Cathedrals

We  visited Saint Sophia Cathedral today which is right behind our  It
was modeled after the Hagia Sophia in Turkey and built in the year
1034 to replace the first church ever built in Ukraine which was about
100 years old then. There are original Byzantine mosaic icons from
that time period along with  frescoes from the 1700's. It is very
beautiful. When the communists came, they destroyed some of the icons
before turning into a museum. It seems terrible that it is a museum,
but that is how it was saved from complete destruction. It is still a
museum because they can't agree on whose church it would be, but is
occasionally used for services by both the Catholics, Ukrainian
Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox.

The Cathedral of Saint Michael, where we attended a service for the
annunciation last week,was completely destroyed in 1936.  St.
Michael's was also about 1000 years old and was famous for it's
beautiful golden domes. In 1936, a few desperate historians were able
to save some mosaics and frescoes  by moving them into the museum at
St. Sophia before St. Michael's was demolished by communists who
planned to build a government building its site.  The Communists
first spread propaganda that the Cathedral really wasn't very old or
important, then stripped the church of its most valuable contents and
then blew it up with dynamite.They never built annoying much on its
site, just volley ball and tennis courts.

The  cathedral was lovingly rebuilt in the last ten years and was done
with such authenticity and care for detail that we both thought it was
ancient. Some of the original mosaics were brought back from museums
in Russia and it is a lovely church. It says a lot for this society
that they placed such a high priority on restoring their churches as
soon as they had the freedom to do so. It's an amazing experience to
be surrounded by so many beautiful, historic churches within this
city.

The story of St. Michael's Cathedral inspires us personally because it
speaks so clearly of the resiliency of the human spirit.  When
something as dear to this people as their 1000-year old cathedral was
senselessly destroyed by evil, they had to endure it and surely were
grief-struck by the enormity and cruelty of their loss, but at first
opportunity and at great effort they picked up the pieces and rebuilt.
 (The Orthodox in Moscow have done the same thing in rebuilding their
glorious cathedral of Christ the Savior, blown up by the communists
and replaced by a swimming pool.).  So faced with our own enormous
loss, we are inspired, with God's help, to start rebuilding our lives
through adoption.  It will be a similar experience of rebuilding after
complete loss for the children, too.


Here is another view of Saint Sophia. The brown part is the original wall.