- Joined
- Feb 5, 2017
I can do this one!
And that explains why they used to say “Holy Mother Church” and no other Catholic Group uses that reference. Thank you John!Traditionally, the Irish have a particularly strong connection with their mothers, and strongest of all with "Mother Ireland."
The expression "Mother Church," IMO goes back to the New Testament (Acts and Ephesians). In Anglo-Saxon England the term referred to the principal parish church. Cervantes used the term. It seems to me that it is likely that the Irish picked up on an expression already in use.And that explains why they used to say “Holy Mother Church” and no other Catholic Group uses that reference. Thank you John!
I didn’t know that!The expression "Mother Church," IMO goes back to the New Testament (Acts and Ephesians). In Anglo-Saxon England the term referred to the principal parish church. Cervantes used the term. It seems to me that it is likely that the Irish picked up on an expression already in use.
But there is a church in Santa Fe, est. 1625) that is officially "Our Lady of La Conquistadora" but commonly called "the Holy Mother Church".I’ve heard “mother church” before (just to clarify) but I’ve only heard the term “Holy Mother Church” from the Irish.
I’m very impressed with this and have learned something new! Thank you !But there is a church in Santa Fe, est. 1625) that is officially "Our Lady of La Conquistadora" but commonly called "the Holy Mother Church".
I think that the Roman Catholic church--as a whole--is called "the Holy Mother Church" in reaction to other Catholic churches (Eastern Orthodox, Jacobite, Melcanite, Coptic etc.)
Yes, that's a different usage. To many Irish, the Holy Mother Church refers to the Catholic Church as a whole, not a particular parish .. except for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which specifically is referred to as the Holy Mother Church. The use of the phrase is fading away, rather old fashioned today.Not disputing anything here, but adding that I live in South Louisiana and, unless changed now, when a Catholic decided to attend another Catholic church in the immediate area in which their home was located, all the offering they contributed to the new church went back to their Mother Church.
The Post Office tells us: On September 12, 2019, in Huntington Station, NY, the United States Postal Service issued the Walt Whitman stamp in one design, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive pane of 20 stamps. With this stamp, the 32nd issue in the Literary Arts series, the Postal Service honors poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) on the bicentennial of his birth. The stamp features a portrait of Whitman based on a photograph taken by Frank Pearsall in 1869. In the background, a hermit thrush sitting on the branch of a lilac bush recalls “When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom‘d,” an elegy for President Abraham Lincoln written by Whitman soon after Lincoln‘s assassination on April 14, 1865. The artist for the stamp was Sam Weber. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamp. The words “THREE OUNCE” on this stamp indicate its usage value. Like a Forever® stamp, this stamp will always be valid for the rate printed on it.