The Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation

Photo: St. Gabriel's Greek Orthodox Church in Nazareth

The Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, situated in Nazareth, Israel, is a principal center of Christian pilgrimage. As the name suggests, the place where the church is located is believed to be where the angel Gabriel delivered God’s message to Virgin Mary.

The church, also known as the Church of St. Gabriel, is built over a subterranean spring where Mary was drawing water at the time of the Annunciation, according to the Eastern Orthodox belief. The spring water is still present inside the apse of the church.

The Book of Luke (1:27-35) does not describe the exact location where Gabriel delivered God’s message to Mary, but only mentions Nazareth. However, according to the second century text of James, when the angel addressed her and greeted her she looked around but could see any one. She returned home with the pot of water after which Gabriel appeared before her and informed her about the virgin birth of Jesus.

The church had previously been occupied by the Franciscans and the Greek Catholics. But Zahir al-Umar al-Zaydani, the ruler of Galilee, granted control of the church to the local Arab community of Greek Orthodox faith. Consequently, in 1750, they built a new church just beside the existing one. Since then the Arab Orthodox local council in Nazareth has been running the church.

The original church is believed to have been built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine I at the site of a spring that was the only source of water supply to the village of Nazareth.

The water of the spring originates from a mountain known as Jabal as-Sikh and flows underground for 17 meters and emerges in the church. From there it continues to flow 130 meters further to surface at Mary's Well. This was the well from which Mother Mary and boy Jesus used to draw and drink water. But today, there is a nonfunctional structure rebuilt for the millennium celebrations of Nazareth in 2000.

The spring within the old chapel can be accessed from the present church by descending a few steps, and water can be drawn from it.

Another important center of pilgrimage is the Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation built over a cave which is believed to have been the house where Mary lived.

Annunciation, painting by Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio

Photo: The Annunciation, oil on panel painting by Italian artists Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio, 1472-1475, 38.6 x 85.4 in (98 × 217 cm), now in Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

The subject of the painting is based on a narrative by Luke according to whom during her betrothal the angel Gabriel sent by God announced to her that she would miraculously conceive through the Holy Spirit and give birth to a son. He told her that the baby was to be named Jesus. The subject has been very popular in Christian Art.

The Annunciation is widely considered the first work of the young Leonardo da Vinci completed in collaboration with his master Andrea del Verrocchio.

Following the established tradition of the times, the painting depicts Gabriel on the left and Virgin Mary on the right with a lectern in between. The architectural setting that opens out onto a landscape does not look to belong to the period when Mary lived. But it was born out of da Vinci’s fantasies of modern architecture, not even of his times, but much ahead.

Some immature visualization can be noticed, for instance, with poplars and pines and the mountains at a distance that seem to be full of greenery which defies logic as the geographical setting of Mary is in the Middle East where such vegetation is unusual.

However, da Vinci’s Annunciation is known for the perfection of linear geometric perspective in art, which later was widely followed by other artists.

In the picture, angel Gabriel is kneeling before Mary while delivering God’s message. He is depicted as draped in rich clothing and holds a Madonna lily. Mary, dressed in equally rich, supple drapery, is shown as was reading, and raises her eyes towards the angel and raises her hand in a gesture of surprise, or rather fear.

When The Annunciation was brought to the Uffizi Gallery from a convent near Florence in 1867, it was credited to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who was also an apprentice of Verrocchio. But later it was established by art experts to be the work of da Vinci in collaboration with Verrocchio.

The painting, as many other paintings depicting Annunciation, shows the angel appearing before Mary at her residence. But some other narratives say that the angel appeared before her when she went to the well to draw water. This well, known as Mary’s Well, is located in an area in Nazareth where there are several other churches and pilgrimage attractions in Nazareth. The well is said to have been a popular watering hole for Arabs for several centuries.

The Marriage of the Virgin, painting by Raphael

Image: The Marriage of the Virgin (1504), painting by Raphael, oil on round-headed panel, dimensions 170 cm x 118 cm, located at Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy.

The Marriage of the Virgin, the 1504 painting by the Italian painter Raphael, is housed in the Pinacoteca di Brera of Milan. According to critics, the painting was inspired by two compositions by Perugino, ‘Christ Delivering the Keys to St. Peter’ and ‘The Marriage of the Virgin’ now in the Museum of Caën.

The main characters of ‘The Marriage of the Virgin’ stand in the foreground: Joseph is solemnly placing the marriage ring on the Virgin's finger and holding the flowering staff, the symbol that he is the chosen one, in his left hand. His wooden staff has blossomed, while those of the other suitors have remained dry. Two of the disappointed suitors are breaking their staffs. The polygonal temple in the background dominates the composition of the painting. The temple is the centre of a radial system composed of the steps, portico, buttresses and drum and extended by the pavement.

Caught at the culminating moment of the marriage ceremony, the people attending the wedding also repeat the circular rhythm of the composition. The three main characters and two members of the marriage party are set in the foreground, while others are arranged in depth, progressively farther away from the central axis. This axis, marked by the wedding ring, divides the paved surface and the temple into two symmetrical parts.

The painting (signed and dated: RAPHAEL URBINAS MDIIII) was commissioned by the Albizzini family for the chapel of St Joseph in the church of S. Francesco of the Minorities at Città di Castello in Umbria. In 1798 the town was forced to donate the painting to General Giuseppe Lechi, an army officer, who sold it to the Milanese art dealer Sannazzari, who bequeathed it to the main hospital of Milan in 1804. Two years later it was acquired by the Academy of Fine Arts and was exhibited at the Brera.

The painting was attacked by vandals some years ago. The signed and dated painting, ‘The Marriage of the Virgin’ by Raphael is a particularly beloved painting by Raphael and one of the unparalleled favorites of the Renaissance period. The painting is specially noted because Raphael made the transition from a devoted follower of Perugino to an artist who represents the epitome of the Renaissance. Also, this painting is of special importance because it was executed immediately before Raphael went to Florence where he experienced firsthand the sculpture of Donatello as well as the works of his most famous older contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

The three children of Fatima

Photo: Lucia Santos (left) with her cousins Jacinta Marto and Francisco Marto, the three children of Fatima, to whom Our Lady of Fatima (Virgin Mary) appeared.

Fatima has always had a major role in the Catholic Church ever since Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to the three shepherd children, Lucia Santos and her cousins, siblings Jacinta Marto and Francisco Marto in 1917. The children said then that she spoke to them and entrusted them with three prophetic revelations that are now known as the Three Secrets of Fatima. The first two secrets were made public quite early. But the mysterious ‘Third Secret’ was not revealed until 2000, when it was interpreted to be a prediction of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981.

Pope Benedict XVI flew to Portugal this week to worship at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, one of the world's most venerated shrines, which is visited by over 5 million visitors a year. The Pope explained that the interpretation of the third secret does not stop at the previous interpretation, but the third secret has a permanent and ongoing significance. The Pope said its significance could even include the suffering the Church is going through today.

People viewing 'Dance of the Sun’ at Fatima, Portugal

Photo: People viewing the reputed ‘Dance of the Sun’ at Fatima on 13 October 1917

During the Fatima apparitions attributed to the Virgin Mary, as early as July 1917, it was claimed that the Virgin Mary had promised a ‘Miracle of the Sun’. A crowd of about 70,000 people, including news reporters and photographers, gathered at the Cova da Iria. After the incessant rain, when a thin layer of clouds cloaked the silver disc of the sun, 10-year-old Lucia, one of the three Portuguese shepherd children to whom Virgin Mary gave visions, called out to the crowd to look at the sun. It is believed that the sun appeared to change colors and to rotate like a fire wheel. For some people the sun appeared to fall from the sky, for others it zigzagged. The phenomenon is claimed to have been witnessed by most people in the crowd as well as people many miles away.

Columnist Avelino de Almeida of O Século, Portugal's most influential newspaper, reported, "Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws - the sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of the people." According to reports from poet Afonso Lopes Vieira and school teacher Delfina Lopes with her students and other witnesses in the town of Alburita, the solar phenomenon was visible from up to forty kilometers away. Despite these assertions, not all witnesses reported seeing the sun ‘dance’. No movement or other phenomenon of the sun was registered by scientists at the time.

Painting: Mary and Child Jesus by Pierre Mignard

Mary and baby Jesus Christ, ‘La vierge aux raisins’ by Pierre Mignard (1640). Pierre Mignard (November 7, 1612 to May 30, 1695), also called ‘Le Romain’ to distinguish him from his brother Nicolas and his nephew Pierre II, was a French painter, born at Troyes.