Saturday, I ended up, by mistake, at St. Nicholas Cathedral on 97th street. By mistake, because I was aiming for the other Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the Synodal Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign, where I wanted to hear the choir again. I’d heard them a little over a year ago when the relic of the head of St. John Chrysostom visited from Moscow.
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| The head of St. John Chrysostom (more photos) |
But mixed up the names of the two cathedrals and ended up at the wrong one. I stayed for the Vigil anyways. Their choir isn’t as good as I remember the one at the Synodal Cathedral being, but the Church is one of the most beautiful in Manhattan.
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| Photo part of a set of the Cathedral by Flickr user Chad Husby |
The photo doesn’t really do it justice, though part of that is that I visited at dusk. In the dark Church, the Bishop had the sparkliest miter This was two hours of solid Church Slavonic, of which I know about 5 words. Fortunately, the words I know, like “Gospodi, pomiluj” (Lord, have mercy), are repeated often. People think Latin is a challenge! I suppose it’d be easier if I had a foundation in Russian.