H 8th Day Pilgrimage to Rome

8.5.02
Margaret and I went to Mass at St. Isidore's and to Confession for the
Jubilee Indulgence. After
breakfast, we caught the bus to the Piazza di San Pietro and Fr.
McKenna conducted us round the
Vatican galleries. We saw many statues including the famous one of a
father trying to save his two sons
from snakes. We saw the Sistine Chapel (crowed with visitors, who were
making a babble of noise in
their different languages) and beheld Michelangelo's famous frescoes,
the main one above the Altar
being "The Last Judgement." While the others were visiting the picture
gallery, we missed them but
managed to catch them up when they were half way round. We posted cards
to our relatives and friends
from the Vatican.

The others of our party went back to their hotels but Margaret and I
stopped and went into the back of
a crowded St. Peter's where the Pope was giving an audience. We heard
his voice again in Italian
although we could not see him. As it was time to go home, we had to
leave and luckily caught a special
four-basilica bus which stops near our hotel.

At three o'clock in the afternoon the coaches, having taken us to a
square where the whole party from
all the hotels was assembled, transported us to the Basilica of St.
Paul Outside the Walls for our last
Jubilee visit. This was concluded with the singing of "Faith of our
Fathers" for England. From there
we went on to the catacombs of St. Callixtus, some way outside Rome,
where St. Cecilia was buried.
Down steep steps into a maze of tortuous passages, intersected with
small chapels, here was one of the
burial places of the early Christians and martyrs. We had an Italian
guide who gave an account of it
to us. He spoke good English but unfortunately as we were near the back
could not hear much of what
was said. Afterwards we bought a small medal of St. Cecilia.
On the way home we visited St.Paul's again. Cook's had supplied a guide
who gave an admirable
account of it. The most notable thing was the pictures of the Popes
from St. Peter to the present day
encircling the walls near the ceiling. About eleven spaces remain for
future Popes. The two altars at
the end of the transept are covered with lapis lazuli. Through a door
in the wall we entered the
magnificent cloisters, built like the atrium of an ancient Roman house.
It is very peaceful here.

In St. Paul's there are side-chapels only in the transept not in the
main part, the nave, as in the other
basilicas.

From here we went on by coach to the Colosseum to which we made a short
visit while the guide gave
an explanation, and afterwards, since this was the place where so many
Christian martyrs had met their
death in the arena, said short prayers.

The coaches took us home, and as it was not yet dinner-time, Margaret
and I walked over to Cook's to
see if it was open and on the way bought a nice book on Rome in
English. Unluckily Cook's was shut.