Getting a foot in the door

This morning turned out to be rather auspicious, despite the fact my mother was concerned enough about a flight of birds to send me an e-mail telling me to be careful.  I met Erin and Ralph and the boys at St. Peter's at 7:15am for a private Mass.  The Sacristan informed me that on Wednesday they require reservations and since I had none, "No Mass for You".  Well, I said Msgr. said I could say Mass and then, in typical Italian fashion, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Ok, take Vestment".  So I suited up and we went out and found the 1st free Altar.  Today was the Feast of San Gennaro, very auspicious day, he is from the South of Italy like my family.  If you were in Naples you could have witnessed his blood liquify.  And guess what?  We had Mass with the Pope!!!  Pope Saint Pius X that is, his body lay's in corrupt in a glass casket under the Altar.

Here are my devote Altar Boys!

St. Pius X under the Altar.  I was thrilled to be able to say Mass on his Altar since I attended St. Pius X Seminary for College.

Now you may wonder about the title of today's blog.  Some readers with shoe obsessions have been asking about shoe shots.  This is the pair Liz Lev wore today for our tour of the Vatican Museums.  Prada!  The woman has style.  They were a light purple color.

Liz gave us an outstanding tour of the museums and a terrific discussion of the Sistine Chapel, sorry no photos allowed in the Sistine but here are a few from the Museum.  This one is an early Christian image of the Good Shepherd.  It originally decorated the corner of a tomb.  Christ appears as the god Apollo.

 This is an ancient Roman copy, in marble, of a Greek original in bronze.  It is known as the Apollo Belvedere. The great artists all studied it.  Michelangelo in particular used it as a model to produce his great works.

This is the Laocoon, considered the greatest sculpture of antiquity.  All the great artists used this as a model for their works as well.  It depicts a scene from the fall of Troy.  Laocoon was a priest of Troy who warns the Trojan's to beware of Greeks bearing Gifts, meaning the gift of the wooden horse.  For his trouble the Trojan's throw him, with his two sons, off a cliff and into the jaws of a sea monster.  He witnesses his sons dying and he too will die.  This moment in frozen in marble.  The Trojan's accept the horse and as they say...the rest is history, Troy falls after the horse is brought into the city with all the Greeks hiding inside.

This is the oldest statue from antiquity that is signed by the author.  It helped Michelangelo discover how to deal with muscles when seated.  Rodin will also use it to create his Atlas in bronze.

In the private offices of Pope Julius II are several important works.  This close up is from Raphael's 'Disputation between Aristotle and Plato'.  He and Michelangelo were bitter rivals and working for Julius II at the same time.  In this piece Raphael imitates Michelangelo's style in this piece and includes himself and Michelangelo in the painting.  Raphael is in gentlemen in the center with the black cap on looking out at the viewer.  Raphael was 25 when he came to Rome as an unknown but he had an Uncle with great influence working for Julius II, Bramante who was chief architect of St. Peter's.  Bramante introduces his nephew to Pope Julius as a painter 'of some skill'.  Julius hires him on Bramante's word and well...the rest is history!

In the same piece Raphael paints Michelangelo into the painting.  He sits brooding (he was known to be quite moody) by himself with his famous dogskin boots on.  He never removed his boots, not even to sleep.

 In the afternoon I met up with Erin and Ralph and the boys.  Erin insisted we not take any military marches so we used the subway.  We went to St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran.  St. John's is the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Rome.  It is the Pope's Cathedral.  It's real name is the "The Cathedral of Saint Saviour, in honor of SS. John the Baptist and John the Evangelist".  The appendage "Lateran" refers to the family who donated the Land and Palace that adjoin the Cathedral. This is the interior of the Cathedral.

Across the Street is the Santa Scala, the Holy Steps.  These are 28 steps brought from Jerusalem to Rome by St. Helena, the Mother of Constantine the Great.  These were the steps Jesus ascended at Pilate's house.  You may only ascend the stairs on your knees.  This was the one thing little 8 year old Dominic wanted to do in Rome.  We all did it on our knees (OUCH!) because of the faith and devotion of a child.  Remember your scriptures, "and a child shall lead them".  I was still coming through the door when Dominic ran right to the step to start!!  You say one prayer on each step, I was praying I would make it to the top! LOL!  Boy, it is not easy!!  That is Dominic on the left and Ralph on the right, Bene Fratelli (good brothers).

 

Then we headed back and this is a shot of St. John Lateran from the front, last week I showed the back with the Obelisk in the Piazza.