The Pope's Cathedral, Seeing Francis, and Vatican Museums: Day 6 & 7 in Rome

Today in Papal History is posting from Rome until the end of the week.

What a whirlwind the last two days have been. It seems like I haven’t stopped moving since leaving my room yesterday at 6:30 en route to St. Peter’s Basilica for the Wednesday General Audience with Pope Francis. Here’s a rundown from the past two days:

Tuesday

Headed first to the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral church of the pope in his capacity as Bishop of Rome. Leo XIII and a handful of other popes are buried there – here’s his epic tomb over the entrance to the sacristy.

Down the road from St. John Lateran was the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which houses several relics of the Crucifixion of Jesus, each with an incredibly solid chain of custody and tradition of authenticity through the centuries.

On the top row is (l-r) the index finger of St. Thomas the Apostle (“Doubting Thomas” who stuck his finger in the side and hand wounds of Christ after the Resurrection, and a thorn from the Crown of Thorns. In the middle and along the left wall of the glass case are pieces of the True Cross, and on the bottom are one of the nails used at the Crucifixion and the wooden title that Pontius Pilate had inscribed and placed above Christ that read “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

Another highlight was the Basilica of St. Clement, dedicated to the 4th pope. The marble schola cantorum in the middle of the church was original to the 5th Century basilica that lies beneath the current church, and was donated by Pope John II, who reigned in the early 500s AD.

Here’s a close-up of one of the panels of that marble structure, showing the crest of John II – if you look closely, within the symbol between the two crosses are all of the letters of Ioannis, a Latin spelling of “John”.

A church that I’ve been walking by every morning – the Church of St. Catherine of Siena – was finally open on one of my trips by, so I was able to stop in for a few minutes during Adoration. In fact, one of my college classmates who’s now a religious sister stationed in Rome was praying in the same church!

In the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, another one of Rome’s most ancient churches, I found the tomb of Servant of God Pope Benedict XIII – a very holy man who had a serious case of RBF. Here’s the episode of The Popecast on him from a while back.

Tickets for the Wednesday Audience to see the pope!

Wednesday

It was an early morning… The U.S. Bishops’ Visitors Office – which disperses tickets to papal audiences for English speaking pilgrims in Rome – advised getting in line by 7am, and it was a good 20-minute scooter ride from my casa. But the excitement started to build when I saw this after rounding the last corner.

It looks a lot farther away but we (I ran into a FOCUS mission group from Baylor right behind me in line) had great seats in the front section of the square, and had a great view near the barrier when he drove by in the popemobile.

Pope Francis after the popemobile drove him LITERALLY RIGHT UP THE STONE STAIRS and behind the platform

THE POPE. I couldn’t even believe it.

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A great surprise was one of my former coworkers jetting over from Paris to hang out for the day!

The afternoon was filled with a tour of the Vatican Museums, which was so much of an absolute treasure trove of artistic and papal history that there’s no way I could do it justice here (though I’ll certainly do some posts on various portions of it in the coming weeks and months).

An entire wall of the Raphael Rooms depicting Jesus in glory and all of the saints and angels in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

One of the doors had wood inlay depicting Pope Leo X on his PET ELEPHANT. Rumor has it that few believed the elephant was anything more than a legend a few decades after Leo’s death, but later excavations did indeed find elephant bones on the Vatican grounds.

The shutters in the Raphael Rooms – they feel like something that would be an afterthought, but even these are meticulously crafted and each an absolute masterpiece.

A sculpture of Pope Pius XI in the contemporary art wing. I think he made this face when he found out people would be forced to visit the contemporary art wing.

Pope St. Paul VI sculpture of him vested in the papal mantum – basically a “mega cope” – during the Second Vatican Council

An illicit picture of the Sistine Chapel (I promise I only found out afterward…)

Gilded papal crest on a door in the Vatican Museums – another intricacy that boggles the mind

Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590), after whom the Sistine Chapel is named. Also probably the last “Pope Sixtus” in history, because who’d want to be known as “Sixtus the Sixth”

A dark horse for the most unexpected part of the Vatican Museums – this immensely detailed prie-dieu (kneeler) bearing a large papal crest on the front.

There was nothing indicating in writing who this belonged to. If you know, leave us a comment with details!

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By the time we reached this painting, which was in a hallway commissioned by Popes Pius VI and (Servant of God) Pius VII, we had been in the Museums for nearly 3 hours, and had already seen the Sistine Chapel. We assumed that was the end, until we were led through these hallways of even more masterpieces – this time from the early 1800s.

Pope Pius VII solemnly entombing Pope Pius VI’s remains in the Vatican in 1802

The death of Pope Pius VI, who was in exile at the time in France.

We ended our long day at a little hole-in-the-wall German restaurant called Tirolese, which was apparently one of Pope Benedict XVI’s favorites for as long as he lived in Rome – they even have a table in the basement dining room commemorating his frequent visits.

Tirolese, with newspaper clippings of Pope Benedict XVI on the wall, from both before and after his election to the papacy in 2005.

Thanks for tagging along this week. Two more days to go!