Santa Maria Maggiore and the Colliseum

If you have been following my blogs you will know what these are, and where they are and you can appreciate the challenge of doing them in the dark:

Never mind that... I'm getting used to them now.

Today's Station Church is Santa Maria Maggiore, or St Mary Major.  Like every other morning we leave early just before dawn with vestments and rosary in hand.  Today, I took a couple of wrong turns, one on the way to the Pilgrimage Church and one going home.  Both were propitious though, because on the way to the church we (Fr Ed and I) we bumped into another group of pilgrims from the Casa Santa Maria, including three nuns, who led us the rest of the way:

Following the nuns into the rising sun... 

Pilgrims approaching St Mary Major

SMM from the back of the Church

Again, the Back of the Basilica of SMM

I have decided that today's blog is going to be more pictures than words.  In the middle of publishing this post I left to go shopping for an alb, cincture and amice and now I don't have time before class to do a lot of typing.  So, I'm going to hit you with a series of pics (I took a LOT this morning) with only passing comments.  

While we were waiting / hoping for the Church to open, I took a couple of pictures of the front of the church... since you've seen the back already!

This pic includes the bell tower which was covered in light from the rising sun.  The second floor porch was quite spectacular, although you can't see it in this picture.  As the sun peeks over the horizon, it floods the porch, and what appears to be a brightly coloured mosaic inside the porch with light.

Altar and Baldachino at SMM

This is the view of the inside of Santa Maria Maggiore from where I was sitting this morning, in 'choir' behind the altar looking out onto the nave where all the faithful had gathered for Mass.  The Altar is over a grotto honouring the nativity of our Lord and the creche of Bethlehem.  No pictures were allowed there.

Inside the Apse: The crowning of Mary

Over my head is the dome of the church and inside the dome was this mosaic of the crowning of Mary in heaven by her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Yes, a mosaic.  You have to see it to believe that it is done in tiny little pieces of coloured marble.  The gold guilding makes it absolutely resplendent.  I tried to zoom in with my little phone camera, but it didn't show any better detail with respect to the mosaics
:

All through the Nave at the top of the pillars there were mosaics detailing the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  At the very 'head' of the church, behind the altar, was this beautiful depiction of the Nativity... for those of you who like Nativity scenes (you know who you are!)

This next picture, though blurry, gives you a sense of the space looking from the back of the Nave toward the Altar and Baldachino.  Honestly, I liked this baldachino better than Bernini's in St. Peter's.  Did I just say that?  Oh well.  Scroll back up a couple of pics to see it again.  

Okay, some of you aren't going to like this next part.  Pope Pius V is entombed in this church, above ground and in a coffin with a glass front.  He was Pope from 1566-1572.  He was a great reforming Pope who put orthodoxy above personalities, and was the Pope who formed the Holy League which defeated the Moslem / Ottoman invaders at the time of the great miracle of the Battle of Lepanto... attributing the overthrough of the enemy fleet to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and consequently instituting prayers to our Lady of Victory. 

Still, as great as he was, it is difficult for some to know that they can see him through his glass-sided coffin some 435 yrs later.  It was not difficult for me.  I stopped to pray there and I thought of how desperately we need reform in our day, and how we too are faced with some aggressive and violent Islamists in our day... I know first hand from the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

I know you want a close up, right?

His mortal remains rest there, vested in his papal garments, a mask covering his face, but his soul is at rest in Christ waiting for the trumpet call of God to the resurrection of new life in the Kingdom of God.

Now, across from Pope Pius V is this crypt.  It was the original repository for the relics of the nativity of our Lord in Bethlehem until it was moved under the main altar.  St Ignatius Loyola said his first Mass in this crypt.

I will add a second blog post this evening about the trip home from the Pilgrimage.... we took the long walk back and went by the Roman Forum or Colliseum.  More about that later.