St John Lateran

Yesterday we went to St John Lateran, the mother of all churches - and my favourite of the Papal churches. I like its space, light, quiet and the fact that the Baroque and Rococco were never allowed to completely take over inside the Church. Down both sides of the nave are large statues of the Apostles which seem to compliment each other. The Lateran is also 'the' parish church of Rome, famous for its baptistry. Below is the building, the site of which dates back to the 4 century. In the early church baptism in Rome was by partial immersion. The catechumens would process out to this building during the Easter Vigil.

Then in a large round pool, that the outer section in this picture is built on, they would kneel and have the water poured over them, have their clothes change to white and process back into the Vigil. AS the centuries went on the ceremony was truncated and the large font was used. Nowaday the little stand in front holds a dish the size of a saucer and water is sprinkled on the child. How sad that is such an ancient building resplendent with all the symbolism of baptism and with such a font the cermony could not have been done in a more proper manner. I don't know why it is not. YEsterday was obviously the Baptism Saturday of Rome. The building was awash with full of families for baptisms.

And it true Italian style they did it beautifully. Below is proud Nonna, daughter and her three children. There must have been a series of ceremonies that morning. Three of the others watched some baptisms in the central space, while in a side chapel at least 5 baptisms took place during Mass. This family were thrilled to have us oh and ah over the baby and children.

After the baptistry we went into the cloister of St John Lateran, one of the rare medieveal buildings in Rome. Roman buldings are like a series of layers and as a new layer was built the architects and builders had no qualms about taking material and artifacts from earlier buldings. Rome was not wealthy during the medieval period, at least not like during the Rennaisance and beyond. Few significant buildings went up and later builders would often destroy some of those for the current project. But these glorious cloisters survived. The central well is 9th century. Iamgine the calm in this place.

The work of the cloister was that of a father and son. Some of us spent over 2 hours here and we could have spent even more and had more to see. Each of the pillars is beautifully carved. There is variety in the style of columns, the mosaics are of red, green and gold primarily, the patterning called Cosmati work. Above this is the guttering with monster mouths for the spouts.

The glory is not only in the detail but also in the calm and quiet of this area. Each of the pillars seem to have a different pattern.

Below is a poor box. Note the extraordinary clasp - they obviousy had thieves on the poor boxes even in those days.

Today we are having a reflection day. Being the Feast of the Body and Blood it was most welcome and for the next two days we have lectures. Given how many churches we saw in the last few days I think all are ready for a few days at home.