Rome Day 4

Today was the day for the Papal audience and it was so exciting. Amber, Dennis and Noah had seats that the North American College had never been able to get for Americans- right in the front row where they were with a mere handful of dignitaries. We had great seats in the reserved section RIGHT BESIDE the Pope. We never would have guessed we could have been so close. The address was at 10:30, but we arrived at 8:00.m. and sat out in front of St. Peter's and enjoyed the beautiful day.


Going to St. Peter's square for a Papal audience really shows you how the Church is universal. We were surrounded by what seemed like every single country and race. It was so beautiful and made me think this is what heaven is like.


Look how close we were to his chair-

Marky loved to watch the Swiss Guard- and don't let the garb fool you- the word is these guys are no-nonsense type of guys.

Then at 10:30 here comes Papa Benedict in the Pope Mobile!

He gave a long address in Italian and then greeted all the many groups from all over the world in a ton of different languages.

It was like a pep rally- everyone sat down until their organization was called and then they would jump up and scream and shake their banners-

And at the end of his address we ALL (everyone from all the countries) prayed the "Our Father" in Latin and received the Papal blessing. Amber, Dennis and Noah got to actually walk right up to the Pope's chair and he said "ah, you are from America?" and they asked for a blessing and he put both his hands on Noah's head and gave him a long blessing under his breath in Latin. It was AMAZING!! Marc was videoing so we couldn't talk and I kept pinching him saying "this can't be real?!!" Here they are walking up the stairs- Amber's in the long purple coat and black skirt. She gave the Pope one of Noah's green bracelets and he took it!


After our amazing morning we ran to the hotel to change clothes and then went to lunch and got Pizza and "Coke Light"-


After lunch we headed out with our new docent on a trip to tour the Catacombs of Priscilla and St. Agnes. Talk about fascinating! The Catacombs of Priscilla held 50,000 Christian bodies- there were niches in the wall and "dust" left in them from their former occupants. This catacomb was all Christian and had a lot of beautiful Christian artwork still left on the walls by the more wealthy people's tombs. There was a Madonna and Child drawn there that has been dated to having been drawn at 170 A.D. at the latest. Here she is on the right with Isaiah pointing to the star-

We weren't allowed to take pictures- but I found this on the internet and it's exactly how it looked-

And the image of the Good Shepherd was again and again- it's in the center of this beautiful ceiling-

Our docent was a theology guy and knew every thing there is to know about the imagery and how it related to Christ. Fascinating for sure.

After going to the Priscilla Catacombs, we went over to the St. Agnes catacombs, but we did not go down below- instead we focused on the churches and mausoleums they built on top of the catacombs. First stop- Santa Constanza's. I had really hoped to see this church. The legend is that Constantina was Constanine's daughter and was cured from a terminal illness by praying at the grave of St. Agnes to intercede to Christ for her (Agnes was a 13year-old virgin martyred b/c she would not marry a pagan). As you know, Constantine (through a series of many events) became a Christian and legalized Christianity. When his daughter eventually died from other causes he made this beautiful, round, light and airy mausoleum and placed it right beside St. Agnes's church.


You really feel you've gone back in time and can't believe you are in a mausoleum planned by Constantine himself and the mosaic tile that surrounds the entire circle is the arguably the best-preserved original Christian tiling in the world.


The altar in which her body now lies-


Here we are in front of a copy of her sarcophagus (the original is in the Vatican museum and we saw it on Monday). It was made of porphyry which is an extremely expensive and rare purple marble from Egypt. (this is blurry and I hope to replace it with Amber's copy of the pic one day)


Leaving Santa Costanza's we walked next door to St. Agnes' Church.
Again, another beautiful heavenly place- and what a ceiling!



After seeing the Pope, catacombs, and churches we headed to the bridge I've been wanting to see this whole time- the angel bridge. It crosses the tiber (just like we did- metaphorically speaking) and has 10 huge angels made in the 1600s that have in their hands the instruments from Christ's passion. What a perfect thing to see during Lent. Marky was able to guess all the instruments including the cat of nine tails and the scourging pillar.

The angel with the nails....

Walking along the tiber river this time of day is so peaceful-

The boys finally got these rubbery squishy balls that the street vendors had been tempting them with all week- they were thrilled! P.S. You may notice Marky always has his backpack with him- in it are his colored pencils and a sketch pad and his favorite book on Rome that he gets out as often as he can. It's really sweet.

Such a fun, blessed day. Then tonight we went to a recommended restaurant on a beautiful cobblestone back street and had the best time.

Afterward we walked down a way and found the most precious sweet shoppe and got the boys gelato and celebrated Marky upcoming birthday by letting him and Noah both eat TWO gelato cones a piece!

Tonight Marc is spending the night at Noah's hotel. They have two twin beds in their room and the boys are beside themselves- they keep calling it "cousin fun night". They have had a blast. Sweetly, Marky asked, "mommy can you run back to our hotel and bring me Grrrr (his bear)". He gets so big and smart and you think he's all grown up, but then he asks for Grrr and I know he's still my baby. Well, that's day 4- only one more day to go. I have a long list of things I'd like to do tomorrow, but we shall see how the day unfolds. Take Care and Good night!