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Oh, yes, I mentioned this earlier last week and forgot to post a discussion about it. My final stop along the way in my “take the Ark out for a drive” trip was St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama. Once upon a time there was a monk serving there by the name of Brother Joseph Zoettl. He was born in Bavaria in 1878 and came to the U.S. when he was all of 14 to dedicate himself to the monastic life as a Benedictine monk. By trade, he worked at the abbey’s power plant. However, he had another skill: creating miniature replicas of buildings and towns. He worked on this “hobby” from 1912 until 1958, three years before his death. The photo on the bottom is a replica of Herod’s Temple, which stood at the time of Jesus. The top right is his recreation of St. Peter’s and Vatican Square (and, for size comparison, I am in front of it in the top left). One of the most amazing things is that Brother Joseph only visited six of the places he recreated, most of them being his hometown churches and the monastery. Despite his detailed work, he’d never been to Rome, Lourdes, Jerusalem, the Great Wall of China, anywhere else he created in miniature. It was an overcast and cool day, but the artwork warmed me immensely.