... more precisely, the Catacombs of Callixtus, one of the oldest and biggest. We took a tour too, albeit in Italian. I was particularly glad about it because I'd never been to any of the catacombs of Rome before. The walk to the catacombs, on a quiet Sunday morning, out the Via Appia Antica beyond the old city walls was like slowly going back in time:
Sunken Roman road and a mile-marker on the Via Appia
On the walk back, I got to talk with a retired French abbess, the only Cistercian nun staying at the house while we were there. Somehow being in Rome without knowing any Italian made me less shy about speaking French, and more excited to be able to speak to anyone at all! We heard all about her monastery in the south of France, which sounds completely beautiful, but especially enjoyed hearing some of her wisdom about the life of nuns and Christian life in general.
Along the way, we passed the 'Quo vadis' church. The story is that St. Peter passed this place as he was fleeing Rome during a persecution of Christians. On his way out of town he saw Jesus heading back in. When Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?" ("Domine, quo vadis?") he said, "To Rome to be crucified again." So Peter turned around and went back to Rome to continue his apostolic work there, eventually being martyred.
The next week, on the morning of Pentecost, we traded Roman burial grounds, a site of martyrdom outside the walls, for a former Roman temple at the center of the old city--we went to the Pantheon.
They have a Pentecost mass there every year that's quite popular, for reasons you will soon see. It was packed, so we had to stand during the mass. We ended up rather close to the center of the dome. After the dismissal, the third-century Pentecost hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus ("Come Holy Spirit"), was chanted...
...as rose petals began to fall through the oculus of the Pantheon's dome.
They fell for what seemed like ages! Some of the roses weren't fully pulled apart: T got smacked in the shoulder with one particularly solid symbol of the descending Holy Spirit. Here's a short video of it:
By the time the petals stopped falling they were several inches thick right in the middle where we were. The area right under the oculus is roped off, I imagine because the floor is often wet from rain there, but some of the security guards started letting little kids in to play in the roses:
It was a beautiful end to our time in Rome and a moving send-off for the last few months of our travels. Many thanks to Br John and the rest of the monks for hosting us!
