When Art is not Beautiful

The fabric of the building of the seminary has seen better days. There is none of the buildings that

New Chapel in Seminary

would not benefit from refurbishment and some of that work has already begun. Over the past year the chapel has been renovated. Previously, it was a dark and really pretty grim place. Now they have certainly brightened it up by putting in a new floor, a new sanctuary area, and a much brighter colour on the walls. Of course, as with any property, once you do up one part of it, the state of the other parts becomes evident.

I am told that they will be painting the main building over the coming months although it seems that the priority is being given to the outside of the building even though much of the inside has peeling paintwork and shabby walls. I'm sure they will get around to it eventually, but, I suspect that the facelift that is currently taking place may have something to do with the upcoming World Youth Day celebrations that are to take place in Panama next January. Pope Francis is expected to attend the celebrations and, while it is unlikely that he, personally, will visit the seminary, I imagine that there will be a lot of international visitors looking for accomodation around the time of the gathering.

The Original Santa Maria La Antigua

One more word on the chapel: the patron of Panama is St. Mary, the Ancient (Santa Maria la Antigua). This is a picture that has quite an interesting history.

It began its life in one of the chapels of the cathedral of Seville (Spain). When this cathedral was remodelled in the 14th century the old building was largely demolished. However, one of the walls that remained standing was the wall on which this particular image hung - hence, the ancient. Out of devotion for this image, with the discovery of America, two men called Enciso and Balboa, founded a city called Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien (Darien is a province of Panama) and, having vanquished the local "Indian" leader in battle, they consecrated his house as a chapel under this advocation.

This was the first chapel to be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin in the new world.

In 1671 the city was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt close towhere modern-day Panama City lies. Having been the patron of the diocese of Panama City since the 16th century, Santa Maria la Antigua was named as patron of the Panamanian nation in the year 2000.

Practically all churches here have a copy of the image in one form or another. In the new chapel for the seminary they decided to have the image made as a sculpture. Unfortunately, the sculptor's considered view of what is beautiful doesn't correspond with the opinion of most other people. You judge for yourself. I apologise for not being able to insert the picture the right way up.