Blog Comments

Thanks, Celso. It's been such great fun sharing the world of paper nativities with you and all our enthusiast friends around the world. And preserving these little gems is something I love to do.

Wow! Thank you Alexis. Your contribution to preserving the Paper Nativity tradition is remarkable. You are leaving a true legacy to the future generations. I don't have words to express my gratitude.

Warmest wishes!
Celso

Hello Alexis, what nice ornaments! Many thanks for making these available. I will hang mine on my Christmas tree this year.

Best wishes!
Celso

Thanks, Celso! I've been gone for far too long, and it's great to be back.

Alexis, it is really nice see you are back blogging. And what great way to return... This Earthenware Jar Nativity looks really beautiful. Thank you very much to make this available to us!

Every time my father would drive by Holy Trinity, my mother would always tells us that her grandfather, Nickolaus Weber, from Aargau, Switzerland was one of the stone masons on the twin spires. His oldest son, August Weber, also a stone mason may have helped. My families in the church were Weber, Thiele, Hageman, McCauley. Thanks for posting a wonderful article with photos.
Margaret Arnhart, Idaho

I attended Holy Trinity church and school from 1952 til 1959 when my parents moved to the suburbs. We lived on Angelica st. To this day I credit Holy Trinity for the life I have and and the way of life instilled in me. As a result of the great music program in school I was awarded a scholarship to CBC and continued my Catholic education. Whenever I'm in St louis I always stop at The church and pray outside if the church isn't open. I have always felt closer to God there than anywhere I've ever been. Often my thoughts return there and a longing for life the way it used to be. May God always bless Holy Trinity and its staff.

John W. Rogers
Lt. Commander,
U S Navy ret

I'm glad you made it, Celso. Truly an inspiring church. I always try to visit St. John Cantius and light a candle when in Chicago.

Great photos, by the way. I haven't seen the new chapel with the Pietá and the Marian Altar of Wit Stwosz Replica, that you so beautifully captured in your image, above.

Meet at St. John Cantius next time you're in Chicago, and then for lunch at the Greek Islands in Greek town!

Last time I was in Chicago I could not meet Alexis at St. John Cantius Church but now here I am in the front of the Neapolitan Preasepe and where is he? Miami Beach? Come on....

There is no words to say how beautiful this Church is. I could spend all day long there but unfortunately I had to got back home that night.
I almost missed visit the Neapolitan Presepe. It is locked in the museum in the second floor, but I was luck to find Brother David that guided me in. He was very nice and gentle.
Church now is under repair. They are remodeling the paints inside, it is turning more clear and beautiful. I was able also to visit the replica of Pieta in a side room. This replica is made of marble in the same size of the original.
As per Brother David, it was made a mold from the Michelangelo original and few other copies are around the world.
Mold was made before the original was damaged by a person that broke Virgin fingers and nose.
I strongly recommend a vist to St. John Cantius.

Thank you, Janet!

It's my pleasure "taking you along" on my visits to these wondrous museums and galleries.

I know this must take much of your time to put these productions together. Thank you for taking the time to collect, prepare, repair, present and share with all of us!

I am very new to "blogging" - this is only the second response to a blog I have ever made, the first is on the next blog about Roger. I have been trying ever since this blog appeared to add my comment and for a while it seemed that "the great computer in the sky" would not allow me to add any comments! But with Alexis' help I realized that you don't even have to be a Reigistered User (as I am) to add comments to this blog.

I say this because it seems to me that there ought to be 100's of people leaving comments about all of Alexis' wonderful and inspiring blogs. Many blogs show a lot of "lookers" (nearly 1400 for this blog alone) and no one leaving a comment (only 1 for this blog so far).

Alexis spends many hours researching, interviewing and writing these extremely interesting blogs. Everyone enjoys having their works acknowledged and appreciated. Just one "that was a great sermon, Father" always made my day. We are all human and all like to be acknowledged and appreciated. Alexis deserves a good word from his readers for his beautiful web page, blogs and forum.

From one great fan - Thank you very much for your remarkable work. I also greatly appreciate all the kind words that you wrote about me in this blog. I am still floating on cloud 9.

I also wish to thank Cassie (above), for her kind remarks. I am pleased that you have bookmarked www.cathedralquest.com. I do hope someday to finish the other years - especially France 2005.

You'll love building Roger's models, Thomas.

Roger's Globe has graced the Crechemania.com banner from day 1, and I can't wait to get back home so I can start building it so it can also grace my desk! (This will be Globe No. 2 for me.)

There's something about this model that mesmerizes me, still, so many years after Ms. Chesebro's Romeo And Juliet English class…

Alexis - I certainly enjoyed reading about Roger. You did a fantastic job - as you did on my recent blog. I became acquainted with Roger and his wonderful models last March after I ordered St. Paul's Cathedral kit from St. Paul's bookstore. From Roger's info on the model, I looked at his web page and found the other model kits that he has designed. This resulted in several extremely interesting emails between us. I ordered the Globe Theatre, Garden History Museum and Bronte Parsonage kits. He enclosed a wonderful hand written note in the order. All of the models are beautifully done, but I am sad to say that I have not built them yet as I keep building the models of places we plan on visiting on upcoming Cathedral Quests. There is a chance that we may stop in London for a few days on our next adventure. If so, I want to build these models as soon as possible. We had a wonderful private tour of St. Paul's on our visit in 2003 (see www.cathedralquest.com, England 2003 ) but we did not visit the Globe Theatre nor the Garden History Museum. We drove past both on them on a tour bus. These will now be a must visit because of Roger's beautiful models. Thank Alexis for writing this wonderful blog on a very talented artist and paper modeler.

Thank you for this article. I greatly enjoyed reading about Fr. Clay's travels and his models are exquisite. I have bookmarked his personal site to explore at a later time!
Blessings,
Cassie Perry,
Jackson, Georgia
USA

Thank you for your kind words. St. Mary's is an inspiration for all of us.

As a current member of Remsen St. Mary's I am very pleased at the way the church is depicted on your site. It is a beautiful church and wonderful place to worship. Many from our parish don't realize what a treasure we have. I learned many new things about our church through your site and plan to share with others. Thank you for doing such a wonderful job sharing this information with the world.

WOW! I love the look of these, as well as the size! I've successfully scaled
down two of the more simple free downloads to 50% with minimal loss of
clarity (thanks to GraphicConverter and my trusty little Epson C88), but as
these are 'pre-shrunk', I should be able to reduce these to a size which
could fit into a 1:12 scale scene, perhaps under a tree or on a table.
Sadly, I will have to wait to order these, since my piggy bank was emptied
for Christmas gifts, but as soon as my February pension money comes in
............. ;-D Thanks for making these lovely créches available.

Chris in Canada @>----
GSOLFOT, Keeper of the Royal Jabberwocks, Canadian Master of MIUAYGA
"There is nothing that cannot be made in miniature, only things you will not
try."

I couldn't resist sharing with you that an original of this nativity — "professionally" repaired at that! — was just sold on the Web for over 202 euros (that's over 263 dollars)! Thanks, Svatava!

I am so happy, I found your site.