Postcard #65

Heleny Campoy

Christmas at the St Anthony of Padua Church, Istanbul, Turkey

St. Anthony of Padua Church, alternatively known as the Sent Antuan Bazilikası or Sant’Antonio di Padova Church, S. Antonio di Padova, St. Antoine, or locally as Sent Antuan, is a basilica and the largest church of the Roman Catholic Church in Istanbul, Turkey.

Along with the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit (1846) in the Harbiyedistrict, St. Louis of the French (1581) and Santa Maria Draperis in Beyoğlu, Sts. Peter and Paul (1841) in Galata, Assumption Church in the Moda quarter of Kadıköy, St. Stephen in Yeşilköy and Bakırköy Church in Bakırköy, St. Anthony of Padua is one of the most important Catholic churches in Istanbul, and among them has the largest community following its Masses.

Published by Heleny Campoy

My initial step in gaining a concept of ‘living’, was to read. Books became my first love, the toy I most cherished; my ultimate desire. From this viewpoint, I have already been living life to the full. I can remember the very first book I held in my hands. It smelt of fresh ideas escaping into a dead world…bringing it to life. The pages were the path I took to transform that four year old girl into a dreamer. I grew up dreaming: with my books, with 78B2308F-FB45-4C8B-8106-C92EF928305Amy music. The myriad of places I visited, exchanging my simple clothes, living life aplenty through the lives of each of those characters I adored. I was a fairy, a queen, a brave musketeer, a defiant knight, a wise philosopher. Those were my steps to becoming the ‘me’ I am today. Idealistic, but not with my feet off the ground. Full of innovative ideas, yet always ideas imbued with a sense of real fantasy. Believing that everything is possible, I built my byways to now, to this very moment! Today, when I turn my eyes to the tree with its autumnal vestment, the birds are flying to another place far away; I will fly there too… Indeed, travel has been the other cherry atop my fairy-cake of life. The absolute pinnacle. The best moments happen when I am on the move – in Asia or America. Dry and sunny deserts, or snowy mountain-tops. In the middle of a Thai market full of people thriving to live. In a jungle, where every species competes to stay alive. It doesn’t matter where, life flows in my veins, a life worth being lived. This amalgam of books, travel and ideas, has created a person who is hard to define. Strange, reclusive, naïve – the ‘labelling’ has been persistent, but I have learned to accept it and move on. This space is about ideas (mostly mine), mixed with travels, sensations and feelings. It’s not to anybody. It’s for the chosen. But, it is not for me to choose… it’s for you. Welcome then. Give me your mind, and take my hand, it will be something of a roller coaster through uncharted territory.