Shrine of the Holy Whapping

S. Joan of Arc with her Voices: SS. Michael, Katherine and Margaret. Ink on vellum. December 2009. © Matthew Alderman 2009. Private Collection, Washington, D.C. matthewalderman.com . (Larger ...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2011/12/s-joan-with-her-voices.html

Welcome, readers of Crisis Magazine! I hope you enjoyed my recent book review there of Dr. Zmirak's graphic novel, The Grand Inquisitor. For those interested in my artistic and design work, p...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2011/12/welcome-readers-of-crisis-magazine-i.html

Apologies for the long absence. This was originally published 09/12/03, during my year studying in Rome, and is suitably Christmassy for a day in the Octave: I’ve spoken often about the street...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2011/12/from-archives-la-sapienza-wine-bar-and.html

This was originally published on 04/01/2004, during my time studying abroad in Italy, which now seems so long ago, and deals with a visit to the town of Barletta in Apulia, the heel of the Italia...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2011/12/from-archives-heraclitus-and-ursula.html

© Matthew Alderman 2011 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying: Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will....

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-christmas-card-design.html

Just to let our readers know that I have been keeping busy during my occasional absences from the Shrine, I thought you might enjoy Matthew Alderman Studios' two official 2010 Christmas cards ...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/11/studio-update-from-matthew-alderman.html

Matthew Alderman Studios has been serving for the past few months as the designer for the principal elevation of the new St. Paul's University Catholic Center in Madison, Wisconsin, with RDG ...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/matthew-alderman-studios-in-news.html

'...and well-presented anthems in churches were often rewarded with cries of "Bravo" and handclapping.' --Arthur J. May, The Hapsburg Monarchy 1867-1914, Harvard, 1951, p. 309

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-do-you-say-plus-ca-change-in.html

Someone had the...er...brilliant idea of inviting a man in a Winnie-the-Pooh suit to the recent birthday celebrations for Queen Elizabeth (or HRH Princess Philip of Greece and Denmark to those ...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/oh-bother.html

I suspect Captain Jack Aubrey would have done slightly more than this. Still, points for style.

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-suspect-captain-jack-aubrey-would.html

This little aside posted by Mark Shea reminds me why the word "spirituality" (when contrasted with "religion") puts me on my guard. There are a lot of things called spirits out there that aren't...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-little-aside-posted-by-mark-shea.html

In my role as a lecturer on architectural topics I have been to a number of monasteries and convents, and even one seminary. All of them have been filled with devout, holy men and women and were ...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/youve-come-to-right-place.html

The wonderful, wonderful book Unbuilt America: Forgotten Architecture from Jefferson to the Space Age was a constant companion of mine during college, and from it stems my fascination with Hal...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/american-neuschwanstein-that-wasnt.html

I do have some posts planned for today, but the image uploader is acting up this morning, so bear with me! Coming up later today or tomorrow: The turn-of-the-century castle that would have housed...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/test-pattern.html

I think many of us Catholics had at the back of our heads growing up, unconsciously, at the very least that the idea of Christ's divinity, or His claim of divinity, was the hardest thing to prove...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/christ-god-and-christ-good-man.html

Since Halloween is coming up, a bit of seasonal ghoulishness for your edification. I have been re-reading Elizabeth Kostova's rather enjoyable The Historian, one of the few reasonably memorabl...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/vlad-tepes-and-worst-wheres-waldo-ever.html

If the medievals had invented the PopeMobile, I suspect it would have looked like one of those wacky, colorful Indian busses. I think this would be a good thing, on the whole.

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/random-thought.html

A great article here . One myth, number eight, "Starving Poor," reminds me of a comment made by, I think, one end of our friend the Chesterbelloc (I forget which), who noted that poverty in Engl...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/top-ten-myths-about-middle-ages.html

MATTHEW ALDERMAN. S. LYDIA THE DEALER IN PURPLE CLOTH. JUNE 2010. PRIVATE COLLECTION, NEW HAMPSHIRE. MORE WORK BY THE ARTIST HERE . St. Lydia was the first Christian to be baptized in Europe, ...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/lydia-purpuraria.html

I was recently at a mass away from my usual parish, and the offertory (I think) was a hymn singing in pleasantly autumnal tones thanking God for mown hay and the harvest and all those wonderful t...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/see-sacrosanctum-concilium-par-121.html

No, I don't know what the deal is with this, either, or where it came from, or, more importantly, just plain "why?" (When I showed this to a classicist friend of mine, she commented "What makes...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/okay-then-show-me-ancient-roman.html

Altar at Egmanton, Nottinghamshire (Sir Ninian Comper). Source . "As the altar is the church, as the altar is the reason for the existence of the wonderful fabric that has gradually develope...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-size-of-altars.html

We at the Shrine occasionally like to do our impression of Johnny Carson as the fortune-telling, future-predicting mock-clairvoyant Carnak the Magnificent (As the man himself said, "AWACS missal"...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/we-predicted-this-ages-ago-sort-of.html

For the record, it's not Photoshopped, and no, I don't have a clue what's going on, either. Anyone care to take a crack at a caption?

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/well-joll-old-saint-nicholas-was-greek.html

A friend writes regarding my comments on Constantine's extravagant taste in imperial robes : > "One favorite quote: 'That's why the Emperor Constantine presided > over the Council o...

http://holywhapping.blogspot.com/2010/10/memo-to-self-remember-your-audience.html