On 30. Sep 2019, at 14:02, Paul Allen <pla16...@gmail.com> wrote: > And then there are basilicas, both major and minor, which > rank higher than cathedrals.
A basilica is a church that is formally designated as a place of pilgrimage. It doesn't rank 'higher' than a cathedral, although many basilicas are also cathedrals. It does rank higher than parish churches in its diocese, but that ranking is mostly a matter of the ceremonial trappings that attach. The conopæum and tintinnabulum are carried in processions, the chapter members wear the cappa magna as part of formal choir dress, and so on. Examples: In Rome, St Peter's, St Mary Major, and St Paul's Without the Walls are all basilicas, but none of these is a cathedral. The Papal throne is not at St Peter's Basilica, but rather the Cathedral of St. John Lateran (which is also a basilica - Rome has four major basilicas). Also, "it's complicated", because the major basilicas (plus St Lawrence) are also traditionally associated with the patriarchs of the oriental churches - St Peter's with Constantinople, St Paul's with Alexandria, St Mary Major with Antioch and St Lawrence with Jerusalem, so they contain (unused) thrones for those patriarchs. In Paris, the Sacré-Coeur is a basilica, but is in the episcopal see of Paris, and is therefore subordinate to Notre-Dame de Paris, which is a cathedral and (if memory serves) not a basilica. In New York, the Basilica of St Patrick's Old Cathedral is a basilica and a parish church. It was formerly the cathedral of the Archdiocese of New York, but the episcopal throne moved to a much larger worship space in 1879, and Old St Patricks was a mere parish church until Pope Benedict XVI designated it a minor basilica in 2010. It doesn't look too different from any other big urban church. It was the largest church in the city when it opened in 1815, but was soon surpassed. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is the largest Catholic church in North America, and is (as the name suggests) a [minor] basilica. It is likewise not a cathedral, but is subordinate to the Archdiocese of Washington. It is, in fact, not even a parish church, having no local community of its own. The throne of the Archbishop of Washington is at St Matthew's Cathedral in downtown Washington. You can't tell a cathedral from any other big church by appearance from the outside. (Inside, it's distinguished by the presence of the episcopal throne.) 'Chapel' is a problematic word outside the UK. For what it's worth, there are no fewer than 81 chapels inside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. 'Chapel' in this sense denotes a worship space inside a larger building. (Around me, there are chapels in airport terminals, university buildings, and even shopping malls.) 'Chapel' when applied to a stand-alone church also usually carries the meaning that the church does not have its own parish. In UK English, 'chapel' can mean any church that is not affiliated with the Established Church - for many years, these communities could not lawfully use the word, 'church' and so called themselves 'chapels' instead. Since a great many of these were from Wesleyan and Calvinist denominations that eschewed ornamentation (and especially graven images), they tend to have a distinct architecture. This is not true in many other parts of the world. Without the context of the graveyard behind it, I'd be hard put to say whether https://www.flickr.com/photos/steveguttman/2814490383 is a church, a one-room schoolhouse, a Masonic temple, Grange hall or other social space, or even a former village hall. All public buildings of that period in that area tended to be plain and boxy, and many had bells to summon people, and hence had steeples to house them. > yes, this is one meaning of the word basilica, especially in catholicism, > there is also another, art historic one, which describes a building of 3 > naves in a specific configuration (lower lateral naves and windows below the > roof between the central nave and those lateral naves) Right, and a basilica in ancient times was where a major dignitary would hold court - the focus was the throne rather than the altar. > Additionally, I believe (not completely sure), that cathedrals might keep > their title after a reorganization of the administrative district (so there > could be 2 cathedrals for one bishop in some cases). And there are lower > titles of churches, like collegiate churches, parish churches, etc, which are > still more important than “ordinary” churches. C of E and the Catholics have different organizational structure there, and both denominations have complicated sets of exceptions as well. A metropolitan cathedral is superior to the suffragan cathedrals in its province, certain abbeys report directly to Rome rather than the local Ordinary (and certain abbots are even Ordinaries without being bishops!), and various other things like that. Do we really want to go there? _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
