 
Carptrash
Member
Username: Carptrash
Post Number: 1509
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 9:31 pm: |    |
I am trying to figure out who this is (I do know where - do you?) and what is happening on this CP opus tacked onto a RC school. Why does it say "LABOR?" What else does it say? What is ALL the symbolic content. Put that good Catholic education to work. And no, jjaba, you do not have to be Catholic to offer an opinion. |
Carptrash
Member
Username: Carptrash
Post Number: 1510
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 9:37 pm: | |
Here is a better (it's a FAITH thing) scan. eeeeeeeek
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Mikeg
Member
Username: Mikeg
Post Number: 1379
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 9:57 pm: | |
"Ora et Labora" is Latin for "pray and work" and is the motto of St. Benedict. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 1229
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 10:21 pm: | |
Praesentia muniamur = presence tributes
If it is Benedict, he was the twin of St. Scholastica, and could be associated with her. She is sometimes shown with a cross and dove. |
Mccarch
Member
Username: Mccarch
Post Number: 147
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 11:33 pm: | |
It's a stone version of a medal of St. Benedict. I can think of two Detroit area possibilities. St. Benedict Parish in Highland Park is one - a parish plant that I'm familiar with, but I don't remember this.
The second is St. Scholastica Parish in NW Detroit, organized and run by Sylvestrine Benedictines. It could be on one of their early school buildings. The church proper is a 1950s honker. |
Hornwrecker
Member
Username: Hornwrecker
Post Number: 1961
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 10:00 am: | |
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Mikem
Member
Username: Mikem
Post Number: 3539
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 10:03 am: | |
^What Mccarch said; it's the medal of St Benedict with the Latin inscription (starting at the bottom left, going clockwise) translated: "May we at our death be fortified by his presence" or words to that effect.
I assume that the book he holds is the book of rules for his order and not the bible. The bird is probably not a dove but the crow or raven attributed to saving his life. It looks as if the raven sits on the cracked chalice, both symbols from events in the life of St. Benedict. |
Mikem
Member
Username: Mikem
Post Number: 3540
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 10:23 am: | |
I also see the raven and cracked chalice beneath the "ET" in "ORA ET LABORA". |
Carptrash
Member
Username: Carptrash
Post Number: 1511
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 10:36 am: | |
Thanks a million. This is everything (and more) that I needed to know. The piece is from St Scholastica School (Diedl & Diehl - 1945) located at 17351 Southfield which is pretty much ON the Southfield. I am seriously back at Shadowing Parducci and there will be more questions, I'm sure. But my Latin is weak - not having been used in over 73 incarnations - and my understanding of Catholic symbolism is okay, but I need a place to start. eek |
Carptrash
Member
Username: Carptrash
Post Number: 1512
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 - 12:31 pm: | |
Parducci's well used copy (just showing off) of Webber's "Church Symbolism" (1927) includes in St. Benedict's attributes "a snake emerging from a loaf of bread" - which is, I think, what is going on in the bottom, left, as you face it. eek |