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We Have So Much To Live Up To

We went to 6 churches today. You think I'm joking. 6 churches. And the Pantheon. And the Trevi Fountain. And the Spanish Steps. And Altare della Patria. And Piazza del Popolo. It was a crazy day. But for this blog post I'm going to focus on the grandiose churches we visited.

Are you ready to go to Church?

We began in our portion of town at Basilica de Santa Maria (Holy Mary) in Trastevere. To put an age with this place, Christians have worshiped at this site since 221. Much of the church was covered in beautiful mosaics that I will not even attempt to put into words on this post.

Mosaics
Mosaics and Altar
Most ornate ceiling of the churches we saw
Madonna with Child
We continued across the Tiber river and found ourselves in front of Basilica di San Bartolomeo all'Isola (Saint Bartholomew on the Island). Founded in the tenth century, this church contains the remains of Saint Bartholomew, the apostle--something I didn't realize until much later. I will be going back! Imagine the powerful feeling knowing that the remains of a person who knew Christ are present in that Church. Let that sink in. In terms of the architecture, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.


After a venture to several other stops, we saw Basilica di Sant'Andrea della Valle (Saint Andrew of The Valley). In this church, behind the altar were several large depictions of the crucifixion of St. Andrew. According to tradition, Andrew was hung on an X-shaped cross. St. Andrew is the patron saint of my home diocese in Little Rock.

Ceiling
Modern Art on display
Side chapel
Center depiction
Side depiction
Dome
Organ
 All of this happened before lunch. We ate at some friend's apartment and started towards the Trevi fountain. Along the way, we passed by Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola in Campo Marzio (Saint Ignatius of Loyola in Campus Martius). This church was far and away the most beautiful of the day's journey. On the ceiling, a fresco painted by a Jesuit priest depicts the heavens. Impressively, the fresco seamlessly extended the columns of the church into the fresco, allowing the viewer to not know where the church ends and art begins. On a certain side altar, a crucifix was visible. We admired this altar for a while. While the crucifix, in and of itself, is beautiful, upon closer inspection various relics (I would number them in the hundreds) can be seen. We were shocked. The final altar was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception (my home parish) so I had to grab a picture.
Main arch
Ceiling (Zoom in)
This cross reminded me of the large cross at Subiaco
Crucifix and Relics
Altar of the Immaculate Conception
 Santa Maria di Montesanto was the next church. It was beautiful and smaller in size. We did not spend much time in it. But here are a few pictures:
From the front

Inside
 Basilica Santa Maria de Popolo was opposite the same piazza as Santa Maria di Montesanto. A church has been present at this location since 1099. This church is famous for being a mixture of Renaissance and Baroque architecture.
Facade

A close up of a marble statue to see the detail involved

I was very humbled and inspired by these beautiful places of worship. While every church was unique in it's own aesthetically beautiful way, I could not help but imagine the faith involved in the centuries of worship at these holy places. The intense desire of the Apostles, especially Bartholomew and Andrew, to know and desire Truth and Love, even to the point of death, gave me chills. To know that their first-hand encounter with Jesus inspired them to live lives we still commemorate to this very day in churches such as these makes me feel small. But it gives me hope. Hope that does not stem from any human life or actions, but only from one, total and complete, sacred act on a cross two millennium ago. I have so far to go to be anything as great as these, but I have hope. And hope is a good start.

Know that you are loved, just as Andrew, Bartholomew, Mother Mary, and Ignatius of Loyola are loved.

You have hope.

Until next time,
Jacob

























Comments

  1. Anonymous3/6/16 05:23

    Keep the comments and photos coming. An inspiration to us.

    ReplyDelete

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