on Monday, we celebrated the Feast of St. Gregory the Great, who was Pope between 590 and 604 A.D. he is known as "the Father of Christian Worship" due to his expansive work on the liturgy (including the promotion of Gregorian chant, and major contributions to the development of the Byzantine Rite). because of this, he is the patron saint of musicians, singers, and teachers, as well as Nick's own patron. he was also the first pope to adopt the title "servant of the servants of God" (servus servorum).
like many of the popes, St. Gregory is buried at St. Peter's Basilica, just a ten minute walk from our apartment. so in the afternoon, we loaded up the girls and left campus to pay our respects. we happened to see one of the fourth-year seminarians on his way to do the same thing, and walked the rest of the way with him. he used to give tours of St. Peter's and we enjoyed getting to know him better as we waited in the security line. (not too bad at 4:30 PM, but still about a fifteen-minute wait.) in fact, he told Nick that he is putting together a small choir to sing in the Sistine Chapel as part of a special event for an American university later this month, and asked if Nick would like to be involved. um, yes.
as we entered St. Peter's for the second time (for me), i was able to pay far more attention to the details than the previous week when we were hurrying to get to mass. despite all the hustle and bustle of tour groups, there is still an undisputed sense of reverence, awe, and history.
we first walked over to the tomb of St. Gregory, on the left side of the transept. the area around the tomb was roped off. Nick asked the guard if he could pray for a few minutes, but was told it was not possible due to preparations for the 5 o'clock mass. we stood there at the rope, taking in the beautiful mosaic of The Miracle of St. Gregory (when the pope cut a linen cloth that had been on St. Peter's tomb, and the cloth began to bleed). suddenly, a door next to the tomb opened, and the procession of priests and altar boys came out to make their way to the apse for mass.
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| Altar of St. Gregory the Great |
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| to the left of the Altar of St. Gregory stands this Monument to Pope Pius VII |
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the start of the mass procession
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Nick wanted to stay there and pray for a while, so i left Greta with him, and headed back to the front of the church to do a proper tour. thanks again to Rick Steves (he also has a free downloadable audio guide -- i didn't download it for this visit, but will probably take advantage of it on a subsequent trip!). from the entrance, the first point of interest is the large red circle on the floor. this marks the spot where Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in the year 800 A.D. i happened to catch it at a time when no one was walking across it, but believe me, it's not marked or cordoned off in any way, so people just walk right over it without knowing what it signifies.
immediately to the right of the entrance is the little chapel holding Michelangelo's Pieta. i had read numerous reviews lamenting the fact that the statue is now behind bullet-proof glass (after a terrible act of vandalism in 1972), and thus seems far removed from the viewer. so i was expecting it to be roped off from far away, maybe even so far back that you wouldn't be able to make out the details.
nothing could be further from the truth. you can walk right up to the glass, and there it is. the Pieta is one of the must-see sights in Rome that is even more beautiful than the hype would have you believe. tears immediately sprang to my eyes upon seeing the lifelike sculpture. Mary's marble clothes look just like fabric. the expression on her face is heartbreakingly familiar, the same expression every mother wears upon losing a child. i just stood, phone forgotten in my pocket, for a full minute, looking at mother and son. (i noticed one other visitor, an elderly Italian man, doing the same thing. the others were snapping rapid-fire selfies.)
of course, i did want a few photos of my own, so after a while, i pulled out my phone. my camera can't capture all the details or the beautiful way the light reflects off the sculpture, though. if it's ever within your means to do so, i urge you to come see it for yourself. Michelangelo sculpted this when he was twenty-four, and it is said that the face of Mary resembles that of his own mother (who died when he was five). this is also his only sculpture to bear his signature -- carved into Mary's sash.
blinking back the tears, i walked on to the next side chapel, the tomb of Pope John Paul II, who was sainted in 2014. many people were sitting and praying here in front of his tomb. above the tomb hangs a painting of St. Sebastian, his favourite saint.
the Blessed Sacrament Chapel is just beyond here to the right, but the gate was closed and the whole area was roped off, so i continued on. this bronze statue of Peter was original to the earlier church. it's tradition to kiss or touch his right foot, but as the 5 o'clock mass was in full swing, it was impossible to get close enough to do so. because of this, i also couldn't get up to the statue of St. Andrew or the traditional spot of St. Peter's crucifixion (both points on Rick Steves' self-guided tour).
i cut across to the left side of the transept, where a mosaic copy of Raphael's The Transfiguration hangs. (the original is in the Vatican Museums.) according to Rick Steves, all of the paintings in the church have gradually been replaced by mosaic copies, as paintings would be damaged by the humidity and smoke.
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| The Transfiguration |
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| Altar of St. Gregory on the left, The Transfiguration on the right |
at a quarter after five, the gorgeous late afternoon sun was streaming through Bernini's dove window above the Altar of the Chair and through the bronze canopy over the main altar. again, my camera just doesn't do it justice, but several other more serious photographers with cameras the size of small dogs were getting shutter-happy too.
i then wandered slowly back toward the front of the church, stopping at anything that piqued my interest (which turned out to happen about every six inches). the church is just jam-packed with sculptures and mosaics and tombs and remembrances.
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monument to Pope Leo XI (Alessandro Octavian de' Medici), who held the papacy for only 27 days.
he is flanked by the statues of Fortitude and Generosity. |
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| monument to Pope Innocent XI, with the figures of Faith and Fortitude |
i'll forgive Rick Steves for not including it on his tour, but to miss the Chapel of the Choir with the tomb of John Chrysostom would be a real tragedy. his relics are buried in the altar and the chapel itself is incredibly beautiful. the gate of the chapel is closed -- i paid no attention to it at the time, but it turns out that the gate itself was designed by Borromini.
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the altarpiece depicts the Immaculate Virgin Mary surrounded by Sts. Francis of Assisi,
Anthony of Padua, and John Chrysostom. on December 8, 1854, when the Dogma of the Immaculate
Conception was proclaimed, Pius IX had the image of Mary crowned. St. John Chrysostom's relics are buried in the altar. |
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| the ceiling of the chapel, which shows the Creation, the Crossing of the Red Sea, and the Baptism of Jesus |
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| cupola outside the Chapel of the Choir |
finally, i circled back around to the entrance to take a closer look at these cherubs.
then it was time to meet up with Nick. as we walked back out toward the entrance, i told him about my moving experience seeing the Pieta, and Greta said she wanted to see it. by this time, the church was swarming with tourists, so they couldn't get as close as i had, but Greta seemed just as entranced as i had been.
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| the light from Bernini's window fell just on this one section of the colonnade in the Chapel of the Pieta |
as we walked outside, the early evening light fell on the Janiculum Hill beyond the colonnades. we live just on the right side of that row of umbrella pines overlooking the square. we stood a moment in disbelief over the fact that yes, we really do live here, and yes, the sky really is that blue.
St. Gregory the Great, pray for us!
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