Church Day/Sono pellegrina!

It did not occur to me until this morning that the morning that the Sunday I was to be in Rome was also the feast of the Assumption.  It should have (for years our family vacation schedule revolved around the feast of the Assumption and the Cascade picnic.) but it didn’t.

I knew that I wanted to do some of the churches that were on my itinerary, mostly pilgrimage churches, but I wasn’t sure how many would fit into the day, or if I’d end up in Mass at any of them.   But I mapped eight churches, and decided to check it out 

Church 1. Santa Maria Maggiore.   This church is actually within walking distance of the train station, indeed, it is about as far from the train station on the other side as my hostel is on this side.  So after stopping for a light breakfast, I walked there.   

This church was built in the fifth century and it is a major, papal basilica, and one of the seven pilgrimage churches.   I caught the end of worship here.  The church supposedly has a piece of the Holy crib in it (the manger) and is also the resting place of St. Jerome who translated the Bible into the Latin vulgate (at that time,, the language of the people!).   Ignatius of Loyola celebrated his first mass in this church.   There is also a statue of a priest kneeling in the Nativity chapel, which is amazingly detailed, particularly his tapestry stole and his lace cuffs!

Next, off to St. Paul Outside the Walls (the church where St Paul is buried, also a major papal basilica and a pilgrimage church).  I had indeed scheduled things to be here for the 10 AM mass.  There was a couple of inserts in Italian, but I was able to use Google Translate on my phone to auto-magically translate them, though the scripture I looked up and bookmarks and read along.   I wish there was a way that I could have heard the sermon for the day, but that I could not translate.  The rest either I could translate, or figure out most of.   Mass was long, some 1 hour 20 minutes, and then I took some pictures. 

St. Paul Outside the Walls actually has an Assumption chapel, so I lit a candle there, and then I went out.   On the way out, I happened to notice a cafeteria, which sells wine and beer. It was open, but I chose not to get wine or beer.    Also outside was an amazing sculpture that I had seen at the Vatican, only a smaller version. I was able to get the inspiration and the artist name from this version of it, which was slightly different. For more info on that, check out my slideshows when I get home!!!

My next church, and I have to say the hardest to get to was the church of St. Paul at the three fountains.   The church is at the very end of the Metro line, and alas I did not get any photos on my phone of this one - though I have many on my camera.  You take the B metro all the way to Laurentina, and then walk.  The walk is probably about a kilometer, or .6 miles.  Possibly a little longer. 

It’s confusing because Tre Fontane is the name of a LOT of stuff, and a lot of churches around here, but this is actually the grounds of a Trappist Monastery, which in addition to maintaining this holy site, sells and makes Trappist goods to support themselves.  They have a cafe, but their sales stuff was closed this weekend, though the churches were not.

This is the location of where St. Paul was executed.  Because he was a Roman citizen, Paul could not be crucified as Peter and Jesus were, so he got to be decapitated.   The legend says that when Paul was decapitated, his head bounced three times, and at each place, a spring of water came out of the ground.    You can see this in the art in one of the churches. 

First, at the Metro, there is a sculpture of three heads.  It’s fairly modern and pretty interesting.   

There are two churches.   The first one is a small chapel where clearly the monks do their daily offices (this was enforced by the timing of the offices listed in the tiny Narthex.  This church was small, similar to my churches.    

In the bottom of this church is a rough cell where supposedly Paul was held before his execution.   People leave little slips of paper in the cell with their prayers on them.   

Leaving that little church, you walk up a little path.   This is the path that Paul walked to his execution, and part of the path still has the original stones, and is roped off.   

The second church has a Roman-style mosaic floor, altars with reliefs of Paul’s head on them, where the head supposedly bounced, with the spring underneath.  There is also an ancient column here, which was what Paul was executed against.  Some of the imagery in that chapel was a little grisly for my taste, but the surroundings were so beautiful and peaceful that this was my favorite spiritual site so far. 

At this point I went back to the Train station and for a switch from the B line of the Rome metro to the A line (Mostly) for the next few churches.  I’ll follow this post up with Church Day part 2!!!!