Pugin Bicentenary...

It has been a rather full day for me today, and I had nothing scheduled from the other day, but today, the 1st March, is the bicentenary year of the birth of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, a man whose architectural and aesthetic principles accord much with my own. Pugin died very young, at age 40, but accomplished much for the good of the Church in his life.

''Indeed, if we view pointed architecture in its true light as Christian art, as the faith itself is perfect, so are the principles on which it is founded. We may indeed improve in mechanical contrivances to expedite its execution, we may even increase its scale and grandeur; but we can never successfully deviate one little from the spirit and principles of pointed architecture. We must rest content to follow, not to lead; we may indeed widen the road which our Catholic forefathers formed, but we can never depart from their track without a certainty of failure being the result of our presumption.''

So much for ''if it ain't Baroque, don't fix it.''