On January 6, Eric and I have had the pleasure to witness the Armenian Christmas celebration at the Holy Cross Cathedral in Montebello.

The structure showcases some very interesting elements; in particular, the presence of theatre-like curtains separating the altar from the rest of the church. During the liturgy, the curtains opened and closed a few times, emphasizing the theatricality of their powerful celebration.

Underneath you can see a few images of details present in the building.

Detail of wooden cross sculpted at the base of the Bishop Chair with a stained glass in the background

Greetings from Istanbul! I am here with a group of 39 Jews, Christians and Muslims on an interfatih pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We began our pilgrimage at Los Angeles International Airport with prayer according to the three traditions, and then spent 18 hours in transit through Paris, arriving in Istanbul Thursday night.

We began our pilgrimage here to have a taste of life in a predominately Muslim country, but of course there is a lot of Christian heritage here, not the least of which is Hagia Sophia (Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom), which is today a museum. I will post some photos of that later.

Yesterday we visited the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, St. George’s Cathedral here in Istanbul. The Fener (Phanar), which is the administrative center of the Ecumenical Patriarch, is somewhat akin to the Vatican in the Roman tradition. St. George’s Cathedral is small, reflecting the diminished status of Orthodoxy here in Turkey — only a few thousand Orthodox Christians remain in Istanbul. Yet it is still the spiritual center of Eastern Orthodoxy, comprising some half a billion of the world’s Christians. The current cathedral, dating from the 17th Century, has been rebuilt many times, most recently in the 20th Century. The most recent restoration was in 1991 to rebuild it after a 1941 fire.

I have a few photos of St. George’s Cathedral, which are certainly not up to the standard set by Francesco by this blog! But I offer one image here, the patriarch’s chair.

Patriarchal Chair in St. George’s Cathedral, Istanbul

No, it’s not a California Cathedral, but it is one with strong ties to our state for those who look to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as their spiritual head.

As Eric already mentioned, today we had the incredible experience of visiting, exploring and immortalizing the magnificent Orthodox structure of Saint Sophia. 

This first photo I’m posting is of the bishop’s chair on the right side of the altar and the stained glass behind.  The seat is of majestic beauty as its ornaments are endless.  Also, notice the penetrating reds that “cut through” the chair.  One of my favorite elements of this particular cathedral is “the writing on the walls” present, which are visible right behind the throne-looking seat.Please, keep on checking the site, as we will post more images very soon.  Stay tuned…

Here’s a second image depicting Christ on the cross.  This beautiful artifact is placed in a space behind the altar, which walls are covered with golden mosaics (visible in the background). 

The chair of Southern California’s Roman Catholic bishops has moved around quite a bit.

When the Diocese of Both Californias (which included present-day California, Baja California, Nevada and Utah) was established in 1840, the Holy See directed that Mission San Diego de Alcalá be designated the cathedral. Upon arriving at his diocesan seat, however, California’s first bishop, Francisco García Diego y Moreno, was less than impressed with San Diego. He promptly moved to Santa Barbara and established Mission Santa Barbara as his pro-cathedral.

Mission San Diego in disrepair

In 1849, the area of the diocese was reduced and named the Diocese of Monterey. The Royal Presidio Chapel in Monterey became the pro-cathedral in 1851 until 1855, when the new bishop of the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles, Thaddeus Amat, once again moved the cathedra to Mission Santa Barbara. But he realized the growing prominence of Los Angeles. He had his eye on the city’s premier church, the Plaza Church of Our Lady of the Angels, built on the site of the city’s 1781 founding.

Mission Santa Barbara

(Amat was himself something of a wanderer, and no ecclesiastical careerist. A Vincentian, he was born in Barcelona, ordained a priest in Paris in 1837 and was assigned to teach at a seminary in New Orleans. Eventually he wound up rector of the diocesan seminary of Philadelphia, where he served as theologian to St. John Neumann, bishop of Philadelphia, at the Council of Baltimore. When he heard through the grapevine that he was to be named bishop of Monterey, Amat tried to avoid receiving the official notice. He fled to Madrid, then to Paris, and was planning passage to Chile when the dreaded official notice finally caught up with him. He tried to refuse the assignment, but the Holy See would not accept his refusal.)

The Plaza Church of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles (La Placita)

In 1859, Amat’s request to transfer the cathedra to La Placita was approved, and the Plaza Church remained the pro-cathedral of the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles until the dedication of St. Vibiana Cathedral in 1876.

Additional biretta tips to Msgr. Francis Weber, archdiocesan archivist, for his book Century of Fulfillment: The Roman Catholic Church in Southern California 1840-1947.

As Eric already accurately explained, what makes a church a “real” Cathedral is the presence in it of the bishop’s chair - or cathedra.  We thought that a good picture of the one placed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels would be fundamental in illustrating this distinction.  The large wooden seat is visible in all its details in the photo below.