Day 23 - Exam 3, Lateran Baptistery, Basilica of SS. Quattro Coronati, Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island

Day 23, our last day of adventure, finally came at long last. I was regretting this day from the beginning. My last day in the Eternal City

The day started with some last minute classroom pedagogy to round out our study of the History of the Catholic Church in Rome. After our discussion, Fr. Bergin gave each of us a copy of Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the evangelization of the Catholic Church in the modern world. We then headed over to the Lateran Baptistery.

This site is one that fits more appropriately at the beginning of our trip in terms of chronology, but Prof. Coolman decided to save it for Fr. Bergin to show us. Fr. Bergin's focus scholastically is on the Sacraments, so an entire site used for one specific Sacrament is right down his alley. The baptistery is right behind St. John Lateran and is one of the oldest places in Rome that has been continually practicing Christian worship.

The Lateran Baptistery is traditionally held to be the site of the Baptism of Constantine, the Roman emperor who opened the way for Christianity in the Roman Empire. The walls are all decorated with frescoes showing the main events of Constantine's life, including the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and Constantine's baptism.

The center of the octagonal space is an area that at one point was filled with water like a pool. The candidates would walk down three steps on one side of the pool, be dipped in three times in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and then exit up three steps on the other side to be reclothed in white robes. The newly baptized Christian would then walk out of the baptistery and into St. John Lateran, where a bishop would immediately Confirm the person and give them First Eucharist. Only recently (last 100 years) has the custom of Baptism, First Communion, then Confirmation been in place.

Off to one side is a chapel that contains a wooden ceiling, the only other ceiling in Rome designed by Michelangelo (the other being the Sistine Chapel). The design is Michelangelo's, but he most likely had an apprentice actually carve the ceiling.

Our next stop was to the Basilica of SS. Quattro Coronati, or the "Four Holy Crowned Ones", dedicated to four unknown early Christian martyrs. The basilica was at one time the "cardinal palace", used by many popes as a fortress. The church nowadays is kept up by Augustinians and is used as a cloister for a group nuns. These nuns do not ever leave this place and have no contact with the outside world apart from an iron grate and a little area for supplies to be brought in. Fr. Bergin has had some contact with them in the past and was able to give us access to some of the parts that are not very open to the general public.

Mass was just ended when we went inside. The nuns can kind of be seen up beyond the gate before the altar. You can see and speak to the nuns from this side of the gate, but the gate is locked and you cannot enter near them

The talking window for speaking to the nuns and the supply window for getting food and supplies in to the nuns

Chapel inside, which had some interesting frescoes depicting
a false-history of the relationship of Pope Silvester and Constantine

 Our last destination in Rome was something that I actually set up with Fr. Bergin. On one of my days of church hopping (the day I went to Mass and Trastevere by myself), I tried twice to get into the basilica on Tiber Island. Both times I went, the basilica was closed. When I told Fr. Bergin this earlier in the week, he told me that he was friends with one of the women that runs the church from the Community of Sant'Egidio. He made some calls and she opened the church up for a private tour!

This basilica is the Basilica of St. Bartholomeo all'Isola (St. Bartholomew on the Island). Before coming, I was well aware of the fact that this church holds the remains of St. Bartholomew the Apostle. What I was not aware of was the fact that this church was re-dedicated to include the New Martyrs of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

Each side chapel was dedicated to a different region of the world and the martyrs that came from them. Each altar was covered in relics and objects of the various people killed for their faith around the world.

New Martyrs in Asia, Oceania, and the Middle Orient

New Martyrs of the Americas

New Martyrs of Communism

New Martyrs in Europe

New Martyrs of the Nazis

Something else that Fr. Bergin told me was that this church also held the relic of someone that I was very familiar with. We had talked previously in the trip about emotional movies when we had a group dinner, and I had mentioned that the only movie that I had ever gotten particularly emotional about was the French film "Of Gods and Men" (Des Hommes et Des Dieux). This was a major award winning film and one that I consider one of the best I've seen. It tells the story of a group of Trappist Cistercian monks living in Algeria who are martyred by a local terrorist group. Fr. Bergin told me that this particular church, dedicated to new martyrs of the 20th century, had a relic of one of the members of this group of monks.

New Martyrs in Africa and Madagascar

The relic that they had was a letter written by Dom Christian, the leader of the group of monks, which he had written during his time at the monastery in Algeria. I was very blessed to be able to see this and I tried to get a good picture. I was very thankful for being brought here.

Our tour ended at the altar. Here, the Community of Sant'Egidio had painted a large altarpiece for the New Martyrs. Dom Christian is included in this painting.

Dom Christian, in the yellow window

Behind the altar is the original fresco of the man who the church is actually dedicated to. The fresco is rather gruesome, but then again so was the martyrdom of this man. St. Bartholomew was flayed alive and crucified, and the first part of this is shown in the fresco. Just think of that kind of pain the next time you ever feel anything bad.

After the woman finished her tour, we were heading out when I stopped the group and asked about the altar. I mentioned that this was a church dedicated to the memory of St. Bartholomew, and she pointed out the altar. We had been standing around the sarcophagus of the Apostle Bartholomew, a man who walked with and knew the Living God made Flesh. We said a final prayer to close out our time abroad before this altar.

We returned thereafter to the villa and finished packing. We passed many of the monuments of Rome for the last time on the way back. 

Tomorrow, we go our separate ways.

Thus ends the 23rd day.