That Catholic Show #5: Statues and Icons
The fifth episode of That Catholic Show, the brand new video podcast from Rosary Army and SQPN! Like a favorite family photo album, the Catholic Church uses icons and statues of Saints to help us learn how to live Holy lives and draw closer to Jesus. Check out That Catholic Show to learn more!
Help us promote That Catholic Show by posting the episode on your blog! Here is the code that you can use to embed the clip:
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Sadly I am not able to watch this episode. Clicking to open it in youtube tells me it is private, and it does not load inside the SQPN-Browser window either…
We’ll fix it, please stand by..
It’s working now, enjoy!
The show is now live! Enjoy
Wow! Another great show! What about a show about salvation? In other words, why doesnt’ the Catholic church have altar calls?
LOL, um, Communion? Just sayin!
Couldn’t resist, Lisa. Thanks for the feedback.
For more videos about the faith see the new website http://www.godtube.com
Greg, Jennifer, family, Father Roderick, et al,
You guys are doing a great job. This presents the reasons and apologia very well, the demonstration is simple and invinting. No sledgehammers, just fun.
Under the Mercy,
Matthew S
Excellent job once again. This video had a different pace than the previous. I liked it. You did a fantastic job of illustrating our veneration of saints via statues and icons in a light-hearted and reverent way. The production value was very good. I can only imagine the hours of recording and editing time put into this episode. I especially liked how Jennifer was found in a variety of effective locations while teaching in a very conversational style. My review: ***** (”Five Stars”)
-Fr. Bill
Wow, what a great production value !
I wonder, if Hollywood has already been knocking on your door…
These first five broadcasts of TCS are excellent and I have passed them on to many of my protestant friends.
The final four download to iTunes, but I can’t get sit, stand and kneel, the first one to load. Is it different somehow? I am not a computer expert. Help.
Great show again, enjoyed it very much - but there is a little mistake in the information you give: christian art already bloomed in the time you called the “dark ages”, there’s lots of great byzantine and medieval christian art - and in renaissance artists rather started to choose non-religious subjects besides their religious works. No big thing, but TCS could be even better if the information content was just as perfect as the presentation!
Thanks for another great episode! I’ll be posting it on my blog this afternoon and look forward to sharing it with my family!
Most of TCS #5 is excellent. I want to say that first, because what follows is a detailed response to about a sentence and a half in the script that are (seriously) flawed. And I don’t want anyone to think that I am being critical of the entire episode. Far from it, I thought the ‘nasal incident’ was hilarious. I will point out that the practice of veneration of the saints is an ancient practice, first mentioned explicitly in regard to either Ignatius of Antioch [c. 35-107] or Polycarp of Smyrna [69-155] (I don’t recall). Also, if memory serves, St. Paul said something somewhere of bits of cloth and whatnots being taken as memorabilia while he was still using them. (It also may have been something written later about him.)
That being said, I am sorry to say that I have a significant problem with this TCS, or rather with just over one line in it. It is the line about the “Dark Ages” being “a time full of superstition and fear” (or something very like that). (From about 2:31 to 2:38 in the video.) Yes, there was superstition and fear then, just as there is now, but it was also a time of learning, art, and devotion. It was Catholic (ultimately Christian) learning, art, and devotion. The terrible reputation of the Middle Ages is largely the result of Protestant and atheistic (agnostic, deistic, etc. — pretty much everybody who was anti-Catholic) myths (to be kind).
Those artistic traditions attributed to the Renaissance in the script generally throve in the Middle Ages. The primary artistic change of the Renaissance was one of style (esp., realism and perspective), but even these arise out of Medieval developments.
St. Francis of Assisi [1182?-1226], for instance, was a product of the Middle Ages. A sampling (and only a sampling) of [known] great scholars of the Middle Ages includes:
Pope St. Gregory the Great [540-604);
St. Bede the Venerable [c. 673-735] (who, among other things, first identified Gregory the Great as one of the four great Latin Fathers, along with Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome);
St. Alcuin [735-804] (who, among other things, argued, “Faith is a free act of the will, not a forced act”, causing Charlemagne to abolish the death penalty for paganism);
Pope St. Nicholas I “the Great” (one of only 4 popes so called) [820-867] (reformed marriage practice);
King Alfred “The Great” (the only English king so called) [849-899] (who gathered many scholars after the model of Charlemagne);
Saint Odo of Cluny [c. 878-942] (enacted the Cluniac reforms);
At the Abbey of St. Gall (Switzerland) between the mid 9th century and the mid 11th century, there were several scholars just named Notker and Ekkehard:
Blessed Notker Balbulus (”Stammerer”) [840-912] (”delicate of body but not of mind, stuttering of tongue but not of intellect”);
Notker Physicus (”physician”) [?-975];
Notker, Provost of St. Gall and later Bishop of Liège [940-1008] (”laid the foundation of the great fame of the Liège Schools, to which studious youths soon flocked from all Christendom”);
Notker Labeo (”thick lipped) or “the German” [950-1022] (”one of the most learned scholars of his time”);
Ekkehard I (”Major”, “the Elder”) [?-973];
Ekkehard II (”Palatinus”, “the Courtier”), [?-990] and Ekkehard III, (both nephews of Ekkehard I);
Ekkehard IV (980-1060?];
St. Dunstan [924-988] (forced to leave England for criticizing King Edwy’s behavior, he later as Archbishop of Canterbury crowned three English kings and his coronation service remains the basis for modern British coronations);
Aelfric “Grammaticus” [955?-1020?] (considered “the greatest Old English prose writer”);
St. Peter Damian [1007-1072];
St. Anselm [1033-1109];
Blessed (”St.”) Hildegard von Bingen [1098-1179] (she was “one of the first souls for whom the [formal] canonization process was officially applied”, but she was never formally canonized.);
St. Anthony of Padua [1195-1231];
St. Albertus Magnus [”Albert the Great”, c. 1206-1280];
St. Bonaventure [1221-1274];
St. Thomas Aquinas [1225-1274];
There are many many more. I hasten to add that there could be many women on this list (in case anyone wonders)
There was much art, music, writing, and engineering (those amazing cathedrals didn’t build themselves) in the Middle Ages, and even some good science (Bede, for instance, accurately described the cause of eclipses). Much of this learning was centered around the Church (and royal courts associated with the Church), and generally the attitude of those doing such work was that it should be anonymous (or at least not ’signed’) after Jesus’ recommendations in Matthew 6. It was considered uncouth in many quarters to be considered too renown.
Among the things to come out of the Middle Ages was the university (despite its sad modern state), with its academic calendar centered around the Church’s liturgical year (prepare for Christmas in the fall, for Easter in the Spring, go home for the summer).
If you want a humorous (sometimes caustically so) review, try Those Terrible Middle Ages: Debunking the Myths by Dr. Règine Pernoud. At least read the reviews at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Those-Terrible-Middle-Ages-Debunking/dp/0898707811
I hope I di
And just to point out the beam in my own eye (per today’s Gospel reading), I hit the “Submit” button before I had finished editting, leaving out almost an entire paragraph, not just a sentence or so. The last incomplete sentence was meant to say, “I hope I didn’t leave anything out.” The missing paragraph follows:
There are many many more. I hasten to add that there could be many women on this list (in case anyone wonders), but in an effort to keep the list ’short’, I tried to focus on the more prominent figures, and they tend to be male for a variety of reasons. (It may in part reflect later [i.e., Renaissance] bias.) Many of the scholars listed were also priests and bishops, a correlation related to the study related to those offices. Women’s monasteries and convents often had less contact with the outside world, for reasons of both piety and safety. Also, women tend to be particularly historically prominent in political (consider Eleanor of Aquitaine) and economic (okay, I don’t have a name here, but I can’t think of a male name either; but for instance, women tended to run things when the men were away — consider the model of John and Abigail Adams as a modern example) spheres, where such prominence wasn’t considered as unseemly.
Congratulations, great show once again !!
Well, I don’t take this little “faux pas” too serious, even though I am a biiiiig fan of the (pre-Renaissance) “Romanesque” period of architecture & art, especially in Spain.
My favourite church “San Martin” is from the 10th century and right on the “Camino Santiago” pilgrim trail. Isn’t it beautiful ?
:-)
http://www.arte-romanico.com/autonomias/fromista.htm
Wow thank you for all the well explained comments and information. It always saddens us when we learn after we release a show that a bit of the script reflects inaccuracies on any level. It is such a challenge to present the material in a visually interesting fashion and to even come up with a script in the first place that we are bound to have an occasional flaw along the way, although we try to avoid them at all costs.
Please know that we always strive to improve and to keep the scripts “safe and accurate”, but I’m continually amazed at how difficult that is. But we shall continue to press forward and come up with a better system of script authentication BEFORE we start shooting and editing.
Jennifer, I don’t mean to sound critical. Really I don’t. I have some idea how hard it is. This one is particularly difficult, as it is such a pervasive myth. And there is some basis for the myth.
(The following is primarily for my fellow Americans, most of whom will have only the vaguest of notions of the history.)
Much of the difficulty (though by no means all) in the Middle Ages resulted directly or indirectly from external (that is to say, non-Christian) invasions.
The results of the Germanic invasions [4th-6th centuries] were just settling into place when the Muslim invasions began, crashing into the Byzantine Empire in the east, and sweeping across Africa (where once there had been hundreds of dioceses), across Spain, and into France, where they were finally turned back by Charles Martel (”the Hammer”) at Tours in 732. Tours is less than 150 miles from Paris! It took over 750 years to drive them the rest of the way out of Spain.
Not too long after that, the Viking invasions began, with the great abbey at Lindisfarne in northern England being sacked in 793. These invasions continued in one form or another for centuries.
In the east, the Magyars conflicts with the Byzantine Empire started as early as about 800 and further north by about 900. The Mongol invasions began in the 12th century. The Muslim attacks continued more or less regularly, leading to the call for the Crusades [1095–c. 1300] to help drive them back, with decidedly mixed results. After Constantinople fell in 1453, the Ottoman Turks pushed into Europe, reaching Vienna twice (1529 and 1683) before being pushed back.
It seems a wonder sometimes that Christian Europe survived at all. Yet between about 500 and 1340 (about the time the Black Death arrived), the population of Europe had roughly tripled to something likee 75 million.
Okay, I’ll be quiet now.
You guys found a great way of explaining the “issue” with the Saints and images in Catholic Faith. Well done.
Hans had already explained why I had a great “AWWWW!” moment at one point… Greg will know why ;)))
Keep going, guys, you are doing great!
Thanks again for the comments. As Jennifer stated above, we do our very best to get everything as accurate as possible. I admit we put more emphasis on ensuring we are theologically correct than we have on historical facts. Since it is more of a theological-based show, that made sense to me
To reshoot and reedit that one scene, it would most likely equal about two days of work (re-writing the scene, finding a location to shoot, arranging care of our kids, traveling to the location, shooting the scene, editing the scene on the computer, and then re-releasing the episode). Because of the extra time to re-edit, it would also cost us a bit more money.
The other alternative is to completely remove the episode, which I think would be a shame because the point of the episode is not history as much as it is explaining why statues and icons are important to us.
I apologize to all of the history buffs who we have apparently upset with this episode. It was not our intention to do so. I would love to fix the problem, but short of removing the file, at this time I don’t have any real solutions that wouldn’t disrupt our other work and keep up from producing additional shows.
We’ll keep praying about how to address this, but for now, thanks for your understanding.
[…] wait to get back to the hotel to watch a new That Catholic Show. http://www.sqpn.com/?p=1504 […]
Hi Greg & Jennifer,
I love the show and as well as the topics. Having been a video editor for some time I know exactly how much work it takes to put these together… you’ve done a great job and the result is fantastic. As far as the issue over the dark ages I am glad that we have had this opportunity to discuss this as I agree that there is a general myth about those “Dark” ages that is simply not true. I think the material you presented was just fine as it gave your audience a chance to discuss this topic which would otherwise go un mentioned. Isn’t getting people to discuss these topics the goal?
Personally, in my conversion to the Church, it was critical to understand that the Saints were really members of Gods family, my family, like brothers and sisters whom we love and learn from. When Dr. Hahn described celebrating their feast days like birthdays it started to make since to me as I can relate to it on that level. When I started to see the scripture passages that mentioned the saints offering prayers in heaven, or surrounding us at the mass (Heb. 12:1), or being connected to Christ in heaven while we are connected to Christ on earth (vine and branches) I was suddenly able to understand how Christ would love for us to look on the Saints with fondness and to emulate their example and even ask for their intercession.
Great show… keep it up!
God Bless
Joe M
The Catholic Hack! Podcast
[…] Rosary Army has put out episode #5 of “That Catholic Show” on Statues and Icons. Another awesome show, guys! Great job connecting photographs and statues to […]
Greg ….. After meeting you 2 years ago as the life teen representative of st. pius X…. i knew u had alot ahead of you….. the sky is the limit… (do yo thing)
Peter Dalbec
[…] sit back and watch the latest episode of “That Catholic Show”! This is what our use of statues and icons is all about. The […]
I like the t-shirts but the site seems to be down…
http://store.sqpn.com/
Laurens - Try the link again. It seems to be working fine for me.
How about making an “season dvd”?
Lovely portrait at end - only quibble - you didn’t include Jodi!
Great Episode! To start with the most important topic, Jennifer, I’m seriously covetous of your hair. Is that wrong?
Regarding the comments above, about the “Dark Ages”, I think it would be great to include a Discussion Guide when you package the DVD. That would make this sooo useful for groups. The comments above would be a great inclusion to the Discussion Guide, and that would be a lot easier than any re-editing.
Also, I think it would be fun if you got some video submissions from your viewers. Maybe every so often you could release a question like “How do you picture God?” or “What does it take to be a good Godparent?” and then if you get some good responses, you could include some little clips in the show. Just an idea.
Thanks for the terrific show and all your hard work!
Angela
These shows are very good. I would like to be able to show them at our children’s liturgy group on a Sunaday at Mass and use them for discussion. Is it possible to be able to burn these shows on to a dvd.
Thank you
@Stephen - Thanks for your comments. We plan on packaging them on DVD and making them available for classes and parishes by the end of the year.
Concerning the incorrect data……….
Perhaps when you discover that some information in your video’s are not totally correct, you can append the end of the video with the description of the error of data with the correct information. This way production should be real easy because the main body of the finished product is not touched (I’m guessing).
Anyway, I enjoyed these presentations I watched. Thanks