On Friday we went to St John Lateran, the real parish church of Rome. (St Peter’s only became the home of the pope at the end of the 14th century after the pope returned from Avignon – to this day it still isn’t the main church of Rome). Of all the major churches that I’ve seen, this has a sense of spaciousness – and the baroque art isn’t totally overblown. Dan McCarthy a monk from Atchinson was our guide. Earlier in the program he gave lectures on the structure and theology of the early churches and then guided us through Santa Sabina and the St Maria Cosmedin pointing how their particular features. He is an excellent teacher, knows his material, and is able to present it clearly, simply and in a manner that makes people feel easy about offering their insights and asking questions. Now he introduced us to St John Lateran, and its baptistery, and San Clemente. The baptistery was especially interesting, with is size and spaciousness, originally made for total immersion. For a long time, this was THE baptistery of Rome, just as the baptistery of Florence has until very recent times, been the only baptistery of Florence. I’m hoping that next week when I go to Florence, that I might see a baptism there if I pick the right time. It would be good to see one of the great art works being used for what was originally intended.
At San Clemente, we were able to go down into the ruins of the 4th century, then Romanesque basilicas underneath the church. There was also a pagan mythrium and school excavated down there – eerie. After our ‘picnic lunch’ outside the church three of us went back to St John Lateran and spent time in the glorious cloister and viewing old vestments. This was of especially interest to me, as later on in the program I want to discuss the art work that was done by nuns in their embroidery. One of the copes on display here was totally covered with scenes from the bible. The cope came from Florence at the time that the nuns of La Murate was renowned for their embroidery.
After that two of us, Julie Marie from the States and a couple of years younger than me, went shopping. With similar senses of humour we had one of the best times I’ve had in Rome. We finally found the shop in Rome that sells tapestries and trying to get Mum a tapestry, I tried out my Italian. Just as well my accent doesn’t affect the canvas or the design would be a bizarre abstract – the most hilarious part was the delightful shop woman trying to get me pronounce ‘euro’ correctly. Julie was crying. Then we went on to a shop for Julie to buy a tie and shared the tiny shop space with two ‘undercover’ security men whose body language screamed to the heavens who they were, along with the bulging guns they carried under their suits. Testosterone flooded the space and the shop woman there wanted us out as we were cramping her flirting style. Julie wasn’t moving till she had her tie and the men were unimpressed that we were unimpressed with them. Eventually the woman made the quickest transaction of her life, and just as we were leaving a couple walked in, who couldn’t get in till we got out – ah so much for that flirtation. After that we looked at shops that we could enjoy if we weren’t nuns. It was fun just looking at so many beautiful objects. Not being able to buy was almost an advantage and we could take pleasure in everything without being committed to anything. The rest of the evening was just as much fun just mooching around and enjoying the atmosphere of Rome and our own ignorance!
Yesterday and today have been reflection days and tomorrow Sr Aquinata’s protégé – a German Sr Manuela Scheiba gives talks on Obedience in RB.
Luckily for me the weather continues cool. As I mentioned I bought few clothes and on the rare occasions I’ve been able to look at clothes, nothing fits. Even the plump Italians are smaller than a plump Australian.