On The Trail of God

November 11th 2007
Susan
Sacred Moments

Many of the things we love to see and learn about in other cultures is religion. Each Sunday I bring you ‘On The Trail of God,’ pictures, sounds, links, stories etc. of religions and sacred sites from around the globe and in my own backyard. If you have something you’d like to contribute contact me.

This Sunday I thought I’d share a couple of inspiring pictures from a recent trip to Ireland that are particularly beautiful examples of Catholic funerary art. Funerary art is art that is done to decorate a grave or in memory of a deceased loved one. When I went with Dee & Dum Tours to Ireland, we saw some amazing examples of this kind of art. This week I’m just posting the Catholic/Christian examples, next week I’ll get to the pre-Christian ones.

Carved crosses at Monasterboice Ireland

These intricately carved stone crosses were used to teach the Christian stories to illiterate persons through the use of imagery and symbolic metaphors. Here you can see the story of the Roman Guard piercing the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross. Around you see the blending with native symbols in the Celtic knot work that represents eternal life.