Answers to NYC Questions: Holy Grail and Religiousity
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Michael Pollak
Q. Whatever happened to the cup at the Cloisters that some people thought was the Holy Grail?
A. Bought by the museum in 1950, it is now labeled the Antioch “Chalice” and was moved from the Cloisters to the main museum building between 1967-1977 as a "lamp."
Q. Every now and then I hear the contention that New York City is more secular than the rest of the country. Just how religious is New York, anyway?
A. New York City doesn’t have a shortage of religion. What it lacks, building on its heritage of Dutch colonial pluralism, is religious conformity. In 1833, there were five Roman Catholic churches in the city when persecution of Catholics was still a threat; by 1863, New York City was the Catholic center of the country, with 32 churches, the Encyclopedia of New York City noted. Still to come were Ellis Island, Jews fleeing pogroms who organized small shuls, the great migration of Southern black Protestants, refugees from World War II and the Iron Curtain, and the influx of formerly excluded Asian, Caribbean, African and Latino immigrants since the mid-1960s. The revised Encyclopedia of New York City counted 3,761 houses of worship for 49 principal faiths in 2009. [link]
By Michael Pollak
Q. Whatever happened to the cup at the Cloisters that some people thought was the Holy Grail?
A. Bought by the museum in 1950, it is now labeled the Antioch “Chalice” and was moved from the Cloisters to the main museum building between 1967-1977 as a "lamp."
Q. Every now and then I hear the contention that New York City is more secular than the rest of the country. Just how religious is New York, anyway?
A. New York City doesn’t have a shortage of religion. What it lacks, building on its heritage of Dutch colonial pluralism, is religious conformity. In 1833, there were five Roman Catholic churches in the city when persecution of Catholics was still a threat; by 1863, New York City was the Catholic center of the country, with 32 churches, the Encyclopedia of New York City noted. Still to come were Ellis Island, Jews fleeing pogroms who organized small shuls, the great migration of Southern black Protestants, refugees from World War II and the Iron Curtain, and the influx of formerly excluded Asian, Caribbean, African and Latino immigrants since the mid-1960s. The revised Encyclopedia of New York City counted 3,761 houses of worship for 49 principal faiths in 2009. [link]
