The next morning we had some free time. Our guide suggested we visit the stained glass of St Monica’s Cathedral. The church, as expected, is a lesser scope to most cathedrals you will visit on travels around the world… BUT, St Monica’s is a one-of-a-kind. The pic above shows the PEACE WINDOWS, celebrating 50 years of peace in the South Pacific since the end of WWII.
The next Pics illustrate the remembrances from the war. On the right, resting at the sea bed, lies a Japanese Aichi”Val” dive bomber, flown at Pearl Harbor, and later sacrificed as a kami-kaze aircraft. A sunken Grumman F4F “Wildcat,” flown extensively off American carriers, is in the left glass. This one represents the plane flown by Aussie pilot, Les Knox, the lone Australian pilot killed in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The angel fish glide slowly past to represent the stillness and serenity of their resting on the coral.
The aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Lexington, which took five direct hits during the Battle of the Coral Sea, is behind the Val bomber. These wrecks have an air of repose and stillness. They have lost their aggression. They are now home to the fish. Nature is in the act of regeneration.
On the sides of the Cathedral, a series of windows depict the Creation in stained glass. Start left-to -right above. I attempted to display these using pano photography. While this shows all 12 of the first half of the story, the detail is sacrificed somewhat. I apologize for this. Below is the second side of the glass creation.
Once again, the progression is right-to-left. I checked out the Cathedral’s website to see if they provide better pic details, and they do!! The web site is http://www.cairns.catholic.org.au. Bring up the page, click on the “Parishes,” option. Then click on the tab for St Monica’s for professionally done photos.
I’ll close with a few pics from Cairns’ Aquarium, which we toured after the Cathedral. A pretty good morning.
The Adventures of Barry Brink 