Deeper into Rome

Today was not such an early start and was then filled with much of the ancient Church in Rome.
We bgan after mass by visiting the great St John Lateran Basilica, which is the Pope's Cathedral church in Rome. The popes lived here until the 1500's before moving to the Vatican area. Pics inside and out - double click to see bigger.

We then visited the famous baptistry attached to the Basilica before crossing to the most venerated Sancta Scala, or Holy Stairs. These stairs where Christ walked down in Jerusalem during his Passion, were brought to Rome along with relics from the Cross, by St Helena, Emperor Constantine's mother. Since the 4th century pilgrims to Rome scale these stairs only on their knees as a sign of great penance. This is still the case today.

After this we moved to Santa Croce where the relics of the Crucifixion are held, that is a nail, part of the crown of thorns, part of the whip and then a copy of the Shroud of Turin, the alleged entombment cloth that wrapped the crucified Christ's body for burial. I also saw this nun running some kind of business out of the back of her car. Jokes!

After this things became very interesting. Having had a lunch near the Basilica of Mary Major (right) we moved off to explore the Catacombs of Rome. More dead people. Love it!

Our guide was a humorous and very passionate Fr Owen, a Salesian priest from Melbourne, and he led us through the burial sites in an underground dead city outside the walls of ancient Rome. The Roman Law at the time dictated that no one was allowed to be buried within the walls of the eternal City. This is at the time before Christianity became official thanks to Constantine's conversion in the 300's. The Catacombs are amazing and hold so much history, pagan, Jewish and Christian. I got out alive as you can see.

We finished our day by attending a ceremony at the Vatican Museum to celebrate Aboriginal and Indigenous life, as well as the story of Mary Mackillop's own life. My closing pic is an attempted night shot of St Peter's.

This page is dedicated to the Aboriginal people of Australia and those missionaries who continue to work with them with the spirit of Mary Mackillop, St Mary of the Cross.