady Altar at Salisbury (New Sarum).

English Martyrs altar:

[

This is somewhat labourious.

I'll do it in lots over several days.

High Altar, Halberstadt cathedral:

City Patron Saints Altar, Cologne Cathedral:

That'll do to go on with, for today.

Rather stunning! :)

I wish that some of our "Traditionalist Altars" could look like some of these, instead of looking like shelves to support bits of lace and candlesticks. Traditional Catholics seems to like quantity rather than quality. The late Fr Ronald Silk wrote well about under-furnishing churches with a few beautiful things rather than stuffing them full of religious objects of varying quality.

Hear, hear!!!

!!!!!!!!!awesome altars!!!!!!!!!!

It is truly amazing that there are objects in our churches that are not first class, Jesus Christ deserves the best.

!!!!!!!!!awesome altars!!!!!!!!!!

It is truly amazing that there are objects in our churches that are not first class, Jesus Christ deserves the best.

Here's a modern altar in a late-mediaeval Flemish style:

Yes, as confederate posted, Jesus deserves the best, but sometimes the best we can actually achieve in particular circumstances won't be the actual objective best.

A mite was good enough for the widow, it was her best.

So I wouldn't be too upset at some SSPX Mass centres making do with more humble objects.

Here's one, from the same craftsman, Davis d'Ambly, in the early Italian gothic style:

Here's another Flemish crucifixion:



Now, I must go and, talking about things Flemish, celebrate St Thomas of Canterbury's feast day at the Belgian Beer Cafe.

Very beautiful, but why is the rearados so much larger than the altar? Why, the altar isn't even the size of the central pannel of the triptych!

It's probably just intended for the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament.

More from the USA, this time, the Dominican Church in NYC, St Vincent Ferrar. Here is the high altar:

Here is the friars' chapel.

Note the canopied stalls. Also note the hanging pyx, for the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament. Far better, IMHO, than tabernacles:



Close-up of the pyx:

A side altar - the Rosary Altar:

Another side altar - St Joseph's:



Here is St Patrick's:



Here is the last side altar, Holy Name:



Here is a view of the church from the chancel down the nave. You can see another set of choir stalls with two tiers. These would be used for the conventual mass, which would also be the main parish mass each day:

Those altars are beautiful, especially the one in the Dominican church in NYC.

Yes!
It is a nice diversion to look at these. Thanks, Brandy!

For the "primatial" cathedral of the USA, Mary Our Queen, Baltimore, they claim copyright in the pictures, so to see them, and it's well worth it, you'll have to go to the link. It's much better, I'm sorry to say, than Westminster Cathedral (not to mention St Patrick's NYC, although not as good as the Anglican cathedrals of NYC and Washington DC - but it's still, very, very good, and a worthy seat of the head of the US church). Unfortunately, the choir stalls are somewhat pedestrian and follow a typically Italian setting of being grouped around and behind the High Altar in an inverted U-shape, although this probably has something to do with the ridiculous post-Tridentine mania for getting rid of rood-screens:



Tour

Now for something really exceptional - a computer model of what the university collegiate church set up by my namesake looked like before the protestants got to it:



The Cathedral

Very nice Albrecht! If only history had been different...

Here is a shot of the nave - the black and white altar panels are cartoons of the (now lost) colour finished products:

Now, back to the USA. The high altar of the Anglican National Cathedral in Washington, DC:

This one seemed to have disappeared. It's the d'Ambly Flemish crucifixion:

Here are some shots of altars by Sir (John) Ninian Comper, courtesy of Br Lawrence Lew, O.P. Just follow the link, it's not possible to copy the images from Flickr to Photobucket:



Comperslideshow

Here, for example, from another location, is one of Comper's altars (Wymondham Abbey):

Here's another Comper altar, viewed through the rood-screen:



Up close, here's the central panel:



Here's the left wing:



Here's the right one:

High Altar of St Elisabeth's Cathedral, Kosice, Slovakia:



Note the sacrament house for reservation of the Blessed Sacrament on the left hand side of the photograph.

Not just the High Altar, but a complete re-construction of the choir and sanctuary of N-D de Paris (before the monstrous baroque "renovations"):

Interesting reconstruction. You can clearly see that Comper and other High Church Anglicans have reused the Gothic style for altars.

I prefer these Gothic altars to the baroque and Neo-Gothic altars.

Another, more sober example:


(Source)

It's an altar from a Traditional Anglican chaplaincy in France, the priest made it himself.

...if I'm not mistaken that looks like Anthony Chadwick. A few years ago, he used to live not far from me in France, where he had an independent chapel. At other times he was with the Institue of Christ the King and a sedevacantist of some description before I suppose apostasing - he started describing himself as an Anglican. I hear in the days of his youth he went to the SSPX's London Mass centre...

Oh, I see he got married. Or "married" - who knows what the canonical status is.... just an example of everyhting that's wrong with Anglicanorum Coetibus...

Hooray, married priests!

:thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:

Using him as a mascot...?! :huh: I wouldn't advise it myself.

Besides, who knows where his orders were from...

No doubt, the question of holy orders will be thoroughly investigated by the relevant office of the curia.

...and once that's done, they'll be able to get an idea as to the status of the 'marriage'... :wh: