Christians and Gold

Place Of Worship

The St. Joseph The Betrothed

The famous St. Joseph The Betrothed which is an Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Chicago, Illinois. Its thirteen gold domed roof is symbolizing the twelve apostles with the largest center dome symbolizing Jesus Christ. The interior of the church is completely adorned with byzantine style icons (frescoes). Unfortunately the iconographer was deported back to his homeland before he was able to write the names of all the saints as prescribed by iconographic traditions.

St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery  is a functioning monastery in Kiev, Ukraine. The monastery is located on the Western side of the Dnieper River on the edge of a bluff northeast of the St. Sophia Cathedral.

This monastery has a long story, but a history that related with its golden dome is occured during the spring of 1935. It is time  when the golden domes of the monastery were pulled down. The cathedral’s silver royal gates, Mazepa’s reliquary (weighing two poods of silver) and other valuables were sold abroad or simply destroyed.

The newly rebuilt St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral was officially opened on May 30, 1999. However, interior decorations, mosaics, and frescoes were not completed until May 28, 2000. During the following four years, 18 out of 29 mosaics and other objets d’art from the original cathedral were returned from Moscow after years of tedious discussion between Ukrainian and Russian authorities. However, by the end of 2006, the remaining frescoes of the monastery are going to be transferred from the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg to Kiev. They are placed in a special preserve that is owned by the municipality rather than the church body.

(Sorry for this page  is still under construction, but it is still worth to read this  beta page, I hope I can update it as soon as possible…)