A Protestant Asked me what is the Bone Church for.. Eugh

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I didn’t know how to reply but I was horrified to this church.
What is the history and why was this made?


I’m sure our God and Mother Mary doesnt want someone to make this…

[EDIT:] Legend says the Monk went Mad and ordered to the builders to build a church out of skeletons.

My Historian Friend says he is not sure but according to his knowledge to this one. It was a sementary before he’s not sure tho…
 
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I think the Wikipedia page is clear enough on the history, specifically why there were so many bones and who organized them like this.

On a related note, I’m definitely going to see this whenever I make it to visiting the Czech Republic. That looks so cool!
 
I found some document about this.
It was made in the name of Art not in the name of Catholicism. BUT with Catholic style but with bones.
People think or Anti Catholics we really did this just to make a church but in reality the wealthy people wants to be buried.

But I guess you can have fun.
 
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The “bone Church” in Rome is a major tourist stop. There’s one in Paris as well. The medievals had a different attitude toward death than we do, at least in America. I’m not disturbed by it, but I have a Protestant friend who is appalled at such things as well as Catholic relics (pieces of bone, preserved bodies, etc.)
 
I agree, we’re too judgey about this old timey stuff.

The Victorians were squeamish about sex and open about death.

Today we’re squeamish about death and open about sex.

(Yeah I know this predates Victoriana)
 
Well, this is a suitable topic for All Hallows’ Eve!

Since we believe that members of the Body of Christ are constantly being sanctified/justified by their new life in Him (as long as they are responding to Him and following His commands), we believe that holiness is not just a matter of the soul being changed, but also the body. We respect all dead bodies because they will someday be resurrected and transformed for the General Judgment, showing either their blessedness or the horror of their acts. (And because God made them, and pronounced them “Very good.”) Gathering all the bones of the dead, even those of unknown or pagan identity, and putting them in places of respect and safety, was always regarded as a pious act by Jewish tradition.

So from the earliest times, it was thought appropriate to have Mass at the tombs of the martyrs, over their bones or in their cemeteries. The Christian catacombs are full of holiness, not terror. This feeling has often spread to cemeteries and crypts of the ordinary Christian dead; and it is convenient and fitting to say Masses for the dead and the Poor Souls at altars in such funerary chapels.

So is it more respectful to hide away bones in unmarked graves or anonymous boxes in the wall? Or is it more respectful to display them, showing their beauty and asking for the prayers of the living? The question can be validly answered in different ways by different Catholics, especially in different cultures, times, and places.

OTOH, there was also a strong feeling that, beyond practicalities of bone storage, there was a need to confront comfortable Christians with the reality and nearness of death. This kind of “memento mori” spirituality is very strong in times of uncertainty, all over Europe. It is even part of Protestant history!

That said, different people have different spiritual needs. What was right for Bubba the Saxon monk is not always going to work for Brittany Sue down the street. We need to understand historical Catholic devotions, and not denigrate them ignorantly; but we don’t have to join in with them or promote them.
 
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JesusmyLord said:
I didn’t know how to reply but I was horrified to this church.
What is the history and why was this made?
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For specifically the Sedlic ossuary:
The ossuary (bone storage area underground) was built as part of a church to hold the “overflow” bones from the surrounding cemetary, which had grown overfilled from popularity since a monk had supposedly brought soil from Jerusalem back and spread it there. The plague further crowded the cemetary to the extent they had to dig up old bones to make room for new bodies to decompose in the ground. These bones were stored in the ossuary, which was designed for this purpose.
Some time in the 1870s, it was decided that having stacks of bones was not tastefully displayed, and an artist was hired to tastefully display the bones in an artistic fashion which would honor the bodies and honor God. That is how the ossuary (the basement bone storage room) became a chapel.

There are many other ossuaries around Europe, including the Catacombs of Paris (not a church), the Brno ossuary, one in Poland, another in Portugal, and the Capuchin bone chapels in Rome (made from the exhumed bones of the order which were dug up and brought to Rome when the Capuchins fled persecution in France).

Why?
Generally, the artful display of the bones was meant to honor the bodies of ancestors. Catholics in Europe didn’t really share the same squeemish-ness about death and bodies at the time (as compared to most of their protestant counterparts).
More importantly, each one of the ossuaries that serves a religious role usually centers around Momento Mori… remember that you will die. The Capuchin bone chapels have a saying written on the wall as you enter: “As you are, so we were. As we are, you will become.” This is a call to reflect on our mortality. Our time on earth is short, and we should live for our salvation in what time we have.

I haven’t visited the Sedlic Ossuary, but I did find the Capuchin bone chapels to be not nearly as creepy as I would have thought… it was actually a very thought-provoking and strangely peaceful place.
 
Ossuaries remind us of our mortality.

In this case, Sedlec Ossuary has been around since 1278. That’s almost 750 years ago. You’d be buried in the abbey cemetery, but over the centuries, you can only expand the cemetery so much. So when the body has been reduced to a skeleton, they’ll exhume it and place the bones in an ossuary, so that the freshly-deceased can then be placed in the burial plots. Rinse and repeat for hundreds of years…

In our time and culture, we drain bodies and throw away the fluids, pump them full of chemicals, pretty them up with makeup, seal them in fancy coffins, and then bury them underground where they can eventually be forgotten. It’s a way of dealing with death that never really addresses the concept of death itself— everything is coordinated to invoke life, and sleep, and peaceful repose.

But not every culture and time period deals with death in the same way.
 
@Limoncello4021
I’m only familiar with the Catacombs ossuary… not one that was specifically a church! Is there something I missed?
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
The Victorians were squeamish about sex
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Well, they did have to face such horrors as folks who shamelessly left the legal of pianos unclothed and exposed 😱, and others who, believe it or not, would put books by mail and female authors on the same shelf!😱🥵😳😳
 
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