St. Peters Basilica, Scala Santa and Divine Mercy Chapel

The other day we went for a walk in Rome, through the old Roman market on our way to St. Peter's Basilica.

The flowers in the entrance

Love the ones with lemons and apples!

African purse sellers of fake Prada 

We arrived to St. Peter's piazza like all other tourists: with our cameras on hand ready to take a great shot! The space is so big, so wide, so open that it really gives the feeling of being in one of the grandest places on earth.

Cheese!

The crowd on the right is a line of hundreds of people waiting to go in the basilica. They are all waiting to go through the metal detectors. There is also some scaffolding around as the statues of saints are getting washed and polished. Look up at the building. See the two open windows? That is the Pope's office! Yep, nice view!

a little angel chasing pigeons 

From the top of the basilica. Can you see that obelisk? It is the spot in Rome where St. Peter was crucified. Yeah, Jesus's apostle Peter, the Peter that holds the keys to heaven Peter, the Peter whose feet were washed by Jesus Peter. The Peter that founded the church, the first Pope EVER. That Peter was crucified on that spot in Rome. He said he didn't deserve to die like Jesus so was crucified upside down.

St. Peter holding three fingers symbolizing the trinity and the keys to heaven. The keys come from Matthew 16: 19 when Jesus tells Peter to lead the people on earth to heaven through Christianity. 

We waited in line for about 20 minutes before getting passed the metal detectors and going into St. Peter's Basilica. The wait really wasn't so bad.

In we went

As we got in there was a crowd of hundreds around the statue la Pieta. This was something I needed to see. Deep inside of me I waited and wanted to see la Pieta since the last time I was in Rome (2001). It is an amazing emotionally strong work of art and being in the same room with it, contemplating it is incredible. I did the annoying tourist move and went around the side of the crowd and made a b-line to the front. Once there, I scooted around the last few people to get to the very front of the statue. Playing high school soccer helped me move around people!

The very first thing I wanted to see in St. Peter' was "la Pieta" statue by Michelangelo. It is one of his most famous works, carved out of a single marble rock and get this: made when he was only 23! Mary is depicted as being very young like a teenager rather than the 50 year old she might have been when Jesus died. There are several complex meanings of the statue. One is of the pieta,  or pity in the Latin sense that parents should have on their children when they are feeble. Another is Mary's belief in the trinity as she is seen holding out three fingers (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).

If you look at her she appears so young because the Bible describes her as having the  incorruptibly chaste quality of a pure virgin, a soul without sin. Another speculation is that Mary looks so young because she was possibly 15 or 16 when she gave birth to Jesus. She is shown as the mother holding her dead baby in her lap. Terrible, isn't it? But that is what happened.

La Pieta is an amazing statue for several reasons. The bodies of both Mary and Jesus appear to have a very human soft dimension. Look at the flexibility of the left leg and right arm of Jesus. Their softness is comparable only to the statue of the veiled dead Jesus in Sanseveros chapel of Naples. I blogged about that here.

Take another look at the intricate folds in at the bottom of her garment on the right. Amazing. What a great work of art to show the love of a mother, the sacrifice of Christ, and the emotion of death.

After hanging out with the statue for quite a while we decided to go look at the rest of St. Peter's.

Good Pope John 23 is entombed here. He was put under criticism during WW2 for not standing up to Hitler. However, he secretly hid thousands of Italian Jews and orphaned Eastern European Jewish children in the basement of St. Peter's, catacombs and other sacred historical underground sites. He died in 1963 and his body is incorruptible  meaning it doesn't decay. This happens with many bodies of saints. His clammy body is on display in a clear coffin. I think he was a very brave man.

Pope John 23. Dare I say it? ...I like his slippers. They have a papal coziness to them.

We walked around looking at the various tombs of other Popes.

Add caption

Meet Pope Leo IX of the 10th century. He was fervent and pushed many canonical (Catholic) laws into place. One he instated the rule that all popes down to priests needed to emulate Jesus and not be married to a human but be married to the church. 

gorgeous roof

That is where the Pope says mass. There are also paintings of stories from the Bible and saints around the perimeter of the basilica. 

St. Bartholomew: another one of the 12 Apostles and martyr for Christ. He traveled to Armenia and India to spread the gospel. He was skinned then crucified upside-down. 

St. Jerome (the skinny guy). He was a theologian in the 3rd century. He was an antisocial guy who prefered to study the Bible. He translated the Old Testament from  Hebrew  to Latin. He is the patron saints for archivists and librarians. Oh, stories say he tamed a wild lion by healing his paw. See the lion on the left? I believe it! When I helped Bentley, my cat, heal from undigested yarn the fur-ball stopped swatting at my ankles when I walked passed him.  

We can thank daylight savings to this guy: Pope Gregory 13th. He invented the Gregorian calendar. He also began colleges and supported higher education in arts and sciences. During his papacy (15th century) he expanded St. Peter's basilica. He was also Capricorn, no wonder, they are one of the most ambitious and hard-working signs reaching for the top through power. Just look at Kate Middleton, Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama. They are all Capricorns and married to climb up the ladder of power. Not that any of them are minutely as smart or capable as cool Pope Greg. 

Love the little marble dragon. I think he would make a cute purse. 

A bronze statue of St. Peter holding three fingers and the keys to heaven. Everyone passing wanted to rub his foot for good luck..? The dude is buried here but the real guy to talk to ain't Peter, it's Jesus. And he isn't buried in St. Peter's. God almighty is alive and well smiling at us in every beautiful living thing that is a miracle.  Look at your fingers! Jesus made those! What?! Try making fingers in a factory. Before I derail let me move on...

No one knew for sure if St. Peter was buried under the Vatican. Peter's Latin name is Pietro meaning ROCK. Jesus said "On this rock I will build my church." So there were speculations that Peter (the rock) was indeed under the massive Basilica. But ripping up the basilica wasn't kosher with most catholic leaders. Finally Pope John 23 (the one on display) decided to go for it and an archaeological team dug three layers of earth down and around the Vatican. They found all sorts of dead popes and saints then they found one grave dating 60 AD with Hebrew inscription saying "Simon the son of Jonah" which was Peter's Biblical name. Et voila, eccolo Pietro! So St. Peters WAS built on top of Peter's grave. 

Look on the bottom half for English

Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. 

Remember what I said about Rome being a lasagna of history: layers over layers of history? Well here is further proof. So this column was the base for the first basilica during the 4th century built by Constantine. The Saint Peter's Basilica we know today was built in the 15th century. 

The bell to start mass.

Jesus leading the Pope to lead his people on earth.

The list of Popes. It starts with Peter.

oculus to let in light

sweet fat baby Jesus. They did a good job shaping those chubby toes out of solid marble.

At the very front of the basilica is a bright yellow stained glass window with a dove , Jesus symbol of hope, flying high. I love it!

Under this grate is the underground of the basilica where Peter is buried and where Jews were hidden. So much history happened here. 

The papal shield has the papal crown, keys to heaven symbol and bees. 

Another bee

St. Helena proves that mom's are valuable for leading their children to believe in Christ. She is the mom of Constantine and led him to become a believer. He thus became the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity and to stop massacring Christians. 

The owl represents St. Jerome's contribution of wisdom by studying ancient Hebrew texts. 

We headed back outside of the Basilica just overwhelmed with historical information and trying to understand all we had seen. I felt joy.

The sun came out and shone on all the cleaned heads of the saint statues.

We passed a Swiss guard and I had to take a picture. The Swiss gave a gift to the pope in 1509 by promising to provide them safety with their guards  The Swiss guards are the official protectors of the Pope. They are all Swiss, must be over 5'9, Catholic, served in the military and unmarried. Their uniform was designed by Michelangelo and to this day is identical.

Nun getting a shot to share on her blog.

The entrance 

The Vatican has it's own postal system, it isn't Italy: its the Vatican

one of my favorite pictures

Nuns and gelato. Possibly my most favorite picture

These stairs, holy stairs, are the ones Jesus climbed to see Pontious Pilate.  They are 28 very steep worn marble stairs. They were brought to Rome thanks to St. Helena (mom of Constantine) in the 4th century. Tradition is to go up the stairs on your knees (don't use your hands). The reason is to go up in humility compared to Jesus who walked up on his way to death for us. On the way up the stairs one is supposed to pray and meditate on Jesus life and death and love. 

Then we walked to the chapel of the Divine Mercy. There is a famous painting there showing Jesus with rays: red and blue. They signify the blood and water that came from his body when he died. Divine Mercy means to allow love and mercy flow from your heart to the hearts of people in need of love and mercy. They bottom says "Jesus I trust in You" A Polish nun, Faustina, had a vision of Christ and wanted to paint her vision in 1925. Her intent was to spread the message of Jesus mercy towards us. Without His mercy we are hopeless.

The tradition for praying is to pray at 3 PM, the hour Jesus was crucified, in remembrance of the mercy he showed us. The prayer is this "Jesus who died but the source of life flowed out for souls and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O fount of life, immeasurable Divine Mercy,cover the whole world and empty yourself out upon us. O blood and water which flowed out as a fountain of mercy for us, I trust in you. Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy on us and on the whole world (repeat thrice meditating on the words) Jesus, King of mercy, I trust in you!"

After such an ecclesiastically full day we were blissful and decided to end the day on a perfect note. We headed in the direction of some delicious gelato to end the day.

what a beautiful world