"Christus" statue
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." -- Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV)
This picture was taken at the Visitors' Center at the Mesa Arizona LDS Temple. It is a replica of the famous "Christus" statue in the North Visitors' Center at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, itself a replica of the original Christus, which in turn is is found in a church in Denmark. President Stephen L Richards of the First Presidency of the LDS Church saw the original while on assignment in that country, and was instrumental in having the duplicate made and shipped to Salt Lake City. He devoted several years of his life to this effort, and died in 1959, only a few weeks before it finally came to fruition.
(Appeared in Interestingness on 8/31/05.)
Comments and faves
* Shanni * (82 months ago | reply)
I love that statue
Lynn Morag (82 months ago | reply)
Interesting little history here.
huntedbunnyben added this photo to his favorites. (82 months ago)
Jake T (82 months ago | reply)
Here is a link to a photo of the original:
www.flickr.com/photos/jake_t/27112378/
The photo was taken by my parents while they were visiting Denmark this past spring.
Urmia Pictured (82 months ago | reply)
It`s beautiful.
Su_sunshine added this photo to her favorites. (82 months ago)
Seoirse (82 months ago | reply)
I note that the original has a split beard
It looks quite like a sacred heart statue
Anima Fotografie (79 months ago | reply)
I am a 99.9% recurring lapsed Irish Catholic, but I salute your conviction...
gwilmore (79 months ago | reply)
Thank you. Elsewhere in my photostream -- it's in my "Personal Favorites" set -- is the other version of this statue, which is in Salt lake City. Check it out. I don't have a link to it here, but it was taken in a better setting, and of course with better equipment, as I had my Nikon D50 for that one.
:vicki: (78 months ago | reply)
Beautiful! Great colors.
One of my favorites, btw, from the book of Matthew. Eveytime I read it a sense of calm comes over me.
Thank you!
gwilmore (78 months ago | reply)
And thank you, Vicki. I was quite surprised to learn only yesterday that this picture made Interestingness the day I posted it. But it was a snapshot, taken with my old point-and-shoot, and I don't think I even have the white balance set correctly when I took it. Also, as I noted in the description and in a comment above, this is a replica of the Christus statue on display at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and I also have a picture of it, which I personally like far better than this one.
As for the passage from Matthew, it is quite comforting, isn't it? Just like this one, which appears in a photo I posted yesterday:
:vicki: (78 months ago | reply)
Yes, I saw that...but I speak VERY little italian. What other language do you speak?
gwilmore (78 months ago | reply)
The other one is Spanish, which I speak fluently; in fact, I worked as a court interpreter for a few years after I got out of law. Languages have always fascinated me, and in fact, a fellow Flickrite sent me a Christmas present involving foreign languages. It was a computer program designed to teach basic expressions and vocabulary in 55 languages, including some of the more exotic ones, such as Guarani, Hindi, and Icelandic. It's good for dabbling purposes, but dabbling is about all I have time for these days, at least where languages are concerned. So the gift was perfect. I have been putting it to good use and having a lot of fun with it.
I had a wonderful experience in Italy one Saturday afternoon, while I was trying to find a Mormon chapel in Florence. The country isn't exactly crawling with Mormons, and I wanted to make sure I knew where the chapel was, and what time the meetings were scheduled, so we could attend the services the following day. I finally asked a young lady at a tourist-information center for help, and of course I spoke to her in Italian as we transacted our business. I noticed that she smiled pleasantly at me the whole time, so when we were done, I remarked that I must have really mangled my Italian to have elicited that kind of reaction from her. No, she said; on the contrary, my Italian was "buonissimo," but more importantly, she was really touched by the fact that I was the very first American who had ever spoken to her in her own language. That experience alone would have been worth all the hundreds and hundreds of hours I had invested in learning Italian, and I was grateful to have been able to do something, even in a small way, to counteract the image of the "ugly American" --which, unfortunately, I think is largely deserved. I think the best way to promote goodwill in international relations is to do it one person at a time.
Sometime I will tell you about the time I studied Vietnamese, a story which has amused a lot of people, especially my Vietnamese friends and acquaintances.
Su_sunshine (76 months ago | reply)
You know... it`s just amazing!!!!
@rgs (75 months ago | reply)
The modern lights and the blue background with stars appear very foreign to an European eye, which has the habit of our old churches and statues. And, well, of course, this picture reminded me Dante's paradise, so full of colours, of movement and of visions.
lo ciel, che sol di lui prima s'accende,
subitamente si rifà parvente
per molte luci, in che una risplende. (Paradiso, XX)
gwilmore (75 months ago | reply)
I like my other picture of the Salt Lake version of the Christus statue better than this one, but you've just brightened my day considerably with that nice Dante quote. Anything by him is likely to resonate with me; in fact, my wife might have less trouble getting me to remember to take out the garbage or wash the dishes or whatever if she can just remind me with some appropriate quote by Dante! :-)
TLC_Janna added this photo to her favorites. (74 months ago)
cboyack (73 months ago | reply)
Cool picture. Check this one out.
liceu~ (68 months ago | reply)
Da italiano mi sento parte in causa... sono felice che tu ami il nostro paese. L'episodio che hai raccontato testimonia come l'incontro fra lingue e culture dia sempre grandi soddisfazioni. E' questa la strada che dobbiamo tutti seguire, a per la quale ci dobbiamo impegnare. A presto
gwilmore (68 months ago | reply)
Grazie per il commentario. E' la lingua piu' bella del mondo, e credo che Adamo ed Eva parlassero italiano nel Giardino d'Eden! :-)
you look amazing my dear and phototrixie added this photo to their favorites.
rich886 (51 months ago | reply)
Excellent!!
Wisers in AZ (36 months ago | reply)
Would you be willing to send pic to me in large format (or add me as a flickr friend so I can download at original size)?
Working on a video presentation for girls camp and collecting a variety of pics of the Christus statue while girls write in their journals.
Nice photography!
Debbie wisersinwa (flickr account)
gwilmore (36 months ago | reply)
Permission granted. The original of this is on a CD, and I'll see if I can locate it. If not, I have other and better pictures of this statue in my photostream -- go look at my "Things of the Mormons" set -- and I uploaded those in a larger size. You might be able to use one of those directly. Just let me know if you need any further assistance.
Liliana Orellana added this photo to her favorites. (21 months ago)