Friday, February 05, 2010

St. Philomena Cathedral, Mysore

After a short afternoon snooze in our wonderful hotel room, we visited the Cathedral of St. Philomena. In contrast to the Indo-Saracenic buildings of Mysore such as the Palace, the high arched Neo-Gothic church felt a bit out of place. Built in 1840, it features two 55 m (180 ft) high towers and resembles the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. Beautiful stained-glass windows illustrated events from the Bible such as the Birth of Christ, Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist, the Last Supper, and the Crucifixion. Paintings depicting the Stages of the Cross were found near the entrance. Statues of Jesus and Mary adorned the sides, with Mary in a sari. A statue of Jesus was at the front, surrounded by huge sprays of flowers, along with baby Jesus at bottom. On the altar was a sculpture of St. Philomena, a third-century saint from Greece. People were lighting candles while others were silently praying in the pews.

See more photos of Mysore on my Mysore Flickr page

1 comment:

Pat said...

I'll try to remember to send you a close-up of the squirrel that was nibbling the garlands!