An invitation
An invitation to attend Mass in Pope John Paul II’s private chapel at the Papal Palace in Vatican City, served as inspiration for the Kaminski Collections.
Inspired by the art and architecture of St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican, coupled with the passion for our faith, we set out to design an exclusive line of blown-glass ornaments that would reawaken the spiritual meaning of Christmas and Easter, one ornament at a time.
We created the inaugural Papal Collection, featuring His Holiness, Saint Pope John Paul II in 1999, and expanded the line to include Madonnas and Saints from around the world, Angels, Sistine Chapel and Swiss Guard figures, Nativities and Renaissance Masters reproductions.
We are the leader in religious and renaissance art blown glass ornaments, handmade and hand painted in Poland. We hope you, your family and friends share the inspiration and joy we have found in creating these spiritually inspired ornaments.
Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a sanctuary of the Catholic Church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her invocation of Guadalupe, located at the foot of the Hill of Tepeyac in the Gustavo A. Madero borough of Mexico City.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Madonna of the unborn child, is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus associated with a series of five Marian apparitions, which occurred in December 1531, and a venerated image on the tilma of St. Juan Diego, enshrined within the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
It is the most visited Marian site in the world, surpassed only by Saint Peter's Basilica. Every year some twenty million pilgrims visit the sanctuary, of which about nine million do so in the days around December 12, the day on which Saint Mary of Guadalupe is celebrated.
Annually, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe has at least twice as many visitors as the best-known Marian shrines.
Saint Mary's Basilica in Kraków, Poland: (Polish: Kościół Mariacki) is a Brick Gothic church adjacent to the Main Market Square in Kraków. Built in the 14th century, its foundations date back to the early 13th century and serve as one of the best examples of Polish Gothic architecture. Standing 80 m (262 ft) tall, it is particularly famous for its wooden altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss (Wit Stwosz). Some of its monumental polychrome murals were designed by Poland's leading history painter, Jan Matejko (1898-1891). In 1978 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the Historic Centre of Kraków. On every hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, a trumpet signal—called the Hejnał mariacki—is played from the top of the taller of Saint Mary's two towers. The plaintive tune breaks off in mid-stream, to commemorate a famous 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before a Mongol attack on the city. The noon-time hejnał is heard across Poland and abroad broadcast live by the Polish national Radio 1 Station. Saint Mary's Basilica also served as an architectural model for many of the churches that were built by the Polish diaspora abroad, particularly those like Saint Michael's and Saint John Cantius in Chicago, designed in the Polish Cathedral style.
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is the largest Roman Catholic Church in the United States and North America, and is one of the ten largest churches in the world. Designated by the USCCB as a National Sanctuary of Prayer and Pilgrimage, the Basilica is the nation's preeminent Marian shrine, dedicated to the patroness of the United States; the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception.
Visited by Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI, Saint John Paul II, and Saint Teresa of Calcutta, among others, the Basilica, though distinctly American, rivals the great sanctuaries of Europe and the world. Byzantine-Romanesque in style, its massive, one-of-a-kind superstructure is home to over 80 chapels and oratories that relate to the peoples, cultures and traditions that are the fabric of the Catholic faith and the mosaic of our great nation.
The Basilica also houses the largest collection of contemporary ecclesiastical art on earth.
Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower in Florence, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore; in Italian), is the cathedral of Florence, Italy. It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.
The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink, bordered by white, and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival facade by Emilio De Fabris. The cathedral complex, in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. These three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major tourist attraction of Tuscany.
The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and until the development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed. The cathedral is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is Giuseppe Betori.
Notre-Dame de Paris"Our Lady of Paris", referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th district of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Notre Dame also stands out for its three pipe organs (one historic) and its immense church bells. Construction of the cathedral began in 1163 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and was largely completed by 1260, though it was modified in succeeding centuries. In the 1790s, during the French Revolution, Notre-Dame suffered extensive desecration; much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. In the 19th century, the coronation of Napoleon I and the funerals of many of the French Republic's presidents took place at the cathedral. On August 26, 1944, the Liberation of Paris from German occupation was celebrated in Notre-Dame with the singing of the Magnificat. Beginning in 1963, the cathedral's facade was cleaned of centuries of soot and grime. Another cleaning and restoration project was carried out between 1991 and 2000. The cathedral is a widely recognized symbol of the city of Paris and the French nation. In 1805, it was awarded honorary status as a minor basilica. As the cathedral of the archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame contains the cathedra of the archbishop of Paris (Laurent Ulrich). In the early 21st century, approximately 12 million people visited Notre-Dame annually, making it the most visited monument in Paris.
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica (Latin: Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal enclave that is within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initially planned by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the aging Old St. Peter's Basilica, which was built in the fourth century by Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626 Designed principally by Donato Bramante , Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini , St. Peter's is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and the largest church in the world by interior measure.
While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome (these equivalent titles being held by the Arch-basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome), St. Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines. It has been described as 'holding a unique position in the Christian world' and as 'the greatest of all churches of Christendom.
Saints show us that the human spirit is incredibly powerful when we have strong beliefs. Their faith in God and dedication to inspiring others is a powerful examples of hope and courage. Their lives and legacies remind us to always stay true to our beliefs.
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