After reading Andrew's recent post on
Maundy Thursday about the tradition of the faithful in Penang who make a visit to the various churches on the island to spend some time praying with Our Lord, I too, am glad to announce that this practice is present in Rome, the eternal city, where the faithful too make visits to the various and numerous churches scattered around the city.
The Mass of the Lord's Supper is traditionally held at the Basilica of San Giovanni Laterano, or St. John Lateran, the mother church of Rome. We were fortunate enough to be in possession of tickets for this mass, but because there were too many people, as you can see from above, we did not visit the altar of repose here but opted to return home for some dinner.
After dinner, a group of us headed for a church tour by night, to visit the various altar of reposes and to pray there. Here are some pictures of the churches that we visited during our 3 hour walk on Holy Thursday night:
The participants, from L to R: Me, Sr. Soledad, Fr. Michael Goh, Sr. Edith, Fr. Paul Trang, Sylvia, Fr. Julian Leow.
We started off in a small church just round the corner from the Convitto, Santa Maria ai Monti, in English, Our Lady of the Hill, a titular church in Rome, which interestingly enough given to Cardinal Jaime Sin until his death in 2005.
Remember the red and white cloth form the picture above? Here's a larger version at the second church we visited. It reminded me of going for a funeral wake back home, maybe that's what it's supposed to symbolise...
After going through the gate with those curtains, the inside was amazingly different, as you can see below. This was of one of the biggest tabernacles used I've ever since. But then again, this was of course Rome and the church was the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, or St. Mary Major, one of the 4 papal basilicas, whose current archpriest is Cardinal Bernard Law, infamous for the sex scandals presently hounding the Catholic church for having erupted first in the archdiocese of Boston when he was archbishop...
Next up is the American church of Santa Susanna, another church in which Cardinal Law is Cardinal Priest. This is the church you want to get to when you're in Rome if you are English speaking as they have English masses here regularly and they also run a service of obtaining tickets for the papal ceremonies for pilgrims from English speaking countries.
We then proceeded across the Largo to the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, titular of the Franciscan Cardinal Sean O'Malley. You will probably have heard of this church if you have read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons...
As we were walking to our next stop, we stumbled across this small church belonging to the Trinitarian fathers. The church of San Carlo alle Quatro Fontane, or St. Charles at the Four Fountains. This church located near to the junction in Rome where four fountains, one of each side of the road, are situated near the Quirinale is usually closed and we were surprised to see it open tonight for adoration. The order has a very unusual symbol. They wear a sort of Dominican habit but with a red and blue coloured cross embroided into the front of it.
The next stop was the church of Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio, which was bequeathed to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church by Pope John Paul II. An interesting fact I found out about the church when researching about it was that there is a bronze plaque listing 22 popes who bequeathed their hearts and viscera to the church and that their hearts are still stored there in urns.
Opposite the church is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Rome, the Fontana Trevi or Trevi Fountain. During my visit last January, I threw a coin into the fountain, and maybe that's why I got to go back this time. Nonetheless, I threw another coin this time round as I still have yet to finish all that I want to do in this wonderful city.
I cannot remember now the name of the next 2 churches we visited but the second one was playing some song in which the Alleluias kept ringing out, maybe it was a rehearsal for Easter Sunday or maybe they were in the wrong season?
On the left of this altar of repose, you will see a bust. It is the bust of St. Maximillian Kolbe. according to the plaque above it, it was in this church, the Basilica of San Andrea delle Fratte, that he celebrated his first mass.
The last church that we visited was the Basilica of San Silvestro in Capite. This was slightly off the way, but since we met a Phillipino priest at the last church and the sisters needed a toilet break, we headed to where he was staying. The Basilica of San Silvestro is also used by the Phillipino community in Rome, but what is more interesting is that it is the English church in Rome but the current Cardinal Priest is Cardinal Desmond Connell, the retired Archbishop of Dublin! It was previously held by Cardinal Basil Hume, the previous Archbishop of Westminster and Abbott of Ampleforth Abbey. All the connections are fitting into place now, for those of you who keep track of my travels, I was in Ampleforth for the last Easter Triduum and at Westminster Cathedral during Christmas time.
The interesting bit of this altar of repose is that they had laid out a banquet for 12 people as you can see before the tabernacle. Quite a sight indeed...
Before I end this post, a little trivia for those of you who understand Latin/Italian. The Basilica of San Silvestro in Capite is called so because it claims to hold one of the many heads (Lt. caput) of St. John the Baptist! By that I mean that there are many parties who are staking claim to possessing the head of John the Baptist and not that John the Baptist had many heads...
Interestingly during this trip, I have seen the tombs of St. Francis of Asissi and his companions, as well as that of Sts. Clare, Phillip Neri, Ignatius Loyola, John the Baptist, Peter, the head of John the Baptist, the hand of St. Francis Xavier, the wood of the true cross and all sort of other relics and body parts of numerous saints...
