One Day, Seven Churches, by Foot

On Wednesday of Holy Week, a group of roughly thirty Bernardians visited seven churches, covering 15.8 miles in one day. That is a full 25.4 kilometers! While pilgrims have been flocking to Rome to visit St. Peter and the saints for nearly two millennia, this particular practice of the seven churches--the four major basilicas and three minor-- was started by St. Philip Neri in the 16th century. During Holy Years, there are special graces associated with visiting the churches, but 2013 not being a Holy Year did not stop us. 

Our first stop for the day was the Major Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, the very first Church of the West dedicated to the Blessed Mother, where we attended the concluding Mass of the Lenten Station Churches, which is an ancient practice of keeping vigil by visiting a different church in Rome each day for the 40 days of Lent. Mass was held in the Borghese chapel,  a sumptuous space built as a fitting home to the icon of "Salus Populi Romani," which tradition holds was painted (or written, as they say) by St. Luke himself.

S. Maria Maggiore

High altar bedecked with relics. Silver reliquary in confessio below holds relic of the crib.

After some time of quiet prayer venerating the relic of the crib of Jesus, we grabbed a not-so-hearty Italian breakfast of pastries, and made our way to stop number two: San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, which, as the name suggests, means leaving the walls and the safety of the old city of Rome. Thankfully, Atilla the Hun was not there to greet us, although his minions live on in the form of Roman traffic.

San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura

San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura

The altar below contains relics of three major martyrs: St. Lawrence, St. Stephen, and St. Justin Martyr.

One unique aspect to this church was the rather extensive lower level below the sanctuary, which contained some impressive mosaics and the tomb of Pope Pius IX.

Snaking our way through a not-so-eternal part of the Eternal City, we found ourselves at the third stop: Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. 

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

 St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, brought over dirt from the Holy Land for this Church's foundation, hence the name. It houses perhaps the greatest collection of relics of Christ's Passion, including a relic of the True Cross, two spines from the Crown of Thorns, one of the nails of crucifixion, and the plaque with "Jesus Christ, King of the Jews" written in three languages. There are also the crossbeam of the good thief's cross, and an index finger bone, thought to be of St. Thomas, the finger that touched Christ's resurrected body. Even in a chapel dedicated to the suffering of Christ, the Church cannot help but include reminders of Christ's resurrection. The crucifixion and resurrection are inextricably linked.

Just down the street, we found our fourth stop, St. John Lateran, the one and only Cathedral in Rome and the former home of the Popes before they moved to the Vatican proper. Notable here is the high altar, which contains the heads of Sts. Peter and Paul.  

Without the coach buses of tour groups pouring into the Lateran, it made for an enjoyable experience. We settled into a side aisle, knelt down, and prayed the Holy Rosary, imploring Mary's help as we neared the halfway point of our day.  

The story of Helena and Constantine continues down the street from S. Croce to the ancient Baptistry of St. John Lateran, where Constantine was washed with the cleansing waters of  Baptism and welcomed into the Church. Photos simply do not do the building justice, but below is a taste.

Note the font below the octagonal structure and the fresco on the back wall  depicting Constantine's conversion 

Lunch time! We split up into groups, as 30 people descending upon any one of the tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurants of Rome would be nothing short of cruelty. I picked up pizza to go, found a fresh fruit market around the corner, grabbed a blood orange and a handful of on-the-vine cherry tomatoes, still smelling of the countryside from which they came, and had a veritable picnic in the park. 

After lunch came a long trek out to San Sebastiano, by means of the Via Appia Antiqua. Before arriving, we stopped in the Chiesa Domine Quo Vadis, built on the spot where Christ appeared to St. Peter. Tradition holds that as St. Peter was fleeing the persecutions of Christians in Rome, Christ appeared to him, inspiring him to return to Rome to his martyrdom. 

Fresco of Crucifixion of Peter inside the Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis

There was no time to reflect on the great men who had walked that road before us; our pilgrimage to S. Sebastiano required every ounce of our concentration as we squeezed between the stone walls of antiquity and Roman drivers shooting down the buckled road toward us at lightning speed.

San Sebastiano at last.

St. Sebastian's tomb.

 A Christian soldier in the Roman army, St. Sebastian was shot with arrows which would have been enough to kill any other man, but he was miraculously saved. When he later approached Emperor Diocletian to try to convince him to legalize Christianity, the emperor preferred clubbing Sebastian to death.

The original footprints of Christ, along with many relics.

With daytime prayer having been prayed, we headed off to our penultimate pilgrimage stop: San Paolo Fuori le Mura. The current structure is a 19th century reconstruction of the original edifice after a fire destroyed most of the original church, although the high altar canopy and a wooden medieval crucifix did survive. Quite a distance outside the historic center of Rome, as we learned firsthand, St. Paul's offers pilgrims a quiet place to pray at the tomb of one of the Church's greatest missionaries. 

Altar of the Conversion of St. Paul

Apse Mosaic

Last stop: St. Peter's. You know you are settling in to Rome when you feel like coming home to St. Peter's, which was exactly our experience. Despite the temptations to rush back for 7pm dinner back at our community, we braved the security lines, entered the living Rock of Peter, found a side chapel, and prayed Evening Prayer. 

As the sun had run its course, so we had walked ours in the footsteps of many saints and simple Christians like ourselves striving towards holiness. May they lead us to Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.