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A historic baptistery structure has been unearthed at one of the most important ancient sites in Kosovo by Turkish archaeologists. It is the first such excavation to be carried out by Turkish archaeologists in Europe Since the beginning of excavations in July in Kosovo’s ancient city of Ulpiana, a baptistery dating from the Byzantine period have been unearthed by Turkish archaeologists of the Mimar Sinan University. At an excavation site in Kosovo’s ancient city of Ulpiana, a team of Turkish archaeologists have discovered a baptistery dating from the Byzantine period. The archaeological team, consisting of archaeology students from Istanbul’s Mimar...

Metropolitan Archbishop-elect William C. Skurla of Pittsburgh Washington D.C., Jan 19, 2012 / 05:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Bishop William C. Skurla to be the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Byzantine Archeparchy of Pittsburgh.Bishop Skurla, who currently leads the Eparchy of Passaic, N.J., became the administrator of Pittsburgh after the death of Metropolitan Archbishop Basil M. Schott in June 2010.The appointment was announced by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States, in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 19. Bishop Skurla was born June 1, 1956 in Duluth, Minn., where he attended both public and...

The first reaction of visitors to my lovely parish church is generally one of bewilderment, as they anoint themselves with air after reaching out for a holy water font inside the door and coming up empty. No statues, either. No stations of the cross. No confessionals or Rosary group either, for that matter. The first question visitors usually ask is, “Is this a Catholic Church?” Why, yes, it is. But not in the way most Catholics would expect. A young man in my parish once summed up the prevailing assumption when he told me that he hadn’t been able to...

For more than two decades, Houston has been home to a large pair of restored 13th-century Byzantine frescoes that Menil Collection founder Dominique de Menil purchased from art thieves in 1984. Now the Menil is working to return them to their rightful owner, the Holy Archbishopric of Cyprus. While that seemingly recalls recent decisions by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and others to return priceless artworks that improperly left their countries of origin, there's a difference: Neither de Menil nor the museum she founded ever claimed to own the frescoes.... READ ENTIRE ARTICLE AT SOURCE LINK

Even before its full picture would become clear, this morning in Ukraine's capital promised to make for a striking scene, as a living head of global Catholicism's largest self-governing Eastern fold watched the reins pass to his successor for the first time in centuries. Given the Synod's choice of its youngest member to lead the 6 million-member church, however, the moment became all the more one for the books. Like their Orthodox counterparts, the rank of a Greek-Catholic hierarch is distinguishable by the number of bars that adorn the base of their ormophrion -- the stole worn atop their...

Jesuit Father Robert Taft holds a rare book in the library of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. (CNS/Paul Haring) By Carol GlatzCatholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Pontifical Oriental Institute has the best general collection in the world on Eastern Christianity. It boasts some 184,000 volumes, including rare and precious imprints and manuscripts, documenting centuries of Eastern Christian culture in a multitude of languages. But the library's oldest and most valuable collections are in a serious state of degradation, including an extremely rare 1581 edition of the Ostrog Bible -- the first complete Bible printed in...

The current Byzantine Liturgy and the Roman usus antiquior have a point of unity in their respective observances of Pre-Lent. In Constantinople, in either the sixth or seventh century, a week of Pre-Lent developed gradually, and was commonly called “The Week without Meat”. It is likely that this is in imitation of the Church in Palestine, which calculated Lent in forty days, Monday through Friday, over eight weeks. Byzantines did not need the extra days, since they counted the forty days continuously. So the compromise to the eight weeks of Palestine was to add a week of gradual fasting prior...

Israeli archaeologists presented a newly uncovered 1,500-year-old church in the Judean hills on Wednesday, including an unusually well-preserved mosaic floor with images of lions, foxes, fish and peacocks...

Patriarch Bartholomaios I hopes for the re-opening of the Seminary of Chalki by 2011 -- 15 Diaspora-Metropolitans of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, including Metropolitan Staikos of Austria, have Turkish citizenship. Constantinople (kath.net/KAP) Bartholomaios I, Greek-Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, sees signs for an improvement of the situation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey. In an interview with "Kathpress" on Monday afternoon in the Phanar in Istanbul he said, it is very certain, that the Seminary in Chalki will be reopened in 2011. Bartholomew referred to the most recent address of the Turkish Vice Prime minister Bülent Arinc, who had explained in...

My hope is for the West to understand the threat that Islamic Sharia law poses to their democracy, their concept of equality under the law and their human rights values. The West should never allow Sharia to be practiced in Western democracies... The term “moderate Muslim” was created in the West. In the Muslim world there is nothing called moderate or radical Muslims or moderate or radical mosques. You are either a Muslim or not. .. Islamic Law has slammed shut every door and window; any reform of Islam is punishable by death... Islam has been aggressively expanding in the...

Mr Matthew Alderman, the Sacred Architecture correspondent on The New Liturgical Movement reported the existence of a film clip of a Byzantine Liturgy in Liverpool. This little clip, which has been put up by "British Pathe" (who have very kindly given us permission to link to their site) is none other than footage of the Pontifical Greek Catholic Divine Liturgy served by the Blessed Redemptorist Hieromartyr Nicholas Charnetsky (click this link to the page). Only a few seconds long it is none-the-less a precious find. There are also a number of still shots of the Liturgy provided on the same...

Since the late 11th century, Western merchants, primarily from the Italian city-states of Venice, Genoa and Pisa, had started appearing in the East. The first had been the Venetians, who had secured large-scale trading concessions from Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Subsequent extensions of these privileges and Byzantium's own naval impotence at the time resulted in a virtual maritime monopoly and stranglehold over the Empire by the Venetians.[3] Alexios' grandson, Manuel I Komnenos, wishing to reduce their influence, began to reduce the privileges of Venice while concluding agreements with her rivals: Pisa, Genoa and Amalfi.[4] Gradually, all four Italian cities...

Given Russia's reputation for excessive bureaucracy, it's only right that a company would exist to help businesspeople to set up, find the right translators, and also provide the right legal guidance to navigate the Byzantine direction of Russia's business bureaucracy. Center of Economic Planning consists of a professional team of skilled translators, auditors and IT specialists who will also not just help foreign businesses, but also help native Russians build their businesses.

Editor's note: For most of the past ten years my family and I have attended Nativity of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church in Springfield, Oregon, pastored by Fr. Richard Janowicz. This past Sunday, Palm Sunday, Fr. Richard gave the homily below; I asked him if I could republish it on Ignatius Insight. He graciously agreed. One note of explanation for those who might not be familiar with Holy Week liturgies in the Byzantine rites: on Good Friday, a burial shroud with an image of the crucified Christ is venerated by the faithful, and carried in procession. (See,...

Featured Term (selected at random):HYPAPANTE The feast of the Purification in the Byzantine Rite. The name comes from the meeting (hypapante) of the Christ Child and his Mother with the holy Simeon and Anna in the Temple. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Sees Byzantine church a “perfect marriage” of Eastern traditions and unity with pope By PATRICIA COLL FREEMANCatholicanchor.orgA former Lutheran pastor from Northern Michigan now heads St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church in Anchorage.On Oct. 31, Father James Barrand, 52, succeeded just-retired pastor Father Mike Hornick at the little, dome-topped church, where an ancient Catholic liturgy is celebrated everyday. Father Barrand is quick to explain that he got to the icon and incense-filled church with the help of ancient guides — the Early Church Fathers — who chanted the same Divine Praises in the first centuries of the church as...

In the various Christian traditions Marian doctrine and devotion take shape in manifold and diverse ways. Since the Second Vatican Council the Church has striven to promote a new and more careful study of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the mystery of Christ and of the Church; to encourage theological faculties in the pursuit of knowledge, research, and piety with regard to Mary of Nazareth. The Mother of the Lord is understood as a "datum of revelation" and a "maternal presence" always operative in the life of the Church. [1] The history of theological reflection witnesses...

In my homilies to you over the years, I’ve often spoke of our Catholic Faith, and sometimes of our Byzantine Tradition; but I have rarely spoken of the particular Church to which we belong, and of it’s history in Eastern Europe. Our Metropolitan Church is located entirely in the United States; and, the further you travel outside of Pennsylvania, the less you see of any ethnic identity among the members of our parishes; but, as you know, the ancestors of our Church’s original members came from an Orthodox Church which came into union with Rome in 1646 at the Union...

Syria: 5th century skeleton found in Byzantine cathedral Edited by Maha Karim Saturday, 15 August 2009 13:23 A cathedral with a skeleton remains in it, dating back to the Byzantine era, was unearthed by the Syrian excavation team in Tal Al-Hasaka site, north eastern Syria. The cathedral ,which dates back to the Early Christianity Era, is 18 meters long, and includes a four meter wide northern hall, a 6.5 meter wide middle hall and a three meter wide southern hall, Al-Hasaka Archeology Director Abdul-Maseeh Baghdo said in a press release on Saturday. It also includes two column bases, and the...

...Many Catholic families whose faith and lives I greatly admire have started attending Latin or Byzantine liturgies....I had some initial reluctance over attending these “throw back” liturgies with them, but I eventually accepted their invitations. What I experienced at these parishes was truly life changing to me! After participating in the liturgies I walked away with the same reaction from both. I was filled with a sort of holy awe and struggled to come to grips with what I was feeling. I had just worshipped the Almighty Triune God. I realized that up until participating in those liturgies, I had...