Rome Day 4- Major Churches, Colosseum and Forum

Today started out like we always do with a great breakfast in the breakfast room of the hotel.  Tucker ate with Uncle Tim who let him try coffee.  Tucker loved it- uh oh!

We boarded the bus and stopped at our first Church- St. Mary Major.  It is the most amazing church.  It is almost 1,000 years older than St. Peter's!

This is the little "Sistine Chapel" located off the nave.  It was just a feast for the eyes- every space your eye fell was filled with beauty and meaning.  

 

We had Mass there and Tucker again helped serve at the altar.  

Father is so patient!

One of the great surprises when we got there was seeing Pope Saint Pius V!  He was the holy Pope who worked in the Council of Trent, worked through the Counter-Reformation, and united the Catholic Nations to fight the Battle of Lepanto- a battle we have talked to our children about for years.  To see him in state right there was just amazing and apparently rare.  Our guide said he had never seen the tomb open like that before.  

St. Mary Major is also the church that houses the sycamore wood from the manger of Christ.   It is underneath the high altar-

It houses the oldest icon of the Madonna and Child believed to be painted by St. Luke himself.  

Our next stop the Papal Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.  It is the church that contains the relics that St. Helena brought back with her from her trip to Jerusalem in the 300s.

Sadly I was not allowed to take pictures of the relics in the chapel.  They included two thorns from the Crown of Thorns, the bone of St. Thomas' finger, a nail that nailed the foot of Jesus, pieces of the True Cross, the beam of the good thief's cross, and the INRI plaque, with the engraving in Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic. That is all found in the chapel- it is the most amazing sight.  

From Santa Croce we walked to St. John Lateran Papal Archbasilica.  It is the "Mother Church" of Rome and where the chair for the Bishop of Rome is located.  It is the oldest and highest ranking of the four papal basilicas. 

St. Francis looking on-

The original Lateran church was falling into ruin so they built a new church on top of it.  Inside each of the columns is the original column of the old church.  The old church is inside the new one.  

 These over 2,000-years-old doors were on a Roman Civic building. 

A statue of Constantine made in his time!

The most striking part of this church is the 12 giant apostles holding the instruments of their martyrdom.

Behind the golden image of the Last Supper is wood taken from the table used at the Last Supper.

Aunt Amber helping explain things to Tuckerman-

There is a legend that the image of Christ in the dome miraculously appeared-

We had a great lunch of salad and pasta-

After lunch it was on to the Roman Colosseum!  Tucker was so excited!

 He had a great book "reconstructing Rome" so he could see what everything looked like now vs how it looked originally.  We all loved looking at the book-

You can't help but feel haunted when you think of all the human and animals lives needlessly lost in this "entertainment" arena.  All the Christians that were tortured, eaten, burned here.  It's just haunting.  

The passages that would have been under the wooden floor.  The wooden floor was covered with sand to soak up the blood.  

Some old Christian frescoes that were painted on after the human brutality had ended.  Golgotha is in the lower left corner.  

 Our guide today didn't mention it, but the one who took us around in 2011 said that there was an indulgence attached to kissing this cross.  When in Rome....

 I found the image of flowers sprouting out of the dead stone beautiful.  

We see religious brothers and sisters everywhere we go-

Contantine's Arch!

 Walking on an original Roman road- these things were made to last!  Our roads don't last 20 years- much less 2,000!

Now to see the Roman forum all in ruins- but even the ruins have their own elegance-

Our Italian guide said, "Romans are always recycling- here we see a water fountain made from an old sarcophagus.  :)

This plaza was designed by Michelangelo-

Julius Caesar......render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.  

Here we see columns from a pagan temple, and by the triumphal arch of the Emperor Septimus Severus we find the "belly button" of Rome.  There was an umbiculus that was the center of Rome and had the distance to all cities in the world because all roads led to Rome (because Rome built them- and built them well!).

Santa Maria in Cosmedin Church, which is the location of the "Fountain of Truth" from Roman Holiday.  :)  We didn't try our luck with the fountain, but we did enjoy the church, which was built over a temple to Hercules.  

I was so surprised to see they had the skull of St. Valentine!

 
We made it back to our hotel, freshened up, and walked through St. Peter's Square to go to dinner-

Tucker LOVES tiramisu- I think he's had it almost every day.  The boy likes his coffee flavors!

Good night!