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February 5, 2007
Day 13
It was January 9th and this morning we delayed our celebration of Mass by a half hour so we could celebrate it in English. Then after breakfast we went to return the car to the rental agency and then caught a taxi from there to St. Paul Outside the Walls. We were to go to our last two Patriarchal Basilicas today. If anyone at St. Edward thinks our Easter Candle is too big they should take a look at the Easter Candle stand in the right side of this picture.
From there we went to Santa Sabina, a Dominican church, where Sr. Mary Mark had arranged for Sr. Margaret to give us a tour.
This fifth century Church was a delightful place to visit. Sr. Margaret gave us a thorough explanation of the fifth century doors which included one of the first artistic renditions of the crucifixion. Here is the detail of the door which shows the Resurrection.
The Church was given to the Dominicans in the 13th century and we had the grace and opportunity to spend some times in the rooms that were occupied by St. Dominic and the rooms of Pope Pius V. Sr. Mary Mark will have to remind me of the significance of the orange tree outside Dominic’s cell, because I did not put it in my journal
Here is a picture of the original 17th century painting by Lavinia Fontana of the Blessed Mother giving the rosary to St. Dominic.
I took this picture in St. Pius V’s cell where it is hidden from public view. A copy hangs in the main church in a side chapel. Apparently the original has been stolen before and Sr. Margaret told the story of a Dominican seeing the thief carry the painting down the street.
We did some browsing through the little bookstore at Santa Sabina. We met some Diocesan priests from England in the shop and I purchased a few gifts and a replacement for the Leather cover that was on my breviary.
Then we went over to the Angelicum where Fr. Luke Buckles OP treated us to a fine lunch and then gave us a tour.
From there we walked over to St. Mary Major to complete our visits to the Patriarchal Basilicas. Across the street we stopped for Gelato and then walked to the Basilica of Santa Prassede where St. Gaspar’s parents were married. In this church there are some beautiful mosaics and the remnants of the pillar from the Scourging.
A few blocks from S. Prassede is the Carmelite Church of San Silvestre where St. Gaspar was baptized.
And from there we went to see the Altieri Palace where Gaspar grew up and across the street we visited the Jesuit Church of the Gesu where we found the relic of St. Francis Xavier that was so instrumental in Gaspar being cured of a serious disease when he was a boy. I think this completed our tour of those Gasparian sites we missed on that first day.
From there we walked over to the Pantheon thinking we might have dinner at Sagrestia. Italians eat dinner much later than we do so the Restaurant was not even open yet.
We did some browsing in nearby shops to kill some time, but we were pretty tired and hungry and several of us wanted to get off our feet so we found this little bar where we had a scotch and some snacks. Then when the restaurant opened we had another marvelous dinner. Looks like it made Stan pretty happy.
After dinner we went home for an early evening. It had been a very full day and we always ended each day pretty tired.
Posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. at February 5, 2007 12:15 PM
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Comments
It's great to see a picture of Fr. Luke. He,too,is a Retrouvaille priest with a wonderful heart. We have been blessed to do several weekends with Fr. Luke over the years. Our prayers are with him in his new assignment.
Maria Elena & Dave
Posted by: Maria Elena at February 17, 2007 6:16 PM