500 year-old monstrance to be used at 2011 World Youth Day

cna ^ | July 13, 2010

[Tax-chick]

Sometimes the verbal faculties just stall out.

[Biggirl]

It is truly a work of art.

[NYer]

Wow, it’s really big.

A monstrance of that size deserves a comparable thurible. Perhaps they will bring in this one.

[Tax-chick]

Heh, good idea!

[Cronos]

You can’t blame Jim. Unfortunately, many outside The Church see one thing in English and make incorrect assumptions. Like the oft-bandied about “call no man father” — yet, here in Poland we call priests ksiadz, not father and that doesn’t mean “father”. The world’s language is not English and, for all it’s current day glory, it is still a very new language and inadequate in some cases to explain theology written in Koine Greek and Hebrew and Latin

[Jim W N]

All this notwithstanding, I still find it hard to believe that “monstrance” and “monster” don’t share the same root.

[Pyro7480]

I didn’t know you were in Poland. My maternal grandmother was Polish. She emigrated here to the U.S. almost 100 years ago in 1914 as a little girl. Her baby brother died in my father’s home country of the Philippines during World War II as a prisoner of war of the Japanese Empire.

[Cronos]

Well, I'm now in Poland and most likely going to be here for good. I'm from Delaware, but haven't been there in ages -- lived in Bahrain, Belgium, the UK and some time in India and Hong Kong, for the past decade or so and now married to a lovely Polką. I really love this country -- it's Catholic to the bone, like Goa or Bandra in India, Flemish Belgium, parts of Italy. Where you can FEEL the genuine friendliness in the people.

And you have to come visit Poland -- you can feel the history in the air over here.

[Pyro7480]

LOL! I was born and raised in Delaware as well.

[Cronos]

hmm.... well, etymologically, there is a marvellous site (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=monster&searchmode=none) --> which says that

c.1300, "malformed animal, creature afflicted with a birth defect," from O.Fr. monstre, from L. monstrum "monster, monstrosity, omen, portent, sign," from root of monere "warn" (see monitor). Abnormal or prodigious animals were regarded as signs or omens of impending evil. Extended by late 14c. to imaginary animals composed of parts of creatures (centaur, griffin, etc.). Meaning "animal of vast size" is from 1520s; sense of "person of inhuman cruelty or wickedness" is from 1550s. In O.E., the monster Grendel was an aglæca, a word related to aglæc "calamity, terror, distress, oppression."

while monstrance

from L. re-, intensive prefix, + monstrare "to show"

So monstrance derives from monstrare, while monster derives from moner.

It is an honest error but I'm glad you brought it up -- I learnt about it too :)

[Jim W N]

I learn a lot on this site.

I still think this monstrance looks like some kind of monstrosity.