A Week in Rome: St. Paul's Outside the Walls
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habbo descargar keyloggersA long subway ride from the old city, deep in the Roman suburbs, is a massive but ordinary-looking outcropping of the Vatican known commonly as St. Paul's Outside the Walls (of the city of Rome). One of the largest churches in the world, it is about as far from any other tourist attraction as you can get and still be roughly inside Rome. On the blustery November afternoon when we took the trip, we thought we'd see the peaceful columns of a stately cathedral, good for a picture or two. We got a full-blown religious experience.
The streets outside the far-flung subway station were nearly empty as we walked through the rain toward the flat, featureless backside of the church. A few police cars were parked along the side, and a few nicely dressed people drifted in and out of a small door. We wandered around the front, which faces a poorly maintained park. The grey day seemed to sop up whatever color the unkempt grass had to offer. The front of the church was deserted, and we wondered if we had stumbled into the wrong place altogether, or if the cathedral was closed.
Disappointed after the riches of Florence and the Vatican City, we wandered back the way we came, past the small door. We saw some tourists disappearing inside, and in a last-ditch effort to get something out of our long trek to this place, decided to follow them.
We found ourselves in a small anteroom. A young priest, dressed in formal robes, motioned for us to go forward toward another door around a corner. We did so, and as we stepped through the inner doorway, were bathed in a blaze of candlelight and color.
Some kind of massive ceremony was going on. Another young priest motioned for use to proceed into the main section of the cathedral. On our way we passed crowds of robed priests and altar boys.
Along the side of the great cathedral, shafts of light come in from above and reflect on the marble below. Dad takes it all in.
A crowd of about a thousand parishoners is packed in, watching a ceremony presided over by an older man, perhaps a bishop or a cardinal. It is clear from the behavior of the parishioners that this man is special, as they strain to take pictures of him, flashes sparkling throughout the crowd. Signs warning not to take pictures are universally ignored. Video cameras run. Parishoners in wheelchairs are parked throughout. The crowd is diverse in age, from young families to the elderly. Priests are dotted throughout the crowd, watching with rapt attention.
Well, almost all of them were paying attention. Some were looking a bit, er, bored.
Or maybe just over-inspired. In the back, the fathful take to their knees as the ceremony, which seemed to involve the blessing of some sort of artifact, went a hundred yards away in the altar.
Worshipping, as they are, in one of the most religiously significant places in the history of the earth, surrounded by the ghosts of Athena and Zeus and those that came even before them. Rome is, above all, a spiritual place.
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