Archives

On May 13, 2012, Rome hosted the second annual National March for Life in the city of Rome.  Thousands turned out to show their support of the cause of life.  Despite being a Catholic nation, abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978.  Some of those attending were Dominicans from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas — the Angelicum.  Among those in attendance was American, His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke, the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and formerly the Archbishop of St. Louis. The procession began at the Colosseum, went past the monument to Victor Emmanuel, walked down the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II to the Largo di Torre Argentina, and then continued across the bridge of the angels to finish at Castel Sant’Angelo, near St. Peter’s Basilica.

In a recent AP story appearing in the Washington Post, Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP, a priest of the Province of St. Albert the Great (Central Province) and a professor of philosophy at the Angelicum, is referenced as saying, ”the march united people from around the world against legalized abortion.”

Below is a slideshow of the March.

Rev. Miroslav Konštanc Adam, O.P. takes the Oath of Fidelity

Earlier last month, it was announced that Rev. Miroslav Konštanc Adam, O.P., had been appointed as the new rector of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas(the Angelicum) in Rome.  Fr. Adam has previously served as the Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Angelicum.  In the presence of the faculty and students, Fr. Adam took the canonically required Oath of Fidelity before assuming his new office.  Also in attendance were His Eminence, Georges Marie Cardinal Cottier O.P., the retired theologian to the Papal Household; His Excellency, Archbishop Jean Louis Bruges, O.P., the Secretary for the Congregation for Education; Hon. Miguel Diaz, Ambassador of the United States of America to the Holy See; and the Very Rev. Ed Ruane, O.P., serving as the vicar of the Master of the Order of Preachers.  Fr. Adam succeeds Most Rev. Charles Morerod, O.P., who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as bishop of Lausanne, Genève et Fribourg, Switzerland.  Following the Oath of Fidelity there was a light reception at the Angelicum.

Below is a collection of photographs from the event:

Fr. Miroslav Konštanc Adam, O.P.

The Master of the Order, Very Rev. Bruno Cadoré, O.P.,  announced on 26 March 2012 that the Congregation for Education had approved the selection of Rev. Miroslav Konštanc Adam, O.P., as the new Rector (Rector Magnifico) of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, better known as the “Angelicum”.  Fr. Adam is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Angelicum and serves as a professor on the Faculty of Eastern Canon Law at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.  He is a Dominican priest of the Province of Slovakia.

The Angelicum is the Dominican University in Rome.  It was established as a Pontifical Faculty in 1906 by St. Pius X.  It became a Pontifical University in 1963, under the authority of Bl. John XXIII.  The Angelicum moved to its present site on Rome’s Esquiline Hill, the former convent of Sts. Dominic and Sixtus, in 1932.  Today, the University is no longer open only to Dominican friars and seminarians, but offers degrees to clerical, religious, and lay students.  Its former students include Bl. Pope John Paul II and Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

Fr. Miroslav Konštanc Adam, O.P., was born on August 2, 1963 in Michalovce in Slovakia. He obtained a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the Veterinary Medicine University of Košice (Slovakia) in 1987; following which he worked for several years in the field of Veterinarian Science. In 1989, he entered the clandestine Dominican novitiate in former communist Czechoslovakia.  He made his first profession the following year and his solemn profession in 1993.  He was ordained a priest in 1995.  In the same year, he completed his Masters in Theology from the University of Palacky of Olomouc (Czech Republic).  In 2001, he obtained his Doctorate in Canon Law from the Angelicum.  His pastoral ministry includes being the Chaplain at the University of Business Administration and serving at the Parish of St. Mary of the Snow in Bratislava (Slovakia).  In 2001, he was elected the first Dominican Provincial in Slovakia. In addition, he taught canon law at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Trnava in Bratislava and at the Theological Institute of St. Thomas Aquinas in Kiev in the Ukraine. In 2005, he was appointed Professor of canon law in the Faculty of Canon Law at the Angelicum.  In December 2009, he became the Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law and Vice Rector of the Angelicum. He also serves as a Pontifical Commissioner for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrate Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life in Rome.

We continue to look at the Stational Churches of Lent.  These are particular churches in Rome associated with a particular day.  Every day in Lent has, by ancient custom, a stational church associated with it.  This series examines the stational churches associated with the Sundays of Lent.

Basilica of St Peter, Winter 2012

For the past Sundays, we have followed the path of the Stational Churches on the Sunday of Lent.  For the most part, they have kept us close to the Basilica of St. John Lateran.  This ought not be too surprising, as this is the cathedral church of Rome–the See of the Bishop of Rome and therefore the mother Church of all of the Churches of Christendom.

On this Sunday, we are for the first time on a Sunday on the other side of the Tiber river, having left secular Rome for the sanctity of the Vatican Hill.  For the Fifth Sunday in Lent, the stational church is the church of St. Peter in the Vatican.  In the popular consciousness of many Catholics, it is this Basilica that is most clearly tied to the Holy Father.  It is, after all, in apartments connected to this Basilica where the current Pope resides.  It is the Sistine Chapel where the Pope is elected.  An so, as Dom Guerenger can write in his book on The Liturgical year: “At Rome, the Station is in the basilica of St. Peter. The importance of this Sunday, which never gives way to any feast, no matter what its solemnity may be, required that the place for the assembly of the faithful should be in one of the chief sanctuaries of the holy city.”  This Solemnity is maintained, as the usual Solemnity of the Annunciation, which falls on this day, is transferred to Monday, from its usual day exactly 9 months before Christmas.

We continue to look at the Stational Churches of Lent.  These are particular churches in Rome associated with a particular day.  Every day in Lent has, by ancient custom, a stational church associated with it.  This series examines the stational churches associated with the Sundays of Lent.

Last week–the third Sunday in Lent–saw us far from the center of Rome at the Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls.  For this Fourth week in Lent we find ourselves once again in the ambit of the St. John Lateran, the Pope’s Cathedral.  If you were to exit from the front of St. John Latern and continue straight, you would find yourself on the Viale Luciano Lama.  This wide street runs parallel both to the old city walls of Rome as well as to a long, narrow modern park, filled with old Italians and their newspapers and young Italians and their dogs.  At the end of that street you would come straight to the entrance of the stational church for this Fourth Sunday of Lent, Basilica Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.

Apse fresco of St. Helen bringing the relics from Jerusalem

Like many of the Stational Churches of Lent, this Basilica, one of the seven major Basilicas of Rome, has ties to the ancient practice of Christianity in Rome.  The Original Church was consecrated in the year 325– the same year as the Council of Nicea.  It is believed that the property was once the Sessorian Palace, owned by Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine.  Helen was a devout Christian who one year organized a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  There, she and her entourage discovered a great treasure of relics of the life and especially the passion of Christ.  These she brought back with her to Rome.  Among the relics she brought with her were spines from the crown of thorns, one the nails that pierced Christ, a piece of the true cross, a large plank from the cross of the “good thief”, the incorrupt finger of St. Thomas the Apostle (the “Doubting Thomas” who touched the wounds of the risen Christ); a piece of the pillar on which Christ was scourged; a piece of the crib of the infant Jesus, a small piece of Christ’s tomb.  These may now all be found in a small chapel, renovated in an art deco style in the 1930s.  She also brought other relics which can be found in other churches, especially the stairs from the office of Pontius Pilate, which can be found at the Sancta Scale near St. John Lateran.

Titulus Crucis Stone

However, perhaps the most interesting find was the so-called Titulus Cucis, or the Title of the Cross.  The Gospel stories tell us that when Christ was crucified there was a sign placed on the top reading, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin the words: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.  This was also apparently one of the relics brought by Helen.  There are few other records in history of the discovery of this relic, which was lost for almost 1000 years.  In 1492, a brick was discovered in the Basilica carved with the words “Titulus Crucis”.  Upon removing the stone, workers found a silver coffer sealed by Cardinal Gerardus, later Pope Lucius I.  It is believed that the coffer was hidden to protect it from the invading Visigoths.  That coffer contained an ancient piece of wood, with remnants of the words “Jesus of Nazareth, King” in Greek, Latin and Hebrew.  Curiously, the word in all languages is written, not from left to right as would have been the norm in medieval Latin, but from right to left, as Hebrew is written.  This strongly suggests that the piece discovered was not a medieval forgery, but truly comes from the Holy Land.  The same Titulus Crucis is mentioned in the diary of Egeria, a Spanish nun of the fourth century who writes of her pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the veneration to the Titulus Crucis that she witnessed there.  It is believed that when Helen found the Titulus, she had it broken into three parts, keeping one in Jerusalem, giving one to her son Constantine, and bringing this piece back with her to Rome.

Relic of the Title of the Cross

And so, as we approach the mid-point of Lent, our Stational pilgrimage leads us to the implements of the passion of Christ.  We begin to look more intently towards those days of Holy Week.  Here at the Church of the Holy Cross, we can even see the implements of his passion — the thorns that pierced his sacred head, the nails that affixed has body to the cross, and even the sign that declared him King.  We ought to recall the words of the Prophet Isaiah:  “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.”  (Isaiah 53:5 RSV)  What the Prophet foretold, what we know by faith, we can still see in the relics of those implements.  This Fourth Sunday of Lent is often called Laetare (Rejoice!) Sunday, as this is the first word of the Mass.  On this day we rejoice not in the suffering of our Lord, but in the salvation he has won for us through his crucifixion.  And so, our meditation on His death and resurrection should stir up in us greater faith in his truth, hope in his salvation, and joy in our ability to love the God who first loved us.

Crucifix designed from the image on the Shroud

Just past the chapel of the holy relics is another small room housing an image related to the death of our Lord–the Holy Shroud of Turin.  This is not the original shroud, but a full-sized replica of the original that runs the length of the wall.  One can see clearly the negative image of our Lord’s scourged body impressed upon the cloth.  In this room is also is a statue of Christ on the cross that was done to match the image of the body found on the original Shroud.  And so our collection of the tangible reminders of the Passion of Christ are all available for us to see and ponder.

St. Helen

Over the course of the centuries, this church has been added on to and remodeled a great number of times.  However, the oldest part of the building is a small room underneath the current sanctuary.  This portion goes back to the initial use of the site as the Empress’s palace.  In fact, it is believed that the small chapel there was once the private chapel of St. Helen herself.  Outside that chapel now is a statue of St. Helen from Roman times, copied from a pagan statue of the goddess Juno, shown holding a large wooden cross.  At the foot of the statue is soil brought to Rome by St. Helen from the Holy Land.  It is now under plexiglass, and you can see the hundreds of written intentions from the devout faithful that have been placed, in this earth where Christ stood.  Above on the ceiling is a large mosaic put up in the 1400s, but based on the original mosaics commissioned by the Emperor Valentinian II almost 1600 years ago.

This Stational Day–the Fourth Sunday in Lent–is often called Rose Sunday, in part because this is one of the two days in the Liturgical year on which the priest may wear Rose colored vestments.  But the origin of this name is not actually because of the color of the vestments worn on this day.  Rather, this was the day on which the Holy Father, while at the Church of Santa Croce, traditionally bestowed the Golden Rose to one of Christendom’s Catholic princes.  The great 19th century liturgist Dom Guerenger describes this ceremony in his master work, The Liturgical Year:

The blessing of the Golden Rose is one of the ceremonies peculiar to the Fourth Sunday of Lent, which is called on this account Rose Sunday. The thoughts suggested by this flower harmonize with the sentiments wherewith the Church would now inspire her Children. The joyous time of Easter is soon to give them a spiritual Spring, of which that of nature is but a feeble image. Hence, we cannot be surprised that the institution of this ceremony is of a very ancient date. We find it observed under the Pontificate of St. Leo the Ninth (eleventh century); and we have a Sermon on the Golden Rose preached by the glorious Pope Innocent the Third, on this Sunday, and in the Basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem. In the Middle Ages, when the Pope resided in the Lateran Palace, having first blessed the Rose, he went on horseback to the Church of the Station. He wore the miter, was accompanied by all the Cardinals, and held the blessed Flower in his hand. Having reached the Basilica, he made a discourse on the mysteries symbolized by the beauty, the color, and the fragrance of the Rose. Mass was then celebrated. After the Mass, the Pope returned to the Lateran Palace. Surrounded by the sacred College, he rode across the immense plain which separates the two Basilicas, with the mystic Flower still in his hand. We may imagine the joy of the people as they gazed upon the holy symbol. When the procession had got to the Palace gates, if there were a Prince present, it was his privilege to hold the stirrup, and assist the Pontiff to dismount; for which filial courtesy he received the Rose, which had received so much honor and caused such joy.

Dom Guerenger also gives us in his work a translation of the great prayer used by the Pope for the blessing of the Golden Rose:

O God! by whose word and power all things were created, and by whose will they are all governed! O thou, that art the joy and gladness of all thy Faithful people! we beseech thy Divine Majesty, that thou vouchsafe to bless and sanctify this Rose, so lovely in its beauty and fragrance. We are to bear it, this day, in our hands, as a symbol of spiritual joy; that thus, the people that is devoted to thy service, being set free from the captivity of Babylon, by the grace of thine Only Begotten Son, who is the glory and the joy of Israel, may show forth, with a sincere heart, the joys of that Jerusalem, which is above, and is our Mother. And whereas thy Church seeing this symbol, exults with joy, for the glory of thy Name;- do thou, O Lord! give her true and perfect happiness. Accept her devotion, forgive us our sins, increase our faith; heal us by thy word, protect us by thy mercy; remove all obstacles; grant us all blessings; that thus, this same thy Church may offer unto thee the fruit of good works; and walking in the odor of the fragrance of that Flower, which sprang from the Root of Jesse, and is called the Flower of the Field, and the Lily of the Valley, may she deserve to enjoy an endless joy in the bosom of heavenly glory, in the society of all the Saints, together with that Divine Flower, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

O God, who through your Word reconcile the human race to yourself in a wonderful way, grant, we pray, that with prompt devotion and eager faith the Christian people may hasten toward the solemn celebrations to come.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

We continue to look at the Stational Churches of Lent.  These are particular churches in Rome associated with a particular day.  Every day in Lent has, by ancient custom, a stational church associated with it.  This series examines the stational churches associated with the Sundays of Lent.

On the first Sunday of Lent, we encountered the great Basilica of St. John Lateran, notable both for its size and its tie to the Holy Father.  Not far from St. John Lateran, in fact, just a short walk down the Via dell’Amba Aradam, we come to the much more modest church of Santa Maria in Domnica.  Yet, it somehow seems fittting that as we move through this Lenten season we are brought to the humility of Mary on this second Sunday of Lent.  The grand splendor of St. John’s Basilica gives way to Mary’s small church.  For, it is Mary who was with Christ from the beginning, Mary who was there when he began his ministry, Mary who stood beside his cross, and Mary who prayed with the Apostles in the Upper Room as the Holy Spirit descended in tongues of flame.  We do not make our Lenten journey without Mary, for Christ did not make his salvific journey without Mary.

Like St. John Lateran, the site of this Church has ancient Christian roots.  The location as a gathering place for Christians seems go back as early as the third century.  By tradition, these early Christians, gathering in a time of persecution, came to this house owned by Cyriaca, a Greek woman.  Nearby was a Roman barracks, on the site of what is now San Stefano Rotondo.  The Basilica of Santa Maria in Domnica probably did not first become a church, but rather a diaconia.  That is, it was a place given over to the care of the poor, often headed by a deacon of Rome.  This diaconia was especially associated with the martyr St. Lawrence, an important deacon in Rome and keeper of the Church’s treasury.  It is said that the Emperor once had St. Lawrence brought before him and demanded to be given the treasury of the church.  The holy saint agreed, asking leave to retrieve it.  He returned with the poor, the orphans, and the sick, proclaiming to the Emperor that this was the true treasury of the Church.  He was eventually executed, his body being taken by Cyriaca and buried in her family cemetery at what is now the Church of St. Lawrence outside the Walls. This former diacona should remind us of our duty of service through almsgiving in this Lenten season.

Ninth Century Mosaic

In the 9th Century, the Pope, Paschal I, has the old diaconia, which was then falling apart, torn down and replaced with the current church, done in a stye to hearken back to the early Christians in Rome.  About 700 years later, the church found itself again in a state of disrepair and was renovated by a Cardinal of the Medici family, who later became Pope Leo X.

The name of the Church is a bit of a mystery.  Some hypothesize that it is the Latin form of Cyriaca, the woman whose home it was, from the Greek word meaning “of the Lord”.  (The Greek word being Kyrie of the Kyrie Eleison that we sometimes sing at Mass).  The Latin form of the Greek word would be Domnica.  Some also guess that the word is merely a corruption of dominicum, which was commonly used to describe Rome’s numerous house-churches.  Finally, some have even posited that the word (which is grammatically feminine) refers to the wife of the Emperor, and that perhaps she donated the land for the Church.

The Navicella in front of Santa Maria in Domnica

But the Church also has a second name, Santa Maria alla Navicella, which is also the name of the street on which the Basilica stands.  The origin of this name we do know.  Nacicella means ‘little boat’ and it refers to the marble statue of the small boat (a 16th century replica of an ancient statue) that has stood in front of the since the time of its renovation by the Cardinal de Medici.  (See photo)  The image of the boat is a common one for the Church and for Mary

Upon entering the Church one notices immediately the great mosaic on the back of the Apse.  (See photos.)  The Mosaic goes back to the time of Pope Paschal, the early 820s.  The image depicts Mary seated on a throne with the child Jesus in her lap.  The style is very much influenced by the Byzantine style of art that remained popular through much of the early middle ages.  Surrounding Mary are “myriads of angels in festal gathering” (Heb 12:22)

At the feet of the Blessed Virgin is an unusual figure–a man with a square halo.  In the Byzantine style, a square halo meant that the person depicted was still living.  This, then, is an image of Pope Paschal, venerating the Blessed Virgin Mary.  This main scene in the Apse is flanked by two other figures–most likely Moses and Elijah.  In keeping with the ancient tradition, the liturgical reading for this day is the story of the Transfiguration.  (In fact, the priest is directed on this day to use the Preface from the Feast of the Transfiguration.)  The people gathered for Mass on this day not only hear of the glorified Christ with Moses and Elijah, in this church they also see him in his humanity with the glorious and ever Virgin Mary, accompanied by Moses and Elijah–a wonderful example of the ancient tendency to link art and liturgy that has been so sadly lost in our modern age.

Spes Nostra Salve

Above these,one sees another mosaic frieze of Christ and his Apostles (and two angels).  Christ, seated within a mandorla (the almond shaped figure that is meant to represent the union of heaven and earth), is flanked by the Apostles each holding an iconic symbol.  Peter, holding the keys of his office, can be clearly seen to the right of Christ.

Above these Carolingian mosaics is a baroque ceiling placed by Cardinal de Medici.  The various panels of the ceiling depict images of the Blessed Virgin, many of them from types from the Old Testament, as well as the Cardinal’s coat of arms.  To the right is a depiction of the Arc, a symbol of the Blessed Virgin.  It also mirrors the marble carving of the boat in front of the Church.  As the boat symbolizes the Church, so it symbolizes Mary who is a type of the Church.  As the Second Vatican Council teaches us, “the Mother of God is a type of the Church in the order of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ.”  (LG 63)  The words on this boat recall the words of the Salve Regina:  Spes Nostra Salve, “Hail, our Hope”.

Below is a collection of images of this ancient Church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.  May the beauty of this Church continue to aid us so that by following our Lenten observances, we may better imitate Mary in our love and fidelity to Christ.

O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved Son, be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word, that with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The current edition of the Roman Missal instructs us that:

It is strongly recommended that the tradition of gathering the local Church after the fashion of the Roman “stations” be kept and promoted, especially during Lent and least in larger towns in cities, in a way best suited to individual places.

Such gatherings of the faithful can take place, especially with the chief Pastor of the diocese presiding, on Sundays or other more convenient days during the week, either at the tombs of the saints, or in the principal churches or shrines of a city, or even in the more frequently visited places of pilgrimage in the diocese.

If a procession precedes a Mass celebrated for such a gathering, according to circumstances and local conditions, the faithful gather at a smaller church or some other suitable place . . .  Then the procession makes its way to the church in which Mass will be celebrated and meanwhile the Litany of the Saints is sung.  Invocations to the Patron Saint or the Founder Saint and to the Saints of the local Church may be inserted at the appropriate point in the Litany.

Historically, Stational Churches were associated with liturgical processions, especially in the holy seasons of penance throughout the year.  The faithful would gather together in the morning at a particular location, and process to one of the churches to participate in the holy liturgy.  Often times, these liturgies would be associated with a major prelate or even the Holy Father himself.  They were truly expressions of the Church — the people of God gathered together in the unity of prayer and sacrament, surrounding the one altar, led by the Bishop who both represents Christ and stands as a successor to the Apostles.

Eventually, a stable pattern was established, and particular days (the “Station Days”) were associated with particular churches.  This custom continues in our own time.  In fact, the American diocesan seminarians in Rome (who live at the North American College) continue this tradition with daily Mass at each of the stational churches.  They have produced an extensive series of reflections on each of the stational churches, which is available online.

Main Doors, St. John Lateran Basilica

For the first Sunday of Lent, the stational church is, appropriately, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, one of Rome’s four principal Basilicas.  It is a common misconception to believe that the Basilica of St. Peter on the Vatican hill is the Pope’s Cathedral.  In fact, the ecclesial See of the Bishop of Rome is St. John Lateran, and hence its status as Rome’s Archbasilica.  As the inscription on the facade proclaims: “SACROSANCTA LATERANENSIS ECCLESIA OMNIUM URBIS ET ORBIS ECCLESIARUM MATER ET CAPUT”  (“The Most Holy Lateran Church, of all the churches in the city and the world, the Mother and Mistress”)

In his great work on The Liturgical Year, Dom Prosper Gueranger tells us:

The Station, at Rome, is in the patriarchal Basilica of Saint John Lateran. It was but right, that a Sunday, of such solemnity as this, should be celebrated in the Church which is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches, not only of the Holy City itself, but of the whole world. It was here that the public Penitents were reconciled on Maundy Thursday [Holy Thursday]; it was here, also, in the Baptistery of Constantine, that the Catechumens received Baptism on the night preceding Easter Sunday. No other Basilica could have had such a claim for the Station of a day like this; for it was there that the Lenten Fast had been so often proclaimed by Leo and Gregory.

Were one to walk from St. Peter’s to the Lateran basilica, one would follow a fairly straight bath to the south east.  On his way, he would pass the great Roman forum–the place in ancient Rome that was the residence for the wealthiest and most powerful of the Empire.  He would also pass the great Colosseum, the center of Roman entertainment, an entertainment often barbaric in its brutality, and also the likely entryway into heaven for many a Christian martyr.  After a time, he would arrive at the great and imposing structure of the Lateran.

The Lateran Basilica itself was originally built under the title of Christ the Savior.  The site was originally land owned by the Laterani family, from whom the Basilica gets its name.  The land eventually was owned by the Emperor Constantine, and it was he who gave it over to the Church of Rome.  Likely adapting an existing structure, the Lateran Basilica stands out as the oldest of the four major Basilicas of Rome.

In the back of the apse one finds the great chair, or cathedra in Latin (from which we get the word Cathedral), of its Bishop, the Pope.  The remainder of the Church evinces a typical Basilica style, with a large nave lined with columns on either side.  Like most churches in Rome, evidence of its earlier medieval deocration can still be found, but it has mostly been redone in the lavish baroque style popular in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The nave leads to an elevated Apse, with side transepts marking the cruciform shape of the building.  Above the apse is a great dome, serving to accentuate the holiness of the sanctuary as the place of the presentation of the sacramental mysteries.  It is a grand structure that in both its ancient tie to the early church and its tie to the Supreme Pontiff accentuates our unity as Christians in this penitential season.

This stational church also serves to point us to the Holy Triduum and the saving action of Christ on the cross.  Besides the original title of the Basilica–Christ the Savior–the Basilica was also home to many relics of the passion of Christ.  According to tradition, St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, traveled to Jerusalem on pilgrimage and returned with many items associated with the Lord’s passion.  Among these were the Santa Scale, the holy steps.  These are thought to be the steps on which Jesus climbed when he was taken to see Pontius Pilate shortly before his crucifixion.  The stairs are now located in a building to the side of St. John Lateran, but remain an important pilgrimage place for many Catholics.  The ancient custom is to climb the stairs on one’s knees, praying at each step.

While we are not all able to make the pilgrimage to this holy stational church on this first Sunday of Lent, we can at least unite ourselves in prayer with the Holy Father.  Below are some recent images of the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

For a more thorough view of this great Basilica, see the Virtual Tour of the Basilica available through the Vatican’s website.

Grant, almighty God, through the yearly observance of holy Lent, that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Basilica of Santa Sabina

In the long history of the Church of Rome, in certain liturgical seasons we find the tradition of station days.  These days were originally days of fasting and penance, to which were accompanied liturgical processions.  The churches in Rome associated with these processions on particular days became known as stational churches.  The best known stational churches are the ones associated with the season of Lent.  Thus the Catholic faithful in Rome during Lent found an opportunity to attend pious processions throughout the penitential season.  The tradition of the stational church continues on in Rome, especially on the feast of Ash Wednesday.  On that day, the Holy Father arrives at the Benedictine Monastery of St. Anselm (San Anselmo) to begin the liturgy.  Gathered with him in the small monastery church are the Dominicans and Benedictines in choir, along with various cardinals, bishops, clerics, and lay people.  Then begins a procession from San Anselmo to the Dominican church of St. Sabina (Santa Sabina), just up the Aventine hill.  In procession, the gathered faithful sing together the litany of the saints.

Upon arriving at Santa Sabina, the Holy Father begins the Mass of Ash Wednesday.  The Pope distributes ashes personally to the gathered cardinals and bishops.  In the Italian style, ashes are usually sprinkled on the crown of the head, rather than marked on the forehead.  During the Mass, the Dominican friars and Benedictine monks assist the Holy Father in the liturgy, serving as deacons and altar servers.  A few of the priests of St. Joseph Province had the opportunity to assist this year in the distribution of ashes to the people in Santa Sabina, as well as the many attending outside the very full church.  The same friars also distributed Holy Communion to the Cardinals and lay people alike in the Basilica of Santa Sabina.

The Basilica was built from the home of the holy woman martyr Sabina in the 5th century by a Roman priest, Peter of Illyria.  The park next to the basilica continues to bear his name.  A wooden door dating to the fifth century, which is still in use, contains the oldest known depiction in art of Christ crucified.  The relics of St. Sabina can be found under the high altar of the Church.  In the early 13th century, Pope Honorius III gave the Church to the new and rapidly growing Dominican Order.  The adjacent convent has served as home to St. Dominic, Pope St. Pius V, St. Hyacinth of Poland, and St. Thomas Aquinas.  It remains the headquarters of the Dominican Order and the home of the Master of the Order of Preachers.

Below is a slideshow with some very few photos of the Ash Wednesday liturgy both at San Anselmo and Santa Sabina, interspersed with some pictures of the Basilica of Santa Sabina taken the day before.

This winter, Rome had a rare snowstorm.  The city was shut down, but people flocked to St. Peter’s square to make snowmen, throw snowballs, and enjoy the beauty of the winter snow.  Below is a slideshow of some of the winter scene in Rome.