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Art

Heavenly features

By LENNIE BENNETT
Published April 8, 2007

	St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs was completed in 1943. its cost of $200,000 funded in large part by contributions made by the fleet of sponge divers.
[Times photos: Jim Damaske]

ADVERTISEMENT Mary is portrayed in a stained glass window at St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas has an abundance of stained glass windows, not common in older Orthodox churches, a nod to the Greek immigrants’ assimilation into modern Western traditions. St. Nicholas emulates the design of Hagia Sophia, the great Byzantine church in what is now Istanbul, Turkey. A dome caps the soaring main section of St. Nicholas, called the nave, between the vestibule, or narthex, and the sanctuary.

TARPON SPRINGS - All places of worship are repositories of religious history. St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs is that and more, a beautiful embodiment of Greek Orthodox Christianity and a specific reference to the community in which it is practiced. On this most holy day in the Christian year, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, take a closer look.

History

In the early 1900s, immigrants from Greek islands began populating Tarpon Springs in large numbers, drawn to its abundant sponge beds in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1907, a small wood-frame church was built on a corner of Pinellas Avenue, near the waterfront downtown. It was named for St. Nicholas, the protector of seamen. By the late 1930s, the population had grown to almost 3,000 and a larger church was needed to serve its parishioners. The new St. Nicholas was completed in 1943 on the same site, its cost of $200,000 funded in large part by contributions made by the fleet of sponge divers.

Faith

For about the first millennium of Christianity, there was only one church. In 1054 a schism occurred and two distinct forms emerged, the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox. Western Christianity was organized in a pyramid-type structure, with the pope recognized as the arbiter of doctrine. Eastern Christianity developed along a council system in which the patriarch was considered more a "first among equals" leader with his fellow bishops. There are important differences in many traditions in each church, but they have basic liturgical similarities. Today there are many Eastern Orthodox denominations - Greek and Russian, for example - but their distinctions are mostly based on language and culture.

Architecture

St. Nicholas emulates the design of Hagia Sophia, the great Byzantine church in what is now Istanbul, Turkey. A dome caps the soaring main section of St. Nicholas, called the nave, between the vestibule, or narthex, and the sanctuary. The building is in a traditional cruciform, or cross, shape. The sanctuary altar, as with all Eastern Orthodox churches, faces east in homage to Christianity's origins. The exterior is made of yellow brick; the interior is plaster embellished by 70 tons of marble used for the Greek pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair, then donated to St. Nicholas by the Greek government for its church. It covers the floor and is elaborately carved into columns, the Bishop's Chair, the altar, the pulpit and the iconostasis, a screen separating the sanctuary from the nave.

Iconography

This art form is named for the Greek word meaning image. It is the major kind of religious decoration found in Eastern Orthodox churches. Icons are formulaic, with standard symbols and poses used for instant recognition of the holy figures being represented. St. Nicholas Cathedral has dozens of icons. The most recent ones, painted by George Lemonaki, cover a wall in the nave and in part of the sanctuary and are in the traditional style of the Middle Ages. But many look more like later, Renaissance depictions. That, says Father John Bociu, the assistant priest at St. Nicholas, is probably because George Saclaridis, who created them in the 1950s, was more familiar with Western art than Eastern iconography. You can see the contrast in the sanctuary artwork in which the angels, baby Jesus and Virgin Mary are more representational than the stylized saints painted below them in early 2000. That unfamiliarity with tradition also probably accounts for the most unusual feature, on the dome, a painting of God the Father, whose representation in icons would have been considered sacrilegious.

Stained glass

St. Nicholas has an abundance of stained glass windows, not common in older Orthodox churches, a nod to the Greek immigrants' assimilation into modern Western traditions.

Iconostasis

The iconostasis, or screen separating the sanctuary from the nave, is a part of all Eastern Orthodox churches. The iconostasis at St. Nicholas is especially lovely, made from carved marble and painted with gold leaf. As is tradition, it has icons of Christ, the Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist and the church's patron saint, in this case St. Nicholas. Surrounding them are portraits of the apostles.

Ships

Suspended above the sanctuary altar and in the nave are gold and silver ships, symbol of the church as the ark and of the fishermen who became Jesus' apostles, both references to divine salvation. ("Nave" is derived from the Latin word for ship.) Unlike priests in the Roman Catholic Church, who face the congregation, Orthodox priests always face east, away from the people just as, says Father Bociu, the captain of a ship who must look forward.

Visit

St. Nicholas is at 36 N Pinellas Ave., Tarpon Springs. The church is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Today a service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Check for times of daily and weekend services, conducted in Greek and English, by calling (727) 937-3540 or going to www.epiphanycity.org.

[Last modified April 5, 2007, 12:40:36]