Tyler and I flew from Dubuque to Montgomery, spent the night with his parents, and flew out the next day with the group to Charlotte, NC. It was about a 9 hour plane ride from Charlotte to Rome. I kept thinking about our first stop in Rome, right outside the walls at the Basilica of St. Paul. With my small discomforts on the plane I tried to think about what Paul went through, ship wrecks, beatings, eventually martyrdom, and I didn’t feel like I could complain at all. Plus I was sitting by my best friend so it was enjoyable!
When we got to Italy we hit the ground running. Who cared that we missed a night’s sleep? We were in Italy! The first thing we did when we got to Rome was to go to the Basilica of St. Paul.
I was reading about this on the airplane and it is one of the four ancient Major Basilicas (all the other basilicas are minor) and that is a special honor declared by the Pope. The other Major Basilicas are St. Peter’s, St. Mary Major’s, and St. John Lateran (which we had the blessing of going to each one!)
The Basilica of St. Paul is outside the walls of Rome (because Paul was a Roman citizen and they could not kill him inside the city) and it was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine over the burial place of Paul. It is said that his body is buried there, although tradition suggests that his head is with St. Peter’s at the Basilica of St. John Lateran. It was originally built in the 4th century and afterwards many popes added to the Basilica and fixed it up after fires and other disasters.
Here is the beautiful statue of St. Paul in the courtyard.
Words can’t describe how beautiful it was! If you have time, check out this virtual tour at
http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_paolo/vr_tour/index-en.html.
Inside the Basilica there are portraits of each pope. How awesome it is that the Catholic Church can trace our popes all the way from our first Pope, Peter, to our current Pope Benedict. How wonderful to see Petrvs, Linvs, Cletvs, Clemens, etc. (the Popes that are in the Eucharistic prayer at Mass) all the way to Pope Benedict XVI!
There are 7 spots left for portraits and some say (it isn’t a teaching of the Church) that when the last spot is filled that will be the last pope and the end of the world.
The biggest blessing of this visit was to be able to pray at the tomb of St. Paul. Here is the main altar and his tomb is below it.
There is a kneeler to kneel down right by the grail that shows the stone which is said to cover his sarcophagus. There is also a chain that tradition says to be the chains that he wore on his way to Rome. What a blessing it was to be able to pray for our family members, all the students at Loras, and all of our mission partners here at this special spot! Wow.
Here is a beautiful painting of Jesus with some of the apostles.
The little person at the foot of Jesus is the pope, which shows how small he is compared to Jesus and the saints and the prophets. If the pope is that small, how small are we? What a beautiful and humbling portrait to ponder.
There was a side chapel of the Blessed Sacrament which had the crucifix that tradition says St. Bridget prayed in front of and the head of Jesus turned to her while she was praying.
In the chapel there is also a mosaic of the Madonna and Child that is from the thirteenth century. Tradition states that St. Ignatius of Loyola and some of his brothers made their religious profession in front of that mosaic.
What a great start to our adventure. Then we got on our tour bus and drove about 2 and a half hours north to Assisi. I really enjoyed the drive. What beautiful countryside! Just imagine rolling hills with vineyards and olive trees and very picturesque houses with railings that clothes are hanging from. Here is a picture from our bus.
When we could finally see Assisi in front of us we all gasped…it was beautiful! A white cluster of history on a hill!
The large building on the left of the picture is the Basilica of St. Francis and the little steeple on the right side is the Basilica of St. Clare.
As soon as we parked and started walking through the town to our hotel, Tyler and I decided we were in love with the city and that it was the most beautiful city we had ever seen. Here are some pictures.
The streets were very narrow and it was amazing to see cars drive in them because the majority of people walked and the streets were always very crowded.
Here is the view from the city looking down onto the lower area.
We stayed in a retreat center and had a cute little room that opened into a courtyard. Then we had dinner down the street in another hotel people from our group were staying at. It was a little family owned hotel/restaurant and they served us at our places.
I was not prepared for the amount of food. First we had lots of bread (we were so hungry we kept eating it) then they brought out delicious spaghetti (it tasted like we were in Italy!) and THEN they brought out a large piece of either veal or pork, very tender and delicious. They served that with a salad, and then finished up the meal with fresh apples and peaches. It was a delicious meal (complete with lots of red and white wine of course) and I was glad I knew we’d be walking a lot in the next few days because I had the feeling we’d be eating a lot (and I was right!)
And then as if the day wasn’t complete enough, we had our own little private Mass with our group. We have two priests with us, Monsignor Troncale from Holy Spirit Parish in Montgomery, AL and Monsignor Wall from St. Mary’s Parish in Mobil, AL. It was a gorgeous evening and the city was as beautiful at night as it was in the day.
We walked down the street a few steps, went down a brick alley, down lots of brick steps, into this beautiful stone church.
A sign inside the church said: “The church of St. Stephen is one of the oldest holy buildings located in Assisi. It has never been modified over the past centuries and even at present time the original shape of the 12th century can be seen. It was built in 1166 and it is a wonderful building of romantic period. According to the tradition, the old bell with its sound followed the pangs of St. Francis’ death.” That was the first of many old buildings I touched!
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