Dominicana Continued

I woke up this morning to the sound of thunder reverberating through the halls of this Medieval building. THen the sound of a driving, pouring rain. It was glorious, but I was grateful that we would not be headed out into the Roman Streets until a little later in the morning.

We we did venture out, our orientation to Dominican Rome continued when we toured the Church of St. Clement, the home of the Irish Dominicans in Rome. Traditionally, it is thought that this beautiful 11th Century Basilica sits on the site of the house Church of Saint Clement, the third successor of St. Peter as the Bishop of Rome. The most beautiful features of the current basilica are the apsidal mosaic which shows the crucified Christ surrounded by both doves and sheep representing his disciple; and the mosaiced Paschal Candle stand mounted on the Schuola Cantorum. (these two pictures were downloaded from the internet as we were not allowed to take photos inside San Clemente.

To me, the most exciting part of a tour of San Clemente is the excavations beneath the Bsilica which go down two levels. On the first level, you see, almost entirely intact, the 4th Century Church which occupied this site prior to the current Church. That has beautiful frescoes and offer a great insight into the worship of the 4th Century Church. On that level is also the tomb of St. Cyril, the missionary monk who brought the Gospel to the Slavic people (along with his brother Methodius). There is a symmetry to Cyril's entombment in a Church that would come to be occupied by the Order of Preachers. Cyril was so much a man of the Word that he had to help the Slavs become a people of the Word by divising an alphabet for them (using Greek letters and symbols to represent Slavic sounds). To this day, the alphabet of the Russian, Ukrainian, Serbain, and other Eastern European Slavic peoples, is called the "Cyrillic" alphabet, after this saint). Dominicans are also called to be that committed to spreading the Gospel, using all means at our disposal to do so.

The lowest level of the excavation has two structures from the 1st Cetury AD. The first is a mithraic temple - a place of worship of a syncretistic mystery cult often associated (or confused) with the earliest Christians. The other structure is the house of a Roman nobleman, perhaps the house occupied by San Clemente himself, the house from which the fourth Bishop of Rome was dragged and lead to martyrdom during the persecutions of Trajan.

I came across this great website that has a wonderful interactive tour of the Basilica: http://www.basilicasanclemente.com/

After our time at San Clemente, Filip and I made our way across Central Rome to the area of the Pantheon. On a piazza behind the Pantheon sits the only Gothic Church in all of Rome (if you are not a fan of hte Baroque, do not bother with this town!). That Church is the Dominican Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. That means "over Minerva" - signifying that that this 13th Century Church was built on a site that had at one time, been sacred to the Roman goddess, Minerva.

This is a theme that has come up already a number of times in these blogs. Early Christians were really good at taking over sites that had been considered sacred by previous generations and "converting" them to Christianity. - Think the Necropolis on Vatican Hill. The Mithreum near Saint Clement's house, and now a temple of Minerva. That's not just true with geographic locations, we did the same thing with sacred festivals and celebrations as well.

I have been to the "Church of the Minerva" many times on previous visits. I am attracted by numerous things: I love Gothic Architecture and the lapis lazuli color of the Gothic Vaulting of this Church is exquisite. I love rose windows, there are a few here. St. Catherine of Siena and Blessed Fra Angelico are entombed in this Church and I have a particular devotion to both. (At least most of St. Catherine is here - her head is in the Dominican Basilica in Siena...)

What I had not been aware of before this visit is that is possible to visit the room that was occupied by St. Catherine during her Roman sojournes. Like the Cell of St. Dominic or St. Pius V, it has been converted into a chapel. It is behind the sacristy adn you have to request access. I did just that for Filip and me. Once I identified myself as a Dominican Priest, they willingly opened the door and gave us as much privacy as we would like. I took this time to pray for Sr. Diane and her family in light of the loss of her brotehr this week.

Once again, it is the new experiences, the unexpected expreiences in which God is most at work in me on a trip like this one. I love being surprised by the Grace of God, this time in the form of a simple chapel dedicated to Sta. Catarina, our Dominican Sister and Doctor of the Church.

When we returned to the Angelicum, the Church of Ss. Dominic and Sixtus (the Angelicum Church) was open for a wedding. Filip and I were able to enjoy the numerous works of art there as well and to see another piece of Roman Dominicana.

On Saturday evening, our continued introduction of Filip to Dominican Rome took the form of a wonderful BBQ hosted by the Dominicans at the Angelicum for friars from the other Roman Convents. It was a wonderful evening of frternity and Filip met numerous other Dominicans, including some from Poland and others from our Province.