This week on the KDFC Lunch Box, I’m giving away tickets to A Cathedral Christmas at Grace Cathedral.  There may be no better way to get into that holiday mood than with one of these memorable concerts with the Cathedral’s famous Choir of Men and Boys.  (Where are the women? So Episcopalian!)   I was perusing the Grace website when I read again the fascinating story of the beautiful Ghiberti Bronze Doors that welcome visitors to the Cathedral.  

These intricately carved panels are copies of the originals by Lorenzo Ghiberti which stood at the entrance to the Baptistry in Florence since the very beginning of the Italian Renaissance. Legend has it that Michelangelo gave them their name, “The Gates of Paradise”.  They were moved indoors in the 1980’s to protect them from our modern dirty world. The story of how Grace Cathedral acquired the doors takes us back to the Nazi occupation of Florence and the quick-thinking of some Italian art-lovers.  Read about it here.