m leading a pilgrimage to places Saint Paul visited to commemorate the pope’s Year of St Paul. We fly out of Houston to Athens on Tuesday April 21st. Paul preached what was perhaps his most creative, but least successful sermon in the shadow of the acropolis in Athens. 
The acropolis has been called the “greatest of all archeological sites.” The Parthenon is the main building on the acropolis. This temple was built in the 5th century B.C. to Athena. Lord Elgin in 1806 took the ancient marble sculptures which decorated the Parthenon to t
he British Museum where they have been preserved from the constant sand-blasting of the fierce winds which bombard this lofty site. Most of the figures had been defaced, broken and esp. decapitated by antiquity dealers and weapons of war by the time Lord Elgin found them. This figure from the East Pediment is remarkably lacking only a forearm, a foot and a hand. Most of the figures were destroyed by a Venetian shell that hit the Parthenon in 1687 where the Turks stored their gunpowder. The shell blew the building apart and shattered the remaining statutes. 
The Metopes are rectangular slabs that went around the Parthenon with mythological scenes carved in high relief. These marbles taken from the South side show the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs.
One cannot view the four Maidens that hold up the porch of the Erechtheum without holding some sympathy for Lord Elgin who is roundly criticized by the Greeks as stealing their art. The three faces are all but indistinguishable from the wear and tear of the 200 years since Lord Elgin took one to London. The English finally made a copy and sent this back to Athens.
From Athens we go to Corinth, and embark on a three day cruise of the Greek islands including Patmos and Rhodes. Ephesus is an important site for Paul. We end up at one of the most sacred churches in Christendom: Santa Sophia in Istanbul. It was last used as a Mosque and is presently surrounded by four Moslem parapets, but the secular government of Turkey has declared it a museum. We fly back to Houston from Istanbul on Monday May 4th.
