At different times we have an opportunity to visit different cultural and religious sites here in Rome. One tradition started by St Phillip Neri was to visit a series of 7 churches. (He started it to counteract Mardi Gras.) Now it happens at different times during the year. I managed to do it the week after Easter with a small group of 2nd year Theology students. Br Andrew Gronotte wrote of a similar experience on the Regnum Christi Site so I will take a little different perspective. We hiked 12 or 18 miles to visit them; so here is a brief story and photos.
First is Chiesa Nuova [New Church], Phillip Neri’s own church. The others got to tour his apartment but I was late and came as they began daily mass on the altar over his tomb.
From there we cross the heart of modern and ancient Rome to St Mary Major. Snow fell right here during a Roman summer so they dedicated this Church to Our Blessed Mother. Afterwards, I was relaxing for a minute when someone snapped this shot.
OK, I was on the steps only enough time to get the photo because the Italian guards can be effective. From here we hiked out to a little known Church out on the east side of town. St Lawrence contains the mortal remains of St Stephen, St Lawrence, and St Justin under the altar. It has a unique architecture from combining two churches but is really off the beaten path today. We decided for a group photo but couldn’t even find someone to take it for us.
That brings us back into town – another long walk – to the two of the 7 churches that are the closest. The Holy Cross of Jerusalem (famous for its chapel of relics) and St John Latern (the Pope’s Cathedral). According to tradition, the reliquary above this altar contains the table of the last supper.
On our way to St Sebastian’s, one brother got his picture with a saint (St Dominic Savio if you can’t read it). The church itself is over the catacombs of the same name. Just as we got to St Sebastian’s the sky turned dark and it rained cats and dogs for the 15 minutes we were inside.
The final church on the tour is St Paul’s Outside the Walls. We could tell the effect of this tradition as the road to St Paul’s is called Via delle sette chiese [7 Churches Street]. Once we were inside, somebody managed to get a photo of our faithful photographer.
After that, we were on our 5 mile hike home.
It wasn’t like I had some huge spiritual conversion. I had already been to all 7. Somehow, I think doing that much walking on foot reminded me of those pilgrims of years of all, the type who would make a pilgrimage of 500 miles on foot. We can see in these moments what it means to be at the heart of the Church.
Epilogue: later the whole community visited Siena. There is a Eucharistic miracle there of hosts which where consecrated almost 200 years ago, desecrated, returned to the church in shame, and still look like this. I had to investigate…
