Here's some more "Jєωιѕн understanding" about PAGAN POLYTHEITSIC JUDAISM for the Judaizer: https://archive.md/Iu1B6
(https://m3.gab.com/media_attachments/b1/af/b6/b1afb649740c3211c97b001af4333d3a.png)
sun worship, Birkat ha-Hammah (https://archive.md/o/Iu1B6/mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-pagan-judaism-birkat-ha-hammah.html)
Sun worship persists even though Ezechiel 8:16-18 (https://archive.md/o/Iu1B6/www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=31&ch=8&l=16%23x) specifically damns it as an abomination in the eyes of God):
“And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord: and behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men having their backs towards the temple of the Lord, and their faces to the east: and they adored towards the rising of the sun. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man: is this a light thing to the house of Juda, that they should commit these abominations which they have committed here: because they have filled the land with iniquity, and have turned to provoke me to anger? and behold they put a branch to their nose. Therefore I also will deal with them in my wrath: my eye shall not spare them, neither will I shew mercy: and when they shall cry to my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
Ezechiel 8:16-18 (https://archive.md/o/Iu1B6/www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=31&ch=8&l=16%23x)
“The religion of the god Baal was widely accepted among the ancient Jєωs, and although it was put down at times, it was never permanently stamped out. Kings and other royalty of the ten Biblical tribes worshiped the god. The ordinary people ardently worshiped this sun god too because their prosperity depended on the productivity of their crops and livestock. The god’s images were erected on many buildings. Within the religion there appeared to be numerous priests and various classes of devotees. During the ceremonies they wore appropriate robes. The ceremonies included burning incense, and offering burnt sacrifices, occasionally consisting of human victims. The officiating priests danced around the altars, chanting frantically and cutting themselves with knives to inspire the attention and compassion of the god.”
Entry for “Baal,” Encyclopedia Mythica (https://archive.md/o/Iu1B6/www.pantheon.org/articles/b/baal.html)
(https://archive.md/Iu1B6/43fda3e3c38264048daedf0eb3fb8dc584b21125.png)
moon worship, kiddush levanah (https://archive.md/o/Iu1B6/mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/02/blessing-of-moon.html)
Exodus 12:3 simply reads, “This month shall be to you the beginning of months…,” a simple designation of the date of the new year. The rabbis have perverted the simple ordering of dates into a Kabbalistic ceremony conjuring their goddess Shekinah.
(https://archive.md/Iu1B6/0f09c5afc3131f71c086b380017799e36513a4c1.jpg)
for the Bennyvacantist Judaizer…
https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/https://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/12/benedicts-magick-hat.html
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Benedict's Magick Zionist Crusader Hat (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/12/benedicts-magick-hat.html)
Updated with comments, Dec. 6.
(https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057im_/http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T8t5gwy9dIw/Sxn6dmad55I/AAAAAAAAAVI/zfju8a-G4Ww/s400/Benedict+hexagram+miter.jpg) (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T8t5gwy9dIw/Sxn6dmad55I/AAAAAAAAAVI/zfju8a-G4Ww/s1600-h/Benedict+hexagram+miter.jpg)
Benedict XVI at a canonization ceremony (of five) in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009 (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://www.newsahead.com/preview/2009/10/11/vatican-11-oct-2009-pope-benedict-xvi-proclaims-sainthood-for-five-europeans/index.php) wearing a hexagram mitre
(https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057im_/http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8t5gwy9dIw/Sxn7kcNzGHI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/_cjTyh3YMQQ/s400/Benedict+hexagram+miter_02.jpg) (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8t5gwy9dIw/Sxn7kcNzGHI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/_cjTyh3YMQQ/s1600-h/Benedict+hexagram+miter_02.jpg)
... with 11 stones on each side. Note the Templar crosses.
Credit to http://sedevacante-pax.blogspot.com/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://sedevacante-pax.blogspot.com/) for this find.
Original photo sources:
http://www.daylife.com/photo/0fT6gzRefX2vT (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://www.daylife.com/photo/0fT6gzRefX2vT)
http://www.catholicpressphoto.com/servizi/2009-10-11%20canonizzazione/page4.htm (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://www.catholicpressphoto.com/servizi/2009-10-11 canonizzazione/page4.htm)
At a canonization of five saints, Oct, 11, 2009, Benedict wore a mitre bearing large hexagrams and 11 stones on each side. Since the 16th century the hexagram 11, and 22 are highly significant in Lurianic Kabbalah. They have no strong significance in Catholicism that I am aware of. Also, his pallium has 6 Templar crosses on it.
This taken by itself is interesting to me at most. If Benedict was an orthodox pope I might overlook this suspicious almalgam of symbols. But let's look at Benedict's fruits.
On his watch, the rightly blackened legacy of the Templars--a violent group of Zionist international bankers with occult religious practices--was rehabilitated HERE (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/10/occultists-to-absolve-themselves.html) and HERE. (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21267691/?GT1=10450)
Benedict was the major player in the rehabilitation of the rightly blackened image of the Zionist state shortly after its despicable 22 day-long rampage on Gaza HERE, (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/05/benedicts-peace-pilgrimage-hasbara.html) HERE, (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/05/will-benedicts-pilgrimage-boost-israels.html) HERE. (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/05/benedict-praises-noahide-law-commission.html)
Benedict is, I think it's fair to say, a compulsive proponent of so-called 'dialogue,' a Kabbalistic kind of sorcery utterly foreign to Catholicism also promoted by Kabbalists such as Rabbi Abraham Heschel and Martin Buber. Benedict has gone so far as to make 'dialogue' with 'the elder brothers' a religious mandate HERE (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2008/11/dialogue-with-people-of-тαℓмυd-sacred.html).
His acts of approval of Kabbalist rabbis and their traditions are too many to list. He even gave a text written by the Kabbalist Jacob ben Asher the "Ba'al ha-Turim" (Master of the Pillars) as a gift during his NYC Passover Eve ѕуηαgσgυє visit HERE (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2008/04/observations-on-benedict-xvis-passover.html).
These and the many, many other rotten fruits of Benedict XVI are far more troubling to me than some symbols on his vestments. But the fact that he does these things and also displays the relevant symbols is rather brazen in my opinion. He's apparently attempting to sanctify these symbols by placing them in such a prominent place as a papal mitre during a canonization liturgy.
Also see:
Occultists to Absolve Themselves (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/10/occultists-to-absolve-themselves.html)
Benedict's Hasbara Mission (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/05/benedicts-peace-pilgrimage-hasbara.html)
Will Benedict's Pilgrimage Boost "Israel's" Image or Destroy His Own? (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/05/will-benedicts-pilgrimage-boost-israels.html)
Pope's Speech to American Zionist Leaders, Feb. 12 (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://revisionistreview.blogspot.com/2009/02/popes-speech-to-american-zionist.html)
Benedict Praises "Noahide Law" Commission (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/05/benedict-praises-noahide-law-commission.html)
Benedict's Zionist Easter "Convert" Attempts Resuscitation of "Islamofascist Threat" for U.S. Presidential Election (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2008/10/benedicts-kosher-convert-resuscitate.html)
Pope Benedict and Synod Rabbi: Like Yin and Yang (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2008/10/pope-benedicts-synod-rabbi-friend-of.html)
Scalia "Traditionalism" (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/12/scalia-traditionalism.html)
Posted by Maurice Pinay at 1:14 AM (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2009/12/benedicts-magick-hat.html) (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057im_/http://www.blogger.com/img/icon18_email.gif) (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212083057/http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=6261184205457999912&postID=6578557310319081031)
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Why abortions rose after Roe was overturned -
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortions-rose-roe-overturned-why-rcna181094
Like I said, I've read all this before and I know your a snake... I call both yours and their bluff, both of you are short sighted, which is good... drink thy own poison.
"Our Lady of Victory, Ark of the New Covenant, Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate, Pray for us."
What? no God Bless me false piety?.
Here's what I said:
As if your denial of realities, (1) what Fr. MacFarland correctly taught in his sermon and (2) my doing my Catholic duty, makes me "stupid and short-sighted" and now also "missing the forest for the trees."
No. A few of us have accused Trump of being 94% pro-abortion. Tragically Arizona passed the abortion right amendment, so "another domino fell." The USA is moving towards the 94% abortion that your idol Trump wants… As some have noted, a few states prohibit abortion. So, the location of abortions changed and you celebrate that. Meanwhile, as Fr. MacFarland explicitly stated in his sermons, both the total number of surgical and chemical abortions [by telemedicine prescription] have INCREASED since the Dobbs decision.… and you feign that you see "the forest."
You are plum nuts. Take your lithium and stop spreading poison in the flock.
You stated :
Why abortions rose after Roe was overturned -
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortions-rose-roe-overturned-why-rcna181094
Like I said, I've read all this before and I know your a snake... I call both yours and their bluff, both of you are short sighted, which is good... drink thy own poison.
"Our Lady of Victory, Ark of the New Covenant, Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate, Pray for us."
You, the Judaizer, offered Jєωιѕн-run NBC news as your source. Your Jєωιѕн source offered the Gutmacher Institute, NBC's "got to" pro-abortion Jєωιѕн lobby who stated this:
Abortions went up last year and the country’s fertility rate hit a historic low.
More than 1 million abortions were recorded in the United States in 2023 — the highest in a decade, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion access. …Much of the story, it turns out, comes down to a small network of medical providers who found ways to prescribe and ship abortion pills around the country from places where they’re still legal.
That was only possible because of significant action taken by the Food and Drug Administration during the pandemic, which allowed the pills to be dispensed via telemedicine. Then, in the wake of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eight states passed laws that protected providers from being sued for prescribing abortion pills virtually to people from other states.
“The obstacles are actually lower than before Dobbs,” said Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, the Dutch physician who founded Aid Access, an organization that mails abortion medications to individuals who request them. “For people that didn’t have the financial resources or the infrastructure, the logistical structures in place to go to a clinic … I think the landscape now is much better.”
So, your Jєωιѕн source quotes another Jєωιѕн source and the internationally infamous Jєωιѕн abortionist Gompoerts.
Who is Gomperts? She is the doctor who bought a ship, outfitted it for abortion, and anchored just outside the legal jurisdiction of anti-abortion nations. She then shuttled pregnant women onto her ship to have their babies killed. She especially targeted Irish and Polish Catholic babies for murder.
In 2021 [more recent archive versions have already been scrubbed from the (((Wayback Machine)))] here is what my Abortion is from the Jєωs page said about Gomperts: https://tinyurl.com/45ybfwjh
(https://archive.is/5iYjI/64fabc537fff38488ad306ebe7f5b0bf3e187177.jpg)
April 29, 2016, Another Jєωιѕн monster specializes in murdering goyische children, especially Catholic children, using off-shore abortion ships and internet-ordered pills. [Emphasis added]
Abortion in Europe: Dr. Rebecca Gomperts Takes Entrepreneurial Approach by Cassandra Vinograd
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-abortion-fight/abortion-europe-dr-rebecca-gomperts-takes-entrepreneurial-approach-n559881 (https://archive.is/o/5iYjI/www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-abortion-fight/abortion-europe-dr-rebecca-gomperts-takes-entrepreneurial-approach-n559881)
So, you, the Judaizer, have relied upon multiple Jєωιѕн sources who state that the increase in post-Dobbs abortions is due to —wait for it— location of abortions changed… exactly as I said and exactly as you denied.
Like I said, I've read all this before and I know your a snake... I call both yours and their bluff, both of you are short sighted, which is good... drink thy own poison.
So you've "read all this before" and you knowingly denied exactly what I stated, that abortions rose because "Trump's" Dobbs decision merely shifted the location of abortions to abortion-boosting states (by telemedicine)…
…and while lying you dropped and revealed your pose of false piety to insult me ("snake" "short-sighted" "stupid") and leave off your deviously insincere "God Bless you" misdirection.
So:
Exactly as I said… "Trump's" Dobbs decision (1) increased abortion by shifting the location of abortions to the states and (2) made the states untouchable by federal law into the foreseeable future.
You celebrated Dobbs. You idolized Trump.
and
You read the article and knowingly lied about what your own Jєωιѕн sources revealed.
You valued Truth less than honesty, less than protecting your idol Trump, and less than preserving your self-vaunted image of rectitude and piety.
Let's add all this to your indictment.
You are a lying contumacious Judaizing heretic, defiantly ignorant, a slanderous calumniator, and a pesty troll in a manic phase of bipolar disorder who weaponizes false piety.
Read Abortion is from the Jєωs: https://tinyurl.com/45ybfwjh and learn more about your spiritual advisers and their "Jєωιѕн understanding" of murdering our babies.
No. Precisely because it's not false piety... [Josh's usual word salad evasions]
Your word salad addresses none of the evidence against you.
Quote from: josh987654321 on Today at 01:04:01 AM (https://www.cathinfo.com/politics-and-world-leaders/australia-is-f****d/msg965086/#msg965086)
Why abortions rose after Roe was overturned -
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortions-rose-roe-overturned-why-rcna181094 (https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortions-rose-roe-overturned-why-rcna181094)
Like I said, I've read all this before and I know your a snake... I call both yours and their bluff, both of you are short sighted, which is good... drink thy own poison.
"Our Lady of Victory, Ark of the New Covenant, Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate, Pray for us."
What? no God Bless me false piety?.
Here's what I said:
Quote from: Mark 79 on Yesterday at 12:58:03 AM (https://www.cathinfo.com/politics-and-world-leaders/australia-is-f****d/msg964977/#msg964977)
As if your denial of realities, (1) what Fr. MacFarland correctly taught in his sermon and (2) my doing my Catholic duty, makes me "stupid and short-sighted" and now also "missing the forest for the trees."
No. A few of us have accused Trump of being 94% pro-abortion. Tragically Arizona passed the abortion right amendment, so "another domino fell." The USA is moving towards the 94% abortion that your idol Trump wants… As some have noted, a few states prohibit abortion. So, the location of abortions changed and you celebrate that. Meanwhile, as Fr. MacFarland explicitly stated in his sermons, both the total number of surgical and chemical abortions [by telemedicine prescription] have INCREASED since the Dobbs decision.… and you feign that you see "the forest."
You are plum nuts. Take your lithium and stop spreading poison in the flock.
You stated :
Quote from: josh987654321 on Today at 01:04:01 AM (https://www.cathinfo.com/politics-and-world-leaders/australia-is-f****d/msg965086/#msg965086)
Why abortions rose after Roe was overturned -
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortions-rose-roe-overturned-why-rcna181094 (https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/abortions-rose-roe-overturned-why-rcna181094)
Like I said, I've read all this before and I know your a snake... I call both yours and their bluff, both of you are short sighted, which is good... drink thy own poison.
"Our Lady of Victory, Ark of the New Covenant, Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate, Pray for us."
You, the Judaizer, offered Jєωιѕн-run NBC news as your source. Your Jєωιѕн source offered the Gutmacher Institute, NBC's "got to" pro-abortion Jєωιѕн lobby who stated this:
Quote
Abortions went up last year and the country’s fertility rate hit a historic low.
More than 1 million abortions were recorded in the United States in 2023 — the highest in a decade, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion access. …Much of the story, it turns out, comes down to a small network of medical providers who found ways to prescribe and ship abortion pills around the country from places where they’re still legal.
That was only possible because of significant action taken by the Food and Drug Administration during the pandemic, which allowed the pills to be dispensed via telemedicine. Then, in the wake of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eight states passed laws that protected providers from being sued for prescribing abortion pills virtually to people from other states.
“The obstacles are actually lower than before Dobbs,” said Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, the Dutch physician who founded Aid Access, an organization that mails abortion medications to individuals who request them. “For people that didn’t have the financial resources or the infrastructure, the logistical structures in place to go to a clinic … I think the landscape now is much better.”
So, your Jєωιѕн source quotes another Jєωιѕн source and the internationally infamous Jєωιѕн abortionist Gompoerts.
Who is Gomperts? She is the doctor who bought a ship, outfitted it for abortion, and anchored just outside the legal jurisdiction of anti-abortion nations. She then shuttled pregnant women onto her ship to have their babies killed. She especially targeted Irish and Polish Catholic babies for murder.
In 2021 [more recent archive versions have already been scrubbed from the (((Wayback Machine)))] here is what my Abortion is from the Jєωs page said about Gomperts: https://tinyurl.com/45ybfwjh (https://tinyurl.com/45ybfwjh)
Quote
(https://archive.is/5iYjI/64fabc537fff38488ad306ebe7f5b0bf3e187177.jpg)
April 29, 2016, Another Jєωιѕн monster specializes in murdering goyische children, especially Catholic children, using off-shore abortion ships and internet-ordered pills. [Emphasis added]
Abortion in Europe: Dr. Rebecca Gomperts Takes Entrepreneurial Approach by Cassandra Vinograd
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-abortion-fight/abortion-europe-dr-rebecca-gomperts-takes-entrepreneurial-approach-n559881 (https://archive.is/o/5iYjI/www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-abortion-fight/abortion-europe-dr-rebecca-gomperts-takes-entrepreneurial-approach-n559881)
So, you, the Judaizer, have relied upon multiple Jєωιѕн sources who state that the increase in post-Dobbs abortions is due to —wait for it— location of abortions changed… exactly as I said and exactly as you denied.
Quote from: josh987654321 on Today at 01:04:01 AM (https://www.cathinfo.com/politics-and-world-leaders/australia-is-f****d/msg965086/#msg965086)
Like I said, I've read all this before and I know your a snake... I call both yours and their bluff, both of you are short sighted, which is good... drink thy own poison.
So you've "read all this before" and you knowingly denied exactly what I stated, that abortions rose because "Trump's" Dobbs decision merely shifted the location of abortions to abortion-boosting states (by telemedicine)…
…and while lying you dropped and revealed your pose of false piety to insult me ("snake" "short-sighted" "stupid") and leave off your deviously insincere "God Bless you" misdirection.
So:
Exactly as I said… "Trump's" Dobbs decision (1) increased abortion by shifting the location of abortions to the states and (2) made the states untouchable by federal law into the foreseeable future.
You celebrated Dobbs. You idolized Trump.
and
You read the article and knowingly lied about what your own Jєωιѕн sources revealed.
You valued Truth less than honesty, less than protecting your idol Trump, and less than preserving your self-vaunted image of rectitude and piety.
Let's add all this to your indictment.
You are a lying contumacious Judaizing heretic, defiantly ignorant, a slanderous calumniator, and a pesty troll in a manic phase of bipolar disorder who weaponizes false piety.
Read Abortion is from the Jєωs: https://tinyurl.com/45ybfwjh (https://tinyurl.com/45ybfwjh) and learn more about your spiritual advisers and their "Jєωιѕн understanding" of murdering our babies.
http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2020/05/is-there-secret-Jєωιѕн-story-behind.html
Link doesn't work, but I found it on that site. I haven't read it yet, but here is the full text:
Is there a secret Jєωιѕн story
behind the Star of David in
Santa Croce in Florence?
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9WgxgAqQft_14_4M4eLsRmcyK2tvZohSsvLne78VobkelIaJN4NnVw5gYejmH38CFQ5ZD4JDgpuKRpm4-_H-69e5Wq2Q3ETVKMabhgpf0sNX6e_fBCD1RQIFgOn-gUfkBijKeb7jwbI/s400/Matas+Star+of+David%252C+Patrick+Comerford%252C+Florence%252C+2012.JPG) (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9WgxgAqQft_14_4M4eLsRmcyK2tvZohSsvLne78VobkelIaJN4NnVw5gYejmH38CFQ5ZD4JDgpuKRpm4-_H-69e5Wq2Q3ETVKMabhgpf0sNX6e_fBCD1RQIFgOn-gUfkBijKeb7jwbI/s1600/Matas+Star+of+David%2C+Patrick+Comerford%2C+Florence%2C+2012.JPG)
The Star of David at the top of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence … was this a symbol of the Jєωιѕн faith of the architect Niccolò Matas? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence was one of a dozen or more churches in my ‘virtual tour’ of Florence (https://www.patrickcomerford.com/2020/05/a-lockdown-virtual-tour-of-dozen_12.html) last night.
The Basilica, just 800 metres from the Duomo, is the burial place of many Florentines, including Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo and Rossini. Because of this, it is often known as the Tempio dell’Itale Glorie, the Temple of the Italian Glories. Dante was exiled from Florence and buried in Ravenna, but his statue stands in the wide, open square, in front of the basilica.
Although the basilica dates from 1294 and was consecrated in 1444, its façade remained unfinished for more than three centuries, and the polychrome, marble Gothic façade dates from 1857-1863.
It is said in Florence that the architect, Niccolò Matas (1798-1872) from Ancona, was Jєωιѕн and that this explains why he worked the prominent Star of David into his composition when he designed the facade.
The stories go on to say that Matas wanted to be buried with his peers but, because he was Jєωιѕн, he was buried outside the main door of the basilica, under the threshold.
I have already written earlier this year [30 January 2020 (http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2020/01/the-lost-sephardic-legacy-of-mediaeval.html)] about a similar story about the Star of David in in the north transept of Valencia Cathedral, and asked whether it was a symbol of Valencia’s lost Sephardic legacy.
Legends in Valencia say that Star of David was the work of anonymous Jєωιѕн craftsmen or that window was paid for partly by local Jєωιѕн merchants. However, the Menorahwas a more usual mediaeval symbol of Judaism and many mediaeval cathedrals and churches display the star, including the west wall of the Church of San Nicolas in Valencia, and churches or cathedrals in Burgos, Anagni Aquileia, Orvieto, Brandenburg, Stendal and Hanover.
When Santa Croce in Florence was recognised as the Pantheon of Great Italians in the 19th century, attention turned towards completing the building, and the first stone of the façade was laid in 1857 the presence of Pope Pius IX.
The façade was inaugurated on 3 May 1863, and its decoration was completed in 1865, in time for the commemorations marking the sixth centenary of Dante’s birth in Florence. That year, Dante’s statue was unveiled in the square facing the basilica.
The architect of the neo-Gothic façade of Santa Croce, Niccolò Matas, was inspired in his design by a long-lost work by the 15th century Florentine architect Simone del Pollaiolo, known as ‘il Cronaca.’
The very visible Star of David on the façade, the mosaic artwork, and the position of Matas’s tomb outside of the church at the threshold of the entrance has led to suggestions that this was due to the architect’s Jєωιѕн family background.
However, the star is also found in Catholic symbolism, and there is a Chi-Rho symbol or Christogram (☧) inside the star. There is another Ch-Rho symbol (☧) on his memorial monument, flanked by the Greek letters Α (Alpha) and Ω (Omega), a reference to Christ in the Book of Revelation (see Revelation 1: 8, 21: 6, and 22: 13).
In addition, the wording of the inscription indicates that Matas intended the façade to be his own, extraordinary funeral monument.
So, who was Niccolò Matas? And, did he have a Jєωιѕн background?
Niccolò Matas, also known as Nicolò or Nicola Matas, was born in Ancona on 6 December 1798 into the large Jєωιѕн community in Ancona and a family of Spanish descent.
The Jєωιѕн community of Ancona is one of the oldest and most significant Jєωιѕн communities in Italy. The presence of Jews is first recorded in Ancona in the 10th century, and in the centuries that followed the community grew because of the importance of the port and commercial links with the Levant. When Jєωιѕн refugees from the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal began to settle in Ancona, they changed the composition of the Jєωιѕн community in the town. Most of these fugitives came from Sicily and later from Naples and Portugal.
Niccolò Matas was born into this community and from an early age showed artistic talent. The Municipality of Ancona decided to finance his studies. He first studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and later at the academies of Venice and Vicenza. During those formative years he came into contact with Antonio Canova and Leopoldo Cicognara.
He moved to Florence in 1825, when he was appointed a teacher in the Florence Academy of Fine Arts. A year later, he oversaw the restoration of the Bartolini Baldelli Palace in Florence (1826).
Throughout 1835, Matas was back in Ancona, where he was in charge of designing the decorations of the Teatro delle Muse, the hotel in Piazza Roma and the Bagni Dorico, the first bathing facility in his home town. His design for the Bagni Dorico was a regular octagonal plan, supported on stilts in the sea and inspired by the nearby Lazzaretto, built by Luigi Vanvitelli on an artificial pentagonal island.
Matas supervised other restorations in Ancona, including the bell tower and the dome of the cathedral, for which he designed a new lantern.
But most of his work as an architect was in Florence, where his patron was the rich Russian-born industrialist, Prince Anatoly Demidoff (1813-1870).
Matas became one of the most important architects working in the neo-Gothic style in Tuscany, although he also worked in the classical style, influenced by Tuscan purism. His important commissions include the villa and the park of San Donato for Demidoff (1835), and the Napoleonic Museum (1851) built for Demidoff at the Villa of San Martino on the Island of Elba.
Matas also worked on several other buildings in Florence. He took part in the debate and competition in 1842 for designing the façade of the Duomo which, like Santa Croce, had not been completed. However, the competition was won by Emilio De Fabris. Matas also contributed to the design of the cemetery at San Miniato al Monte (1848-1859). However, the project that made Matas his name was his completion of the façade of Santa Croce.
Matas’s first two proposals for Santa Croce were neo-Gothic but, to harmonise the new facade with the nearby Pazzi Chapel, he developed a third proposal in 1854 that became the definitive design. Matas said that his design was inspired by ‘il Cronaca,’ who was commissioned to design the façade of the church in the 15th century.
The Florentine architect Simone del Pollaiolo (1457-1508), known as ‘il Cronaca’ or the ‘Chronicler,’ was the nephew of the architect brothers Antonio and Piero Benci. He earned his nickname because, at the age of 13, in order to learn more about architecture, he marched to Rome to see the ruins. On his return to Florence, he recorded meticulous, chronicle-like descriptions of his observations.
The façade of Santa Croce was designed by Matas and was built in 1854-1863 in the styles of 15th century Florentine Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Matas worked closely with the sculptor Giovanni Duprè.
His other works include the Dovizi Theatre in Bibbiena and an unrealised project for the restoration of the dome of the Basilica of Loreto (1863). He published many books and brochures, mainly on his own work, including the façade of Santa Croce in Florence and a survey of the cathedral on Ancona. Matas died in Florence on 11 March 1872.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7K7mY5T0VVod7wQXF4lxgqnEXAXOCqGVUsJDMdbobJr_NVlgvJBWdl4ARwEgTda6IG4F9fvneYlbyOS0ejc2Eyb9_UppkTDKXe6wpMDaFTqGcJKzN4-V9Rs7fxBS50ydPDeSYY_kRDHk/s400/Facciata_di_santa_croce%252C_tomba_di_niccol%25C3%25B2_matas%252C+Sailko+Wkipedia.jpg) (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7K7mY5T0VVod7wQXF4lxgqnEXAXOCqGVUsJDMdbobJr_NVlgvJBWdl4ARwEgTda6IG4F9fvneYlbyOS0ejc2Eyb9_UppkTDKXe6wpMDaFTqGcJKzN4-V9Rs7fxBS50ydPDeSYY_kRDHk/s1600/Facciata_di_santa_croce%2C_tomba_di_niccol%C3%B2_matas%2C+Sailko+Wkipedia.jpg)
The inscription commemorating Niccolò Matas on the steps in front of the façade of Santa Croce in 1886 (Photograph: Sailko/Wikipedia)
In 1886, 14 years after his death, Matas was buried below the entrance threshold of the Basilica of Santa Croce. The Italian Parliament decided on this honour for the architect who had shaped the façade of what is considered the pantheon of the Italian greats.
The plaque reads:
Niccolò Matas di Ancona
giudicato degno dal Parlamento nαzιonale
di riposare tra gli Altri Grandi
in ossequio ai desideri
l’undici Marzo MDCCCLXXII
da lui manifestati morendo
qui nel MDCCCLXXXVI fu deposto
perché la facciata di questo tempio
fosse monumento dell’artefice
Niccolò Matas of Ancona
judged worthy by the National Parliament
to rest among the other Great Ones,
in respect of wishes expressed on
11 March 1872
as he lay dying.
He was buried here in 1886,
where the façade of this church
is the monument to the artist
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1B5ooTPNZCgeSnGGYVhB-Q862Z56PB9IitDmrmXWA9NWj4LafMqTB1VuL2iyRN0hQAkA7KJ7c6_jnWRpR0I2WhKz-115esTY9QSCSrJjT_GZaphRVJo94EL874-pWNs1ctpwcJxxJs9c/s400/4%252C+Santa+Croce%252C+Florence%252C+Patrick+Comerford%252C+2012.JPG) (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1B5ooTPNZCgeSnGGYVhB-Q862Z56PB9IitDmrmXWA9NWj4LafMqTB1VuL2iyRN0hQAkA7KJ7c6_jnWRpR0I2WhKz-115esTY9QSCSrJjT_GZaphRVJo94EL874-pWNs1ctpwcJxxJs9c/s1600/4%2C+Santa+Croce%2C+Florence%2C+Patrick+Comerford%2C+2012.JPG)
The façade of Santa Croce, completed by Niccolò Matas in 1854-1863 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Although the Star of David that is such a prominent feature on the façade is said to be a tacit homage to his Jєωιѕн religion, this is not docuмented. On the othjer hand, it shuld be noticed that the use of the Chi-Rho sybol on his epitaph could not possibly have been his choice.
According to Yohanna-Miriam Pick Margioles – a local historian and a niece of Samuel Hirsch Margioles (1858-1922), Chief Rabbi of Florence (1890-1922), when Matas’s design was accepted – no-one questioned the design, the six-pointed star was seen as a symbol of Christ, and no-one noticed that in his contract Matas specified that he would not work on Saturdays.
It is said his Jєωιѕн background did not become known until after the contract was signed.
However, in their Guida all’Italia Ebraica (‘Guide to Jєωιѕн Italy’), Annie Sacerdoti and Luca Fiorentino repeat this story: ‘The work was entrusted to the architect Nicolò Matas, a Jew from Ancona who incorporated the large star as an element of the decoration. No one paid any attention to the architect’s Jєωιѕн origins, even after he specified in his contract that he would not work on Saturdays. When he died, he put the Jєωιѕн community and the Franciscans in a difficult position by stating in his will his wish to be buried in the basilica. A compromise was finally reached: he was interred in a marble sarcophagus just outside the church under the flight of stairs facing the main entrance.’
The former ghetto of Florence was located in the heart of the old centre of Florence, near the market in an area zone totally destroyed at the end of the 20th century. This area was bordered by today’s Via Brunelleschi, the Piazza della Repubblica, and Via Roma.
Bernardo Buontalento, the grand duke’s architect, was commissioned to design the walled ghetto, with two gates that were closed each evening. Inside, the Jews of Florence were confined to a labyrinth of alleys and courtyards, with two ѕуηαgσgυєs. Their numbers increased in the 16th and 17th centuries with the arrival of the families of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had fled the Inquisition.
The ghetto in Florence survived for almost three centuries until it was opened in 1848. Soon after, two small prayer rooms opened in Florence: one followed the liturgy of the Italkim or Italian tradition, the other followed an αѕнкenαzιc liturgy.
Two years after Matas died, work began in 1874 on building an imposing modern ѕуηαgσgυє designed in the neo-Moorish style by Marco Treves, assisted by Mariano Falcini and Vincenzo Micheli, with a large green dome and matching minarets inspired by Aghia Sophia in Constantinople. The Tiempo Maggiore (Grand ѕуηαgσgυє) opened in 1882, four years before Matas was buried outside Santa Croce.
During World War II, the nαzιs used the ѕуηαgσgυє as a military garage and tried to dynamite it as they retreated. The ѕуηαgσgυє was carefully restored, but was damaged severely by the great flooding of the Arno River in 1966.
The Jєωιѕн Museum opened on the second floor in 1981. A large plaque at the museum door commemorates the 248 Jews from Florence who were deported and murdered during the h0Ɩ0cαųst.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_s_1nJmpHbCThyphenhyphenQdv9VpHLYLlQ6b2-5AFiOgVGLnKDltW0QztdHBECufZLAPEEKjmwZn9mWWORhGrRfGVkFa9UgYPHPzgjo99hGGBsb8XRHwUAyjtTQvFDujw1CijkodwRpbKHW5yFQ/s400/David%252C+Patrick+Comerford%252C+Florence%252C+2012.JPG) (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_s_1nJmpHbCThyphenhyphenQdv9VpHLYLlQ6b2-5AFiOgVGLnKDltW0QztdHBECufZLAPEEKjmwZn9mWWORhGrRfGVkFa9UgYPHPzgjo99hGGBsb8XRHwUAyjtTQvFDujw1CijkodwRpbKHW5yFQ/s1600/David%2C+Patrick+Comerford%2C+Florence%2C+2012.JPG)
Michelangelo’s David originally stood outside the Palazzo Vecchio (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
In the past, the best-known symbol or presence of the Jєωιѕн King David on the streets of Florence was Michelangelo’s marble statue of David, a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created in 1501-1504.
David is 5.17-metres high and was commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets for the roofline of the east end of the Duomo in Florence. Instead, it was placed in a public square outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of civic government in Florence, in the Piazza della Signoria, where it was unveiled in 1504.
David was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia in 1873, where I have seen the original. It was replaced by a replica at its original location.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqutUkrMHuKdZoxfYnb7Ai0gT9F1dfan621iPB8AQ-SExXCWJevq8YjbReW0K-SE5izqIOJ1jgoCqzpNMeQVXKySzeWY-aT4_dkNcEqOnfrYQX8RQDJqN50qbl-4YBMZsm_dVtCjVxZV8/s400/4%252C+Valencia+Cathedral+was+first+built+in+the+13th+century+but+stands+on+the+site+of+a+Roman+temple%252C+a+Visigoth+cathedral+and+a+mosque%252C+Patrick+Comerford%252C+Valencia%252C+2020.JPG) (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqutUkrMHuKdZoxfYnb7Ai0gT9F1dfan621iPB8AQ-SExXCWJevq8YjbReW0K-SE5izqIOJ1jgoCqzpNMeQVXKySzeWY-aT4_dkNcEqOnfrYQX8RQDJqN50qbl-4YBMZsm_dVtCjVxZV8/s1600/4%2C+Valencia+Cathedral+was+first+built+in+the+13th+century+but+stands+on+the+site+of+a+Roman+temple%2C+a+Visigoth+cathedral+and+a+mosque%2C+Patrick+Comerford%2C+Valencia%2C+2020.JPG)
The large prominent Star of David above the door in the north transept of Valencia Cathedral … were Jєωιѕн craftsmen at work here? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford,