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Christianity

A huddle grows around the high priests, with one young priest bearing an ikon, or holy picture, while others hold ornate gold and silver crosses.

Keepers of the Lost Ark?

Christians in Ethiopia have long claimed to have the ark of the covenant. Our reporter investigated

Christmas in Lalibela

50,000 pilgrims descend on Ethiopia’s “new” Jerusalem

The Sucevita Monastery was built in the last decades of the 16th century in the Moldavian style, a blend of Byzantine and Gothic art and architecture. The exterior walls' striking frescoes (above, "The Ladder of Virtues," contrasting the order of heaven with the chaos of hell) still retain their brilliant hues.

Scripture Alfresco

450-year-old paintings on the exterior of monasteries and churches-—now open again for worship-—tell vivid tales of saints and prophets, heaven and hell

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Celebrating St. Patrick

On March 17, everyone’s green-even the Chicago River. Yet St. Patrick remains colored in myth

Vision of St Maria Magdalena di Pazzi from the Museo de Bellas Artes, Granada

Ask Smithsonian

Who Was Mary Magdalene?

From the writing of the New Testament to the filming of The Da Vinci Code, her image has been repeatedly conscripted, contorted and contradicted

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Preacher on the Go

Tiny Smith Island has three churches but only one pastor, who gets around by boat and Golf Cart

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