Day 1
Friday, April 5
We landed in FCO at 8am. We made our way to the bus which dropped us off at our hotels. We stayed at 2 different hotels this year, the Monti Palace and the Grand Palatino. We dropped our bags off since our rooms weren’t ready yet and we started the day around 10am.
On the first day in Rome, Father likes to visit the churches near our hotel. Take a look at the map to see where we went!
Where we went
Note: Visiting the Basilica of Saint Praxedes was on our list for this day but it was closed when we arrived. Many churches close in the afternoon, so be sure to check church hours if you ever visit Rome!
1. Basilica of Saint Pudentiana
An extraordinary degree of interest attaches to this church. Originally the house or senatorial palace of Pudens, where St. Peter lived and exercised his sacred office for several years, it was converted into an oratory by Pope St. Pius I, about the year 145. The tradition connecting it with St. Peter dates at least from the fourth century, and his presence and ministry within its walls justly entitle it to be regarded as the Cradle of the Western Church.
Under the high altar are preserved vases, found by Pope Paschal I in the tombs of SS. Praxedes and Pudentiana, and believed to have been used by them to collect the blood of martyrs. (Pilgrim Walks in Rome)
2. Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major
Saint Mary Major is one of the four papal basilicas of Rome. The other three are St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside The Walls
This is one of the largest and noblest religious edifices of the Christian world. It is the greatest and most important of our Lady's sanctuaries. It is also known as Our Lady of the Manger, from its possessing the relics of the Holy Manger, in which our Infant Saviour was laid; Our Lady of the Snow, because of the miraculous event mentioned below, to which it owes its origin; St. Mary Major, because it ranks above all the churches of our Lady in Rome.
The traditional story of its foundation as follows: A Roman patrician named John, who owned the property on the Esquiline hill where the basilica now stands, had married a pious lady, and, having no children, he and his wife resolved to make our Lady heiress of all their property and sought in prayer for some intimation of her will as to its disposal. One night both were bidden in their sleep to build a church on that part of the Esquiline hill which they should find on the following morning marked out in the snow. This happened on August 5, A.D. 358. As August is the hottest month of the year in Rome, a fall of snow at that season could only happen by miracle. John hastened next morning to acquaint Pope Liberius with the purport of our Lady's expressed wish and found that the Pope had himself received command from our Lady to cooperate with the pious couple in the work enjoined them. The Pope, accompanied by the clergy and people, repaired to the Esquiline, and there found the ground white with snow and a plan of the future church clearly traced thereon. The basilica was begun forthwith and completed in 360. (Pilgrim Walks in Rome)
3. Church of Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
The High School girls choir sings beautifully
Close to S. Prassede, at the entrance of the Via Merulana, stands the Church of S. Alfonso (St. Alphonsus de Liguori), a modern Gothic building belonging to the Redemptorist Fathers.
The church was built in 1855 near the site of the ancient Church of S. Matteo in Merulana belonging to the Austin Friars, which was consecrated by Paschal II (about A.D. 1 100) and reduced to a heap of ruins by the French in 1810. In the Church of S. Matteo, the famous picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, brought from the East in the thirteenth century, had been greatly honored since the year 1499. An Austin Friar named Brother Orsetti hid the picture when he and his community were driven from S. Matteo, and at his death in 1853 he bequeathed it to another. In 1866, with the express will and consent of Pope Pius IX, the miraculous picture was placed in the Church of S. Alfonso, where it is greatly revered, and where numerous ex-votos attest the miraculous favors received. (Pilgrim Walks in Rome)
4. Basilica of Saint Peter in Chains
This beautiful church was built in 442, during the Pontificate of St. Leo the Great, by Eudoxia Licinia, daughter of Theodosius the Younger, and wife of Valentinian III; hence it is called the Eudoxian Basilica. She here placed the chain with which St. Peter had been bound in prison at Jerusalem, brought from the East by her mother Eudoxia Athenais.3 Another chain of the Apostle was already venerated in Rome, that with which he had been fettered in the Mamertine prison. St. Leo the Great united the two, forming one continuous chain about two yards long. This precious relic is preserved in a bronze safe under the custody of a special confraternity.
Some say that the two chains united miraculously in the Pontificate of St. Sixtus III. (Pilgrim Walks in Rome)
5. Colosseum
If every part of the soil of Rome is sacred, because reddened with the blood of martyrs, that of the Colosseum is especially holy. The colossal pile before us, “which for magnitude can only be compared to the pyramids of Egypt, and which is perhaps the most striking monument at once of the material and moral degradation of Rome under the Empire,” was commenced by the Emperor Vespasian in A.D. 72, and finished by his son Titus in A.D. 80. The captive Jews, led in chains to Rome after the destruction of Jerusalem, were employed on its construction.
“ We who wander among the ruined arches of the Colosseum,” says Father Anderdon, S.J., " find a difficulty in picturing to the imagination what it was in the days of its splendor.
In the arena, where we are standing, Christian martyrs have knelt with their eyes fixed on the ground, while some 80,000 spectators awaited with impatience the shedding of their blood, and yelled in maddening excitement, “ The Christians to the lions!” Tender virgins, youths, boys of noble aspect, and aged priests, have stood here with their eyes raised to heaven, fearless in the midst of that sea of human passions, undismayed by the roars of the savage beasts that were pacing their dens close by. (Pilgrim Walks in Rome)
