Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis – Is Amazing!

This past weekend I took my girlfriend to see the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis. I had heard from an acquaintance that it was well worth the trip, so we decided to make the detour. Also, I had been trying to think of an epic location to surprise Jen with a little something, more on that in a moment. From the moment we pulled up outside of the Cathedral, both Jen and I were both in awe. As we entered the narthex, in the rear of the Cathedral, our eyes were instantly drawn up to view the mammoth example of mosaic tile. The ceiling of the Narthex depicts the life of King Louis IX of France, for whom the Cathedral and St Louis was named after. The first and last image displayed below show partial sections of that art work. From this point on we were overwhelmed with goose bumps. As we entered the main section of the church, our eyes were instantly drawn up to examine the large domes of the cathedral.

I used the excuse of wanting to photograph the Cathedral as my main reason for wanting to make this special trip, not that it mattered at this point, Jen was really enjoying our decision. As she made her way up to the main alter in the front center of the church, I was lagging behind taking super wide angle shots of the main alter and elaborate artwork. Wanting to obtain the greatest depth of field in my images: I was using a tripod and small aperture, consequently the exposures were long. As I set my camera to take a series of 3 shots, I joined Jennifer at the main alter. She had a perma-grin from looking at all of the wonderful works of art she had been seeing. I completely caught her off guard, as I proceeded to ask her if she would be interested in spending the rest of her life with me. Lucky for me, the jeweler had given me a small black ring box that had a light that illuminated the ring. I wasn’t expecting the church to be so dark, but the lit box was perfect. Jennifer was frozen in her place for close to a second. I looked down to grab the ring, to place it on her finger, only to find that she had beaten me to it. Once I stood up, I was given the tightest hug ever, and as she pulled away she resembled a raccoon, due to the reaction of mascara and tears. We were both overwhelmed with excitement.

After our little emotional detour, we continued to tour the Cathedral. One of the coolest things to me was the replica of Michelangelo’s “Pietà”. Honestly my photos don’t do it justice, it’s so much cooler in person.

Regardless of your religious beliefs, if you have the opportunity to visit the Cathedral Basilica, do yourself a favor and check it out. It has so much history and countless hands that contributed to the massively ornate structure, this blog entry only touches on a mere fraction.

Enjoy ~ Tim