"Red Coat"--my pretty Chloe

For Melanie

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you

O Lord that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.
--William Shakespeare

I can't wait to see the restored version...

Here is the restored Crux Vaticana--

VATICAN CITY – One of the gems of the Vatican's priceless religious art collection — a 6th century reliquary containing the purported fragments of the cross on which Jesus was crucified — has been restored to its Byzantine-era glory.

The Vatican on Thursday unveiled the restored Crux Vaticana, a foot-high (40-centimeter-high) jewel-encrusted golden cross containing what tradition holds are shards of Jesus' cross inside.

The Associated Press was given an early look at the piece, and Byzantine art experts said the restoration rendered the cross much closer to what it would have looked like at the time the Byzantine Emperor Justin II gave it to the people of Rome.

Most significantly, the restoration corrected a botched 19th centuryrestoration that threatened to corrode the piece. And it replaced the brightly colored gems that were added in previous centuries with the large, imperfect pearls that are emblematic of Byzantine-era imperial masterpieces, said restorer Sante Guido.

A circle of 12 pearls now surrounds the relic, and pearls around the cross' edge now alternate with emeralds and sapphires — the two other gems most often associated with Byzantine emperors, he said.

While there are purported fragments of Christ's cross in churches around the world — including at Paris' Notre Dame and even across town at Rome's Holy Cross basilica — the Crux Vaticana is considered the oldest reliquary of the cross. It is the crown in the Vatican's Treasury of St. Peter's collection of religious and historic artifacts.

In addition to the relic inside, the cross itself is an important piece of early Christian art. Measuring 40 cm by 31 cm (15.75 inches by 11.81 inches) it's a rare example of an imperial gift and an expression of the emperor's Christian faith. Across the piece is written in Latin: "With the wood with which Christ conquered man's enemy, Justin gives his help to Rome and his wife offers the ornamentation."

"It's the most important reliquary of the 'true cross' that we have," Guido told the AP. "It's particularly important because it's the only reliquary that came from an emperor, so there are various levels of religious and historic significance."

For centuries, the cross was used in the Vatican's most solemn ceremonies at Christmas and Easter. But 1,500 years of candle wax and smoke had dulled the gems and the cross' warm golden hue — grime that has been removed following a two-year restoration.

The work was paid for by an anonymous donor who didn't want the pricetag to be made public, officials said.

Ioli Kalavrezou, a Byzantine art history professor at Harvard University who has taught classes on the cross, said the restoration clearly rendered the cross closer to what it would have looked like when it was presented to Romans sometime between 565-578.

"I can't say it's exactly as it would've been, but it comes much closer to what an object like that would've looked like," she said in a phone interview.

The exact circumstances of why Justin gave Rome the relic are unclear. Guido noted that even though the eastern Byzantine Empire gained prominence in Constantinople after the 476 fall of the Roman Empire, Rome remained a religious capital because it was the "city of martyrs" — where Saints Peter and Paul were buried.

Emperor Justin clearly wanted to give the pope and people of Rome "a recognition of Rome as a city of Christianity," Guido said. At the time, most parts of Christ's cross were in the hands of the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople after being moved from Jerusalem in the 4th century, Kalavrezou noted.

"This is one of the earliest examples of this imperial gift, where he (Justin) shows the power he has in his hands — to control the most important relic in Christiandom and to have the luxury to make a gift of that," she said from Washington, where she is a visiting scholar at the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine research library.

The cross will be on public display inside St. Peter's Basilica through April 12.

Little Matt, Jr.

My Little Pearl - Happy Birthday!

"God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it."

Unlike precious stones which must be cut and polished to reveal their clarity, pearls are perfect when they are found!

The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft steps its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

Take a guess

These pictures were taken under a microscope--guess what they are! (And no, I didn't take them.)

An Ant--

A guitar string--
Split end of a hair--

The Nautilus House in Mexico City

What an interesting place...

and look at the bedroom: