For almost four years, the Norbertine community of St Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California, having long outgrown its original church, has been building a much larger and more beautiful new church. A large gallery of pictures documenting the progress of this wonderful project can be seen on their website; here are some photographs of the newly unveiled mosaic work in the apse of the church, which we reproduce from their Facebook page with their kind permission.
The first celebration of Vespers with the new mosaic finally installed.
St Norbert, the founder of the Premonstratensian Order, was a great promotor of devotion to the Immaculate Conception. On the outer arch, we see the Virgin Mary crowned by Christ with a crown of twelve stars, the Archangel Michael, the church’s patron, to the left, slaying the dragon, and the Archangel Gabriel with a lily in his hand to the right. On the upper arch are written in Latin the words of Apocalypse 12, 1, “A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars”, and on the lower arch verse 12, 7, “And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels.”
Five of the Twelve Apostles on the entrados arch.
In the lower part of the apse are shown mosaics of four Saints; here is Abel the Just,
and the high priest Aaron.
A close-up of a Norbertine giving grapes to one of the benefactors who made the project possible.
A statue of Mary will be placed on top of the central column in this fountain in the cloister.
