Today I got an early start, and did the “Pilgrim’s
Tour,” visiting 4 famous churches in
Rome that are destinations for thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims from all
over the world when they come to Rome.
That pilgrims still come was evidenced today as I made the rounds of
these churches and saw a couple of groups of teenaged Roman Catholic kids and
their chaperones at every one! I took
the bus from Trastevere to the big main train station in Rome, Termini and then
walked to the first church.
The first stop was Santa Maria Maggiore, a beautiful
basilica with Byzantine mosaics and a shrine containing “relics of the manger”
in which Jesus was born. The pilgrims go
down to the shrine, which is just below the main altar and offer prayers and
songs as part of their pilgrimage. There
is a huge statue of Pope Pius IX kneeling before the relics as you descend the
marble stairs to the shrine. The
basilica was built in 432 CE, when Rome was disintegrating. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary,
and it is probably no accident that the site of the church was, in Roman pagan
times, the site of a temple to their Goddess Juno! From one goddess to another! Over the altar is a beautiful mosaic and
along the walls lining the entire nave are a series of mosaics depicting
various stories from the Hebrew Scriptures especially the narrative of Moses
leading the Israelites in the wilderness.
Pope Sixtus V is buried there, with an entire chapel dedicated to
his tomb, and the artist Bernini is also interred there, with a plaque up on
the right side of the main altar marking that spot.
The second stop was a much smaller basilica, just a block
away from Santa Maria Maggiore, the church of Santa Prassede, built in 822 CE,
which has by far the most gorgeous mosaics in Rome. There is a small chapel there that is
entirely done in mosaic, most of it gold.
Truly stunning. I chuckled at the
many, many signs they had posted there, literally everywhere you turn, saying
“NO FLASH.” They really mean it,
apparently!
After that I walked about 20 minutes, down to the Church of
San Giovanni in Laterno, which I learned was Emperor Constantine’s first
church, immediately after he won his war against Maxentius and liberated Rome
in 312. This was the seat of papal Rome
until the Renaissance renovation of St. Peter’s. Until 1870 Popes were “crowned” there and
even today, the seat of the Pope is there and it is considered the Pope’s
church. It is a beautiful church inside,
including 4 Golden columns from the pagan Roman temple of Jupiter. The frescoes, mosaics, statues, etc. are
stunning. When I was there, they were
conducting a funeral liturgy so I wasn’t able to get as close to some of the
areas near the main altar, but I did enjoy hearing the choir singing and the
organ playing as they went through the liturgy.
Right across the street from San Giovanni, and part of the pilgrim’s
path there, is a shrine called the Scala Sancta, “the Holy Stairs.” This shrine holds the stairs that, legend
says, were in Pilate’s palace when Jesus was held there before his crucifixion
and which he walked up and down while Pilate was detaining and questioning
him. St. Helena, the mother of
Constantine, allegedly had the stairs brought to Rome from Jerusalem in the
early 4th century, and they are part of the pilgrim’s path to this
day. Those making pilgrimage ascend the
stairs on their knees to pray at a shrine dedicated Jesus’ passion. The signage is quite clear – “These steps may
only be ascended on your knees.” There
were pilgrims doing just that when I was there. For those of us more faint of heart, there
are two other staircases that one can ascend and look into the “holy of
holies”, the private chapel of the popes until the Middle Ages. Those who ascend on their knees can actually
go into that chapel!
The last church is the Basilica of San Clemente, built in the 12th century. It is much smaller than the others, and is built on top of an even earlier church buried underground and beneath that an ancient temple of Mithras. Alas, I got there too late to be able to go down to the lower church and temple, as they close it all at 12:30 and don’t open again till 3!
After visiting the four churches, I got a bus back up to
Termini station and grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went to the National
Museum of Rome, which is right near the station. It has a great collection of Roman statues
that document the rise and fall of ancient Rome. The third floor was my favorite, containing
beautiful mosaics and frescoes from excavated Roman villas of late
antiquity. They were really stunning and
very well presented by the museum. By
the time I was done there it was 3:15 so I wandered back to the station to get
the bus back to Trastevere. One thing I
can say about Rome is that public transportation here is AWFUL, at least the
buses. They seem to have no discernible
schedule. They might show up, they might
not. You sure can’t rely on them to get
you anywhere by a specific time. I
waited 75 minutes and no bus ever materialized so I finally gave up in disgust
and took a cab back home. If the weather
were cooler, I might have walked, because it is only a few miles, but we had
another day with temps in the mid-90s and that Roman sun beating on me in that
intense heat is more than I can manage.
Not to mention I had been on my feet by then for nearly 8 hours and just
wanted to get back to the air conditioning!
Pics today include some shots of the interiors of the
churches, including the pilgrims on the Holy Stairs!
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