Blogging from Rome, Italy on November 5th, 2019
Bloggers: Halle and Ben
Steps Taken: 16, 400
As rain trickled down over the city, so too did FSP 19 trickle up the Aventine Hill. The walk up the stairs was rather taxing, but we all put on a brave face and wheezed to ourselves as elderly Italian women sped past us on their morning walk. At the top of the hill, we were met with a dream-like garden with green grass, tall trees, a nice view of the city and a young man on a bench scrambling to finish his homework. And, the Basilica of Santa Sabina, of course, the reason why we climbed up this hill in the first place.
Before entering the church, Dr. Ulrich treated the group to an introductory lesson on the early Christian developments of Rome. A major discussion point was the Tetrarchy, which was the four-leader (2 Augusti, 2 Caesari) form of government that developed in Rome at the end of the 3rd century CE. Beginning with Diocletian ruling the East and Maximiam ruling the West, Rome suddenly found itself being controlled by a government structure in which two men served as co-leaders, and each co-leader has a “son” (usually adopted) that would be groomed to take over upon their fathers’ retirement. Two men, named Constatine the Great and Licinius, would eventually hold these co-leader positions. These two men are essential to understanding the evolution of pagean religions in Rome to Catholicism, as it was these two who in 313 CE issued an edict tolerating Christianity. Then BOOM – we have our first Roman Christian churches! It’s that simple.
Basilica of Santa Sabina is the oldest church in Rome, and has inside of it the entire preserved architectural structure of the Roman Basilica on which it was constructed. Moving inside the church, the group began to visually dissect the Roman basilica structures that can still be seen today; namely, the original rectangular layout of the Roman basilica and the columns. For many of us, seeing how a common space and plan like the basilica, which we have been tracking throughout this program, was repurposed and became the basic layout for early Christian churches in Rome was fascinating. The group also got to see the earliest known depiction of a crucifixion, which was carved into the original wooden doors of the church. Important to note, we had to pay real money to illuminate the scenes on the wooden doors. God was generous with his natural light, though, so we only lost about 2 euro tops.
We then spent the money we had saved (thanks to God) on some refreshments. Church really takes a lot out of you. From our snack break, we took a tram to via ostensis, home to none other than St. Pauls Outside the Walls. Why is it called St. Pauls Outside the Walls, you ask? Well that’s a story for another day.
Anyway, Outside of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls (which does not sound as snappy in Italian) , Kylie stopped breathing for a whole minute and a half out of excitement. Once she recovered, Dr. Ulrich told us about the origins of the church and we took notes (scrawls outside the walls)- Paul the Apostle was apparently buried somewhere along the Via Ostiense and around 324 Constantine decided to honor him with a shrine. This shrine was then built into a gorgeous and immaculately adorned church, which was burnt down by a fire in 1823. The church took inspiration from the classical world in both its destruction and reconstruction. The new Church was remodeled to imitate neoclassical architecture (the cold facade, the columns, etc.) Inside the church, we launched into an interesting discussion about the phenomenon of the veneration of relics, like the bones of St. Paul. Remains had magical properties to followers of Paul, and the same type of veneration held true for ancient romans who kept their relics safely guarded by the priests in the Regia. We spoke about the thoughtful design of St. POTW to accommodate pilgrims who came to venerate the relics, specifically the double side aisles created by the colonnade. Afterwards we went to the cloisters where Halle saw a monk (which many members of the group were skeptical of but I swear, I saw one) and some FSPers read a few Latin inscriptions while others (Kylie) drooled at pictures of popes. Schmalz inside the Walls. Kylie bought at least 100 souvenirs, a haul inside the wall, then the group broke for some spaghetti and meatballs outside the walls. Then we had Italian.
A fun day of church crawls and pratfalls outside the walls.