Reply #44: THAT - IN YOUR POST - IS NOT THE ORIGINAL [View All]

[jberryhill]

Wrong frame. But the RIGHT frame for a reproduction that is highly revered.

I was in Mexico City three weeks ago and actually visited the Basilica.

Behind the altar area where the icon is mounted, there is a sort of trench-like area with moving sidewalks, upon which you can stand and pass by and under the icon.

They could have lowered it there, but it wouldn't look the way it does in your picture.


There is a hallway that leads from that trench to an office and gift shop area where there is mounted a large REPRODUCTION painting of the icon. It's that are where there is the wooden background you see of the picture of Hillary in your post.

I stood watching that reproduction for a while because, since the original is mounted high up in the area with the moving sidewalks, a lot of worshippers come with their babies and there is a ritual that they go through - touching the cross in the icon's collar, and then making a cross on the forehead and lips of their babies. I'm not Catholic, or particularly religious, but I do find other people's expressions of faith moving, particularly in relation to sacred objects (I've been to Turin as well, and the devotion of the folks there is also impressive).

Anyhow, that spot in the picture above is where the reproduction is, and has the same frame as the reproduction - which is NOT the frame of the original (and of which they would not allow a flash picture anyway).

THIS - the one in your post - is the COPY:



You think they lowered it for the divorced guy and his Jewish sidekick?