Photos of the Week: Assumption of Mary; Bali mass cremation

By Kit Doyle · August 16, 2024
 (RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes annual Assumption of Mary rituals, a mass cremation in Bali and more. Men move a cremation tower containing the remains of 220 people during a traditional mass cremation called ''ngaben'' on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in Manggis, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati) Men put the remains of their deceased relatives into a tower during a traditional mass cremation called ''ngaben'' on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in Manggis, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati) Fire engulfs giant effigies of mythical animals containing the remains of more than 200 people during a traditional mass cremation called ''ngaben'' on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in Manggis, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati) Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men pray during the mourning ritual of Tisha B’Av at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City, Aug. 13, 2024. The Jewish holy day of Tisha B’Av, when Jews mourn the destruction of the biblical temples, is marked Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg) Bangladesh Hindus hold a protest rally condemning communal atrocities committed against them and other religious minority groups in the Muslim-majority country, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar) Members of the clergy hold candles during a processional from the Saint-Vincent Cathedral of Saint-Malo to observe the Assumption of Mary, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in Saint-Malo, France. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Catholics take part in a procession following the icon of the Virgin Mary during the feast day of the Assumption of Mary in the small town of Trakai, roughly 20 miles west of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis) Iraqi Catholics light candles during the feast day of the Assumption of blessed Virgin Mary at Virgin Mary Church in central Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) A woman walks past a bas-relief depicting early Zoroastrians at a Parsi colony on Navroze, the Parsi New Year, in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) A man searches for reusable material amid offerings and idols of Hindu goddess Dashama, left by devotees on the banks of River Sabarmati after the end of the ten-day Dashama festival, in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki) Archival Photos Worshipers gather outside the Chapel of the Madonna, which is perhaps one of the smallest churches in the world, for Mass on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Aug. 15, 1974. The feast day is the only time during the year in which the church is used. The tiny nine-by-nine foot structure, located in Bayou Goula, a community 24 miles from Louisiana’s state capital at Baton Rouge, is so small that in addition to its altar, only a priest and an altar boy can fit inside. The approximately 200 worshipers who annually attend the Mass on the Feast of the Assumption must assemble on the front lawn of the tiny chapel and the altar must be moved outside. The chapel, which was featured in Ripley’s “Believe It or Not,” was built in 1903 by Anthony Gullo, a poor immigrant Italian sugarcane farmer. When Gullo’s son was gravely ill he promised to erect, as far as he was able, a chapel to the Madonna if she interceded for the youth. The boy did recover and Gullo kept his promise with the help of friends who assisted in building the tiny building amid sugarcane fields near the Mississippi River. By 1932, the original building had deteriorated and was replaced by the present one of the same size. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.) Greek Cypriote refugee women rest in the shade of a tree inside the British air base at Dhekelia, Cyprus, on Aug. 28, 1974. While there is no accurate count on the number of Greek Cypriote refugees created by the Turkish invasion of the island, at least 140,000 fled their homes. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
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