Holy Stairs and a Minor Pilgrimage

A week between posts, but there wasn't a lot to write about for a while.  The weekend brought some guests from Spain to the house, which resulted in a free dinner, sitting in on some dinners where I understood not a word, and a mysterious case of disappearing toilet-paper in the house.

Steubenville's Austrian students dropped by the same weekend, and I was able to tag along on several tours in the city, starting with a general city tour on Sunday, a Forum tour on Tuesday, and a St. Peter's tour today.  The Sunday tour visited the Basilica of San Clemente, which sits over some of the oldest ruins of Rome, a Mithraic temple that is nearly 2500 years old.  It's been excavated, so it's possible to journey both through the remains of the old San Clemente basilica - some frescoes remain - and the Mithraeum down below.  An impressive set of ruins.  Sunday also took us to Santa Maria Maggiore, where the relic of the manger was displayed, as it was the 25th of the month.

Monday was a neat opportunity for Mass in at St. Peter in chains, the station church of the day.  Tuesday's tour was of the Colosseum, the Circus Maximus, and the Roman Forum.  The Colosseum looks a bit odd up close, as it's apparent some of the brick/stonework is a restoration, though it's not often clear which is which, making the restoration pretty good, I think.  I haven't been inside yet, though it's planned for later.  The Circus Maximus isn't much of anything to look at anymore, it's simply a wide open field where Christians were once martyred.  I find it odd that given the number of martyrs at the place, no church was ever built there.  The Roman Forum I'd previously visited, though this time I picked up a few details on it.  The Vestal Virgins story was easily as interesting as the Abelard and Eloise introduction to my Medieval Mystics class.  The love story behind Anthony and Faustina was also good, as was the astonishing fact that the columns of their Basilica, which still stand, have huge gouges in them from ropes, as builders once wanted to bring them down to use elsewhere, but were unable to do so.  We also had the chance to see the building the Roman Senate met in, which is much smaller than one would have expected.

Today's St. Peter's tour was not quite what was expected, though one interesting fact is that now all tours must use a headphone system to keep the noise down inside, which is good, especially when around for Confession or Mass in the Basilica.  It's also amazing that St. Peter's has no paintings or frescoes save one in the entryway.  Everything is a mosaic, even things I'd swear were masterpiece paintings...which is also why it's possible to take pictures galore in there.  Apparently the letters decorating the walls are bigger than me too.

I also paid a visit to the Scala Santa, the Holy Stairs.  They're covered with wood to protect them, and I imagine the knees of the faithful, though it goes without saying that my knees, even several hours later, are sore from the effort, but it was worth it.  You can't really describe the feeling of making the climb, except that it's a rather prayerful time with actual suffering going on physically, and it lasts a good 20 to 30 minutes.

Tomorrow, a small pilgrimage to Assisi will be undertaken, which is likely to cost about 150 to 200 Euros, which isn't too bad for a 3 day journey.  More from that when I get back to Rome.