Day 26
Dear Friends,
After a good night’s sleep, most of us have recovered from the 2-4 hours of sleep we had the previous night. A group of us left the college at 8 a.m. for a tour of the city with our first stop at Piazza Navona and the great church of Sant’ Agnese overlooking the Fountain of the Four Rivers. The Piazza is built on the lines of the circus of the Emperor Domitian and at 8:30 a.m. was relatively quiet. We stopped and read about the church and square from Georgina Masson’s guidebook on Rome and then made our way to the church of San Luigi dei Francese, the French national parish in Rome, which was unfortunately, closed. We were able to enter San Agostino and admired the sublime Caravaggio painting of a visit of two Italian peasants to Our Lady and the Infant Christ at the house of Loreto. We prayed a bit at the tomb of Saint Monica for all mothers whose children have left the way of the Gospel, for all mothers and for other intentions.
After our visit to San Agostino, we hit a local ATM and with our coffers replenished, visited the Pantheon. Following the Pantheon, we visited Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome’s only true Gothic church which has the mortal remains (some of them) of Saint Catherine of Siena and Beato Angelico. We prayed for all Dominicans and artists and moved out the back door and up the street to the church of Sant’ Ignazio, where St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Aloysius Gonzaga and St. John Berchmans are buried. We prayed for all Jesuits there, especially Fathers Muller and McDermott of the seminary.
We then made our way over to the Gesu, the great church of the Jesuits built next to the house where St. Ignatius died. We went to the tomb of St. Ignatius and saw the relic of St. Francis Xavier, spoke about devotion to the Sacred Heart and prayed.
From there, the men left with Monsignor Monforton for the walk to St. Peter’s square where the group met for the scavi tour. It’s a great tour, but I left the group for visits to a few of my favorite churches in Rome, including the church of the Twelve Apostles, where the remains of the apostles Philip and James (the less) are venerated.
The men met near the center of the old circus where St. Peter was martyred. From there, they entered the excavations under St. Peter’s basilica which took them past some of the funerarary monuments in the old Vatican hill cemetery to the place where St. Peter was buried – the golden cross several hundred feet above, on the top of the dome of the basilica, is above the main altar, which is above the place where St. Peter was buried. The men were much inspired by the place and then made there way back to the college for pranzo, or lunch.
Praying for you and your intentions,
– Father Dan Trapp and the Sacred Heart pilgrims
Our prayers are with you all on your most wonderful adventure. We have been following your daily travels and the fabulous pictures. It is so unbelievable to see all of the sites where Jesus and the Saints lived. It brings the gospel stories to our home. Have a safe trip. We are looking forward to hearing even more stories of the holy land.