Visita Iglesia to the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels

Happy Easter everyone! Good Friday has come and gone and as part of our Catholic tradition in the Philippines called Visita Iglesia we visited at least seven churches the day before Good Friday. I would like to share with you some of the images of the most unique church that we visited, the Cathedral of the Lady of the Angels in the heart of downtown Los Angeles.

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The cathedral is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the heart of all 287 Catholic church parishes and communities in the city. One of the largest in the world, it was commemorated in 2002 and is perched on a hill overlooking the Hollywood freeway. It replaced the cathedral of Saint Vibiana, which was damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It was designed by award-winning Spanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo who, using elements of contemporary architecture, veered from the traditional design of church architecture.

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The cathedral is a massive structure of 11 stories and 151 million pounds ‘built to last 500 years. It is made of architectural concrete in earth colors resembling the adobe wall of the old California missions. Accessible through a flight of stairs from street level, the cathedral faces east and has a giant 50-foot cross which is illuminated at night and is visible from afar.

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Unique Entrance

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Instead of a traditional rear door near the end of the pews, the entrance to the cathedral is in front of the building on the left side, and it opens to an ambulatory or a walkway that circles the interior of the cathedral. There are two immense bronze doors that open on rotating steel posts.

On the space above the doors is an 8-foot image of Our Lady of the Angels without the traditional veil. It is the sculptor’s modern interpretation of the lady “ clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet”.

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The 17th Century Retablo

At the end of the ambulatory before reaching the pews and the interior of the cathedral is a 17th-century Spanish Baroque retablo, a wooden altarpiece with four elaborately twisted columns and images of saints and a crucifix. It is gilded, rich, and beautiful!

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Inside the Cathedral

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Inside the cathedral are pews that can hold as many as 3000 people! Natural light brightens the interior through the slanted shafts in the walls and the cross/lantern by the altar, high on the wall. The windows are made, not of the standard stained glass, but of alabaster, a naturally occurring translucent stone, which projects opaque light into the interior.

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The vast ceiling is supported, not by pillars but by nine trusses and four main walls. The floor is all paving stones of Spanish limestone.

There is a grand pipe organ to the left of the altar encased in cherry wood, above the pews used by the choir.

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Tapestry on the Walls

The walls are adorned with fresco-like tapestries depicting saints and blesseds from around the world. Figures were constructed from drawn and painted elements and portrait paintings. The tapestries measure 47’ x 7’ and are made of cotton with neutral tones. Note how the Filipino saint Lorenzo Ruiz is grouped with the other saints.

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Behind the baptismal font is a tapestry of Jesus being baptized by St John the Baptist.

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The Chapels Inside the Cathedral

Several chapels open to the ambulatory that surround the cathedral. They are peaceful settings for prayer, but the mass is not celebrated in these chapels.

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There is a sculpture in the ambulatory depicting baby Jesus and St Joseph the carpenter.

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The 14 stations of the cross hang on the walls in between the chapels. Here next to the walls, we were able to say our prayers in quiet and peace thanks to only a handful of visitors.

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Outside the Cathedral

As we walked out the south end of the cathedral, we encountered the garden with a circular pool for private meditation.

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At the northeast corner of the cathedral complex, we noticed the campanile or bell tower which is also built of concrete.

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By the cathedral plaza walls, we ran into the shrine of our Lady of Guadalupe, a station for candle holders, and the walkway overlooking the freeway, showing the beautiful angels on the flight, etched on glass.

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This has been a marvelous day for a peaceful Visita Iglesia to the uniquely beautiful cathedral, our Lady, and the angels.

[//]:# (!pinmapple 34.027899 lat -118.288136 long Lady of Angels Cathedral d3scr)

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