Great Journey 🏍 Day 361
Church number five hundred and twenty-three. Or so.
Directly from our accommodation we look at the Sameba or Trinity Cathedral. The view at night is particularly beautiful, but we are more drawn to the church during the day for a closer look.
It is also the seat of the patriarch and once again the largest in the whole of Transcaucasia. However, we don't know right now what counts as everything. But bigger/further/higher/older/more important etc. seem to be the most important quality features in every country we have visited so far.
We stroll through the generously laid out park, admire the cathedral, which was completed in 2004, and, rather accidentally, get caught up in the church service. Oh, then it must be Sunday today. That's the way it is when you're travelling timelessly: the days of the week lose their meaning.
We observe the following here: There are no chairs, all the faithful stand (there are a few chairs for the elderly or sick), while at the front there is reading, singing or some kind of intercession, there is movement in the "audience". People are walking back and forth, the cleaners are milling around the images of the saints. At the entrance/exit, women sit having a picnic, men read on their smartphones. And again and again, people cross themselves in unison and there is a unanimous humming, singing, amen.
Somehow it feels alive, less strict. We don't feel like "the others" who might be doing everything wrong in the church anyway (these thoughts are always breathing down our necks in Catholic churches).
Last but not least, it should be mentioned that the church was paid for by the Georgian entrepreneur, politician and billionaire (aha!) Ivanishvili. In researching his motives, I note his thoroughly interesting CV. Interesting in the sense of Russian/oligarch/many changes of citizenship-interesting. And lose the research thread, can't find any reasons for funding the church. But always worth a search: type his name into a search engine.
1TP5Recent Cathedral #Sameba #riple-Christian Cathedral
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