Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Pontifical Divine Liturgy for Pentecost in Bratislava

Gregory DiPippo

The website of Slovakia’s state-owned radio and television company has a beautifully made video of the Pontifical Divine Liturgy celebrated by Bishop Peter Rusnák on Pentecost Sunday at the Greek-Catholic Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, seat of the Eparchy of Bratislava. (click here for link; video not embeddable.) I had the good fortune to spend most of Holy Week at this church one year; it is small, but boasts an amazing choir and a devout congregation who sing well and enthusiastically. Bratislava, (also known as Pressburg in German and Pozsony in Hungarian) is the capital of Slovakia, and traditionally a Latin-Rite city. (The city’s Franciscan church featured in one of our NLM quizzes.) The Cathedral of the Exaltation was originally built as a cemetery chapel for the large Hungarian minority in the city; it has only been a Greek-Catholic church since 1972, and a cathedral only since the establishment of the Eparchy of Bratislava in 2008. It is wonderful to see what a vibrant community has been established in so short a time, especially given the years of Communist persecution.
The façade of the Greek-Catholic Cathedral
The iconostasis 
Lining up for Confessions on Spy Wednesday, 2010, at the Capuchin Church. I saw Confession lines spilling out of several churches in Bratislava that day.

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