Ecumenical Tourist

If you are going to be a religious tourist I highly recommend traveling with the Presiding Bishop. On Thursday we started with the Catacombs of S. Calixtus. The nice thing is that the Vatican makes all of these arrangements and choses the tour guides. We have had the best of the best at every stop. The catacombs were constructed outside the walls of Rome. In this location 150,000 tombs lay 20 to 40 feet underground at varying depths. The paths go on f0or 11 miles, with graves dating back to the second and third century. After walking through many passageways and learning how the catacombs were constructed we gathered for Eucharist. Bishop Hanson vested and presided at a simple altar there amidst the graves where Christians gathered during the persecution. Contrary to many popular beliefs no one every lived or hid in the catacombs. There isn't enough air. Christians did, however, gather for brief worship services.

Next we visited The Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. This too stands outside the walls of old Rome. In this Basilica lay the bones of St. Paul. While the work of verification here is not nearly as extensive as the work done in St. Peters, the likelihood that Paul was buried here remains high, based on tradition and some science.

Within Rome stand four major Basilicas. We would visit all of them and more before the end of the day. The Abbot of St. Paul served as our tour guide followed by noon prayers with the monks and lunch in their refectory. The picture above shows Msg. Turk, the Abbot and yours truly.

From St. Paul’s we visited St. Mary Major (the largest Basilica dedicated to Mary), St. John Lateran (the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome), the Ecumenical Basilica of St. Bartholomew on Tiber Island (in the middle of the Tiber River) and Santa Maria Trastevere for evening prayer. The day concluded with dinner and extended conversation with the Community of Sant’ Egidio, a community devoted to serving the poor.

I have included a picture from St. John Lateran’s baptistery. At one point in their history this whole round area (to the bottom of the door) would be filled with water. Candidates for baptism entered the door on one side and exited on the other. The bronze deer come from the Psalm - as a deer pants for water so my soul longs for you O Lord.