Day 15 was a free day all around, so we were welcome to do as we pleased.
I decided to get up early and make the 40 minute walk to Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini (The Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims) for Tridentine Mass celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi. As expected, the church filled up with people eager for the traditional Mass. The beginning of the Mass was absolutely beautiful, almost to a point where I wept (the second time that's happened since I've started going to Tridentine Mass). I was also excited about the fact that I was sitting in a church with my Latin-to-English missal in the middle of Rome, Italy with people from all walks of life and all languages and they could all participate in the same service as if they were at home. Not to mention the fact that the Mass was taking place in a historic church in the heart of old Rome.
The amount of incense used was commendable, and the sun shining through cast beams on the altar and the parishioners present.
Following Mass, the priests, deacons, and altar boys led a procession through the streets surrounding the church in a large circle. The Blessed Sacrament was placed in a gilded monstrance and attached to a litter, which was held by four deacons. A few men held poles connected to a tent that was above the Blessed Sacrament. In addition to the priests, deacons, and altar boys, a small marching band processed as well, providing music for Latin chants sung during the procession. The spectacle was a fabulous showcase of the Catholic church. People on the streets came over and watched, people in their apartments above the nearby shops and restaurants opened their windows and leaned out to see. Truly wonderful.
The Blessed Sacrament was then moved to an altar down the street, where everyone knelt to pray before It following a prayer by the priest.
The Blessed Sacrament was then led back to the church.
Here's a video I took to give you a sense of what this was like:
After my fruitful morning, I decided that it would be too much effort to return to the villa to find friends just to return to the same general area. Today was to be a day for Jack to do what he wants to do.
First on my list was to go to Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli. This church is the Nation Church in Rome of Spain, but I was more interested in who was buried in it.
In the first chapel on the right in the church, there is a tomb on the righthand wall.
This tomb is known as the "Borja Tomb". Within this funerary monument lies the bodies of Pope Callixtus III and Pope Alexander VI, the two Borgia popes (Alphonso and Rodrigo respectively).
I then made my way kind of towards the villa when I noticed that the Altar of the Fatherland, "il Vittoriano", was open to go into. Now, for all the time that I have so far been in Rome, I have not once seen this thing open. I had to investigate.
The monument contains a museum to the Risorgimento, which I didn't end up going into. What I did do, however, was pay the 7 euro price to ride an elevator to the very top of the monument. This gave me breathtaking views of the entire city of Rome. The following are some shots that I took.
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| Top left: St. Peter's Basilica. Middle right: Pantheon |
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| Top left: St. John Lateran, the Colosseum. Middle: Forum Romanum |
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| Forum Romanum |
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| Colosseum, with St. John Lateran in the back left background |
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| Panorama of the city |
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| Showing the Via del Corso, which runs from the monument all the way to the Piazza del Popolo in the distance |
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| Me, with the Colosseum in the background |
After coming down off the monument (it was a whole process, only 1 elevator that holds 7 people for everyone), I went next door to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli (St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven). This church was built at the top of the Capitoline Hill but has since been dwarfed by such things like the Altar of the Fatherland. The stairs leading up to the church are grand to say the very least and are fairly steep for something of this size.
I found the use of chandeliers, and lots of chandeliers, to be an interesting choice for church lighting.
Though I had no idea of the significance, I snapped the following picture because frankly it looked pretty important. This photo is of the altar of St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, and her relics are held here in this church. I found this all out when doing research for the blog and it just so happened that I snapped the correct picture.
From there, I decided to finally cross the Tiber River. In addition, I wanted to see Isola Tiberina. Luckily the bridge was close so I was able to make my way there with little effort.
I had wanted to visit the church for St. Bartholomew that is on Isola Tiberina, but every time I passed the church was closed. I will just have to go some other time.
In the meantime, I continued all the way across the river to the region of Rome known as "Trastevere". I made my way from the river to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Travestere, one of the oldest churches in Rome. This church in particular is thought to have been the first place where Mass was openly said and celebrated.
While in Trastevere, I had an amazing risotto al ragù in a lovely ivy-covered caffe on a little side street. It was a very peaceful and fun-filled afternoon.
After my late afternoon lunch, I made my way back to the villa. I had tried to make it to a few other churches on my way back, but many were still closed (it being Sunday).
On the way back, however, I found myself unable to go the route that I had planned. I figured I could simply walk around the Circus Maximus, the giant field in the center of Rome that had formerly been used for chariot racing and the like. What I came to find after seeing about a dozen t-shirts and the entirety of the Circus closed off was that the Rolling Stones and John Mayer were playing a concert on the Circus in the evening. When I got back to the villa and showered, I turned right around after meeting up with the group to go back to the Circus Maximus. After getting myself lost and not able to find my friends, we finally met up and had a nice dinner within earshot of the concert. (By the way, every person in Rome was at the concert, most of them unpaid. Even though the Circus was cut off, the fact that it was an open-air concert allowed everyone to hear it. You could hear the music from the villa).
We then made our way back to the villa to study for Exam 2 tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow, after Exam 2, we will be meeting with the US Ambassador to the Holy See, and will be touring churches to see various Caravaggio paintings.
Thus ends the 15th day.
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