Yes, it's been a while since the last entry. COVID-19 has kept me away from attractions like this for over two years, but this year, I felt safe (and masked - and vaccinated!) enough to venture out to a few places.
I've always enjoyed exploring Toronto's many churches, and there were three of them this year, close enough together that I felt I could get around to all of them in a few hours.
With the exception of St. George, they were places I'd walked or streetcar'd past many times, and had always wondered what they looked like inside.
A modest streetcar ride away was St. Paul's Basilica at Queen St. East and Power St., one block east of Parliament. Here's a view of the apse, transept, buttresses and bell tower from the rear:
And, from the front, with the morning sun behind it. Classic neo-Romanesque exterior, with columns and rounded arches over windows and doors. The church was made a basilica in the 1980s by none other than Pope John Paul II!
This beautiful bronze pieta at the northwest corner of the lot is dedicated to Irish immigrants who were buried nearby in 1847, and also to the memory of Michael Power, the first Bishop of the Diocese of Toronto (and presumably where Power St. got its name).
The interior of the church is quite breathtaking, the arcade with rows of arches on either side, side aisles, and a high vaulted ceiling, with many ceiling murals (shown in more detail below). Romanesque churches generally don't have the really high ceilings or enormous windows that Gothic cathedrals do, due to it being an earlier architectural style. As you may be able to tell, the place has been recently renovated, and is brightly painted and well-lit (largely artificially) inside.
Here are some of the paintings between the ribs of the ceiling. Can't say what they portray, possibly Biblical legends, or stories from the history of the Catholic Church.
Here is the beautiful painting above the apse. I didn't find out what it represented, but when I asked the guide what the inscription meant, he said it translates to, "Why, why are you persecuting me?"
It does look like a group of Roman soldiers capturing someone, though I couldn't say who.
Above the altar, a lovely reproduction of Da Vinci's "Last Supper."
The second tier has a series of smaller arches and windows, and is the only area that lets in outside light. These arches also play an important part in supporting the high barrel-vaulted ceiling.
I liked the detail in these medallions between each of the lower arches. They appear to be paintings set in backgrounds of mosaic tile. Again, I don't know who they represent, possibly figures in he Bible, or in the history of the Church, or maybe even of this Diocese. This one appears to be giving a benediction.
Most Catholic churches have representations of the Stations of the Cross along their walls. Here, there are fourteen. I was struck by these, as I'd never seen ones that were painted
and three-dimensional. It's the first in the series, and represents the condemnation of Jesus to crucifixion by Pontius Pilate. Once again, they seem quite new-looking, and may have been recently installed, or re-done.
There aren't many stained glass windows in this church, but this one, presumably of the the Virgin Mary, is really lovely, and certainly worth including here.
Above the entrance is the organ and choir loft. The pipe facade is impressive, but I wasn't able to get a picture of the organ, or find out anything about it. As you know if you follow this blog, I'm always interested in the organs in our city's churches.
I chose to walk to the next destination, and went through an old neighbourhood of mine, the Mutual St. and Dundas East area. At Queen and Mutual, I recalled that, when I lived in that area, there was an enormous church on the northwest corner. It was demolished shortly after that, and turned into a parking lot. It lay that way for decades, but now, there's development there, which, it appears, will stretch all the way to Church Street!
The row houses where I lived on Mutual, just south of Dundas, were torn down some years ago, and now a finished condominium is on the site.
As I turned onto Dundas, I was reminded that there had been a large church there also, at the corner with Bond St., if I remember correctly - the Evangel Temple. It was demolished decades ago, and it looks like that site is also being developed. So, no, Toronto isn't the "city of churches" that it used to be!
I like the idea of increasing density in the downtown core, rather than gobbling up farmland for subdivisions. It's just a shame that so much of it is unaffordable for people with modest incomes like myself. I've been lucky in having been able to continue to live, as I prefer, relatively close to downtown.
The next stop was the St. George's Greek Orthodox Church on Bond St., north of Dundas. I'd almost never been on this stretch of the street, so this was a new sight for me.
As you can see, it has the domes typical of Orthodox churches, and has a Romanesque exterior.
It was built around the turn of the 20th century, and apparently, first served as a synagogue before being acquired by the parish of St. George. Further alterations were made in the 1980s.
Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside the building, so I had to make do with a "picture of a picture" of the interior from decades ago, on display in the lower room. It does give a good view of the interior from the balcony, looking down on the altar and apse. Since this pic was taken, the walls and dome have been covered with iconographic images of Biblical figures and saints (by two master iconographers from Greece!), and is wonderfully colourful. You'll just have to imagine that, I'm afraid!
They were offering Greek pastries and coffee in this room, which was nice, since I had skipped breakfast to get out to these places in good time. Delicious!
Here's at least a better look at St. George in this lovely mosaic above the entrance. His most famous act was, of course, slaying a dragon that had been preying upon the citizens of a city in Libya, demanding human sacrifice. The king's daughter was slated to be sacrificed next, and after George killed it with his lance, the king gave him a huge reward, which George then promptly turned over to the poor, causing many citizens to convert to Christianity.
George wasn't so lucky, though, refusing to renounce his faith under Roman rule, and was martyred by beheading in about A.D. 303.
He is a saint in many countries, most well-known perhaps being England; he is their patron saint, and his red cross makes up the central part of the British flag.
Onward I went then, across Dundas, into Chinatown, and up Spadina to Harbord for the last stop, Knox Presbyterian. This was another place I'd been by many times, but never been into.
It is an imposing building, with a bell tower and Gothic features on the outside, especially the arches and the decorative ornamentation over the entrances.
But inside, it's full Protestant all the way! A broad, clean, sparsely decorated nave, that has also been recently renovated.
The guide told me that the church was originally located (in the 19th century) where Hudson's Bay is now near Queen and Yonge. They kept the land rights to the site, and so receive over $2 million a year in payments! Makes it a lot easier to run a church these days, I imagine.
The place isn't without its decorations, though, as this gorgeous, east-facing stained glass window will attest.
The central window depicts "Christ the King," while the one on the left represents labour, and the right, charity. These two were the ideals of the church's main patron, businessman and philanthropist Jesse Ketchum, a prominent figure in the history of both Toronto and Buffalo, New York.
The stained glass has also recently been cleaned, making it shine brilliantly.
These stairs and striking banisters are original to the building, which was erected in 1907.
These pews in the balcony were moved here from an earlier location of the church, farther south on Spadina, and date from the 1880s. The guide told me they were designed to be more comfortable. It's a relative thing, I guess...
And, yes, here's their organ! A relatively modest one with three manuals, refurbished some time ago by Quebec's Freres Casavant, who seem to have their name on more organs in Toronto than anyone else!
During the recent renovation, they made the console mobile, as some churches have done, to make more room for different activities in the altar area.
There are a good number of pipes as well, which are behind the louvers at the back of the altar area, underneath the "display" pipes.
There was music, though, with a young man playing pleasant tunes on a grand piano on the stage the whole time I was there.
In the early 1960s, an addition was made to the church for a recreational building for downtown youth. It included a full-size gym, and this wonderful 5-pin bowling alley. You may be able to make out the pins being replaced by hand back there!
As with many churches since the beginning of the pandemic, they've been livestreaming their services, and here, discreetly under the balcony, are two of three small cameras for that use. I guess you could switch from one to the other for different angles on the proceedings.
At the front entrance is the former altar of the church, removed, like the organ, to make room for different activities where it once would have stood.
Nowadays, as you saw earlier, the altar area consists of a low stage, the pulpit is a simple lectern with microphone, and there are no choir stalls.
By this time, it was mid-afternoon, so I thought I'd get a final shot of the other stained glass display, at the apse. The sun was shining through them by this time, and they looked awesome, but my camera let in too much light, and didn't capture the colours well. You get the idea, anyway!
And, that was it for my first Doors Open since 2019.
Perhaps the pandemic will have lessened even more by this time next year (please, ye Gods!), and I'll feel more comfortable visiting a wider variety of sites.
I'll also try to make more entries in this blog as things open up, so look for them!
