Obedience

Once there served a young sexton in a church. He was zealous in obedience and tried to get blessing for everything. One day, the dean charged him with bell-ringing before the service. The sexton immediately asked for blessing and went to the bell tower. A few minutes later the dean noticed that he had given the sexton the keys not to a big old lock, hanging on the door of the belfry, but to his new "Toyota".

He expected the careless novice to come back, but the church bell started ringing followed by change-ringing.

When the bell-ringer returned, they checked the keys. They were to the foreign car. The door to the bell tower was locked.

Later, the curious made several attempts to unlock the bell-tower with the keys to the dean’s car, but in vain. Probably they did not ask for blessing...

Why were holy monasteries turned into state prisons?

The history of Christian Europe preserves the memory of times when monasteries served as places of exile imposed by the state. Within their walls, the fates of monarchs and righteous men were decided.

A shepherd boy with a letter from Christ to French king

In the summer of 1212, thousands of pilgrims carrying staffs waited for the sea to part before them. Later chroniclers added ships, slave traders, and a pope's lament to their story.

Facade of bones and facade of light

Antoni Gaudí spent forty-three years building a church in Barcelona, knowing that this construction was for the ages. 

Trial of a dead pope

Once in Rome, the body of a deceased pope was seated on the throne and put on trial. The accusation relied on a church canon that had once saved his see.

Monastery built in defiance of king

When Orthodox believers in Minsk were left with just one church, townspeople decided to build another – and even a royal decree did not stop them.

Young Mother and Sleeping Christ

Michelangelo carved a Virgin Mary who looks younger than her Son – and signed his name in marble for the only time in his life. Neither of these peculiarities was accidental.