Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (7) - Day 2

After Mass in the Church of Sant'Eustachio for the feast of All Saints, our pilgrims made their way up the Via della Dogana Vecchia to the Church of San Luigi dei Franchesi. This is another of the National Churches of Rome that we visited on the feast of All Saints. Having passed across the Piazza Navona we visited Santa Maria dell'Anima of the Germans and San Nicola dei Lorenesi and then passed down the Vicolo della Pace to enter the Teatro of Santa Maria della Pace, built under our friend Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere and completed under our dear friend Pope Alexander VII Chigi. Santa Maria dell'Anima

Santa Maria della Pace

We made our way down the way of Peace to the Via del Governo Vecchio, part of the old Via Papale, the main thoroughfare of Papal Rome, and down to the Chiesa Nuova, the new Church of Santa Maria in Vallicella, the home of the Oratorians and the tomb of St. Philip Neri.

Mass in St. Agnes' Crumlin

St. Agnes' Church, Crumlin, was one of the first great era of suburban Churches in Dublin built under Archbishop Byrne (1921-1940).  The firm of Ashlin and Coleman designed the Church, along with St. Teresa's, Donore Avenue (1922), St. Anne's, Shankill (1931), St. Columba's, Iona Road (1933), and Our Lady of Good Counsel (begun in 1933, blessed in 1942).

Archbishop Byrne also oversaw the building of the Church of St. MacCullin, Lusk (1922), St. Brigid, Killester (1925), St. Vincent de Paul, Marino (1926), Garrison Church, Arbour Hill, 1927, Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Foxrock (1935), and Our Lady of the Rosary, Harold's Cross (begun in 1938, blessed 1940).  In contrast to the Churches that were built under his successors, these were generally stone-built Churches in a very traditional style but temporary Churches were also needed until a new Church could be built.  As part of this great extension, Archbishop Byrne also blessed a tin Church at Portmarnock and a wooden Church at Kiltiernan.

A Mass for Saint Agnes in Crumlin

Blessing of Lambs for the Pallium

With exams around the corner, I rarely have time to blog, but I wanted to do this small post for St. Agnes day. St. Agnes incidentally is one of the few Memoriae in the calendar with an almost fully Proper Office for Lauds and Vespers and the privilege of the Sunday/Common psalms.

On the feast of St. Agnes, yearly, the lambs supplying wool for the pallium are blessed. But since I'm pressed for time, I'm not writing about that....

This is the pre-conciliar text for the blessing (anyone want to try their hand at translating it before next year?)

¶ Finita Missa statim Vicarius assistens vadit ad deponendum super credentiam Pluviale, Abbas vero accepta mitra, et facta cum ea debita Cruci reverentia, simul cum Diacono et Subdiacono accedit ad faldistorium, ubi sedit, depositis prius manipulis a Ministris, suumque dimittit, iterum Clerici ponunt super Altare duos Agnos, floribus in capite coronatos, cum pelvino in cornu Evangelii et Epistolæ: Cantores cantant antiphonam sequentem ( Stans, etc.) : In eodem tempore Abbas cum mitra imponit ter incensum in thuribulo de more illud benedicens ; expleta Antiphona mitratus accedit ad altare cum Ministris, et ante ipsum, mitra deposita, facta reverentia Cruci in medium ascendit, ubi manibus iunctis in tono feriali, sive cantu, has præces et orationes dicit.

¶ Postea accipit a Diacono aspersorium, et cum eo ter aspersit Agnum in cornu Evangelii in medio, a dextris, et a sinistris, et alterum in cornu Epistolæ pariter ter eodem modo, ac ter adolet incenso, quo aspersit. Deinde accepta mitra, et facta reverentia Cruci revertitur ad faldistorium ad deponenda paramenta.

Ant. Stans a dextris eius Agnus: nive candidior Christus sibi sponsam et martyrem consecravit.

V. Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.
R. Qui fecit coelum et terram.
V. Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.

OREMUS. Omnipotens et misericors Deus qui per Moysen famulum tuum Pontificibus tabernaculos servientibus, indumenta instituisti: et per sanctos Apostolos tuos Sacerdotibus et Pontificibus Evangelicis vestimenta sacra providisti: effunde tuam sanctam Benedictionem super hos Agnos, de quorum vellere sacra Pallia pro Summis Pontificibus, Patriarchis, et Archiepiscopis conficienda sunt: ut qui eis utuntur una cum plebe sibi commissa per intercessionem B. V. et M. Agnetis (super cuius tumbam oramus) ad æternam benedictionem perducantur: Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

OREMUS. Deus qui infirma mundi eligis ut fortia quæque confundas; concede propitius ut qui Beatæ Agnetis Virginis et Martyris tuæ solemnia colimus eius apud te patrocinia sentiamus. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

First published in January, 2008

Pilgrimage to Rome 2011, Day I - Let's start the walking!

For the fourth pilgrimage with the Sodality of Our Lady in Ireland we went back to the Eternal City. Our tour guide, Mr. Thomas Murphy, had arranged for us to stay the week in a convent just next to St. Peter's Church - Instituto Sanctissima Bambina Maria - which, apart from conventient access to 7 o'clock morning Mass, a fact of which many of us took advantage, offered the most incredible view from the roof top terrace (picture 1); warm summer evenings, dusk, with a well lit St. Peter's at our feet - clearly divinely inspired.

Day one was planned as a walk through the streets of Rome along the Via Papale, the route of the popes, although we did it backwards; starting at St. Peter's Square (picture 5), just after morning Mass with Fr. Larkin, our route went down to the Tiber, past the Church Santo Spirito in Sassia and Ospedale Santo Spirito, and then towards Castel Sant'Angelo (picture 2) which was originally built as the Emperor Hadrian's mausoleum. Since the 6th century AD connected with St. Michael the Archangel after Pope Gregory the Great, during a plague epidemic in 590 AD, saw a vision of the Archangel on top of the building and took it as a sign that the plague was over.


From here we went across the Tiber on the Ponte Sant'Angelo (picture 3) and strolled through the narrow streets of the inner city of Rome and made our way to the Chiesa Nuova - Filippo Neri's oratory, designed by Borromini - passing Banco Santo Spirito and the Piazza del' Horologico. From the Chiesa Nuova we walked back onto the old Papal Way, once the main street of Rome but very narrow by today's standards.

We stopped at the church Santa Maria della Pace, a beautiful white classical church that stands out among the sandstone buildings of old Rome. It was begun by Pope Sixtus IV and Bramante (who lived just down the road) but it was finished by the Sodality Pope Alexander VII and de Cortona. It is one of the very earliest renaissance streetskape 'theatres' of Rome. Around a few corners we visited the tomb of Pope Hadrian VI in the German church Santa Maria dell'Anima and then on to Piazza Navona and the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, a 17th century baroque church located on the site where St. Agnes was martyred in 304 AD. It's a beautiful little church but the unfortunate location, on one of Rome's more tourist-ridden piazzas, apparently necessitates signs and loud speaker announcements which, at least for this pilgrim, takes away that "good ol' churchy feeling".

After a quick lunch and the compulsory post-lunch-gelato we went on to the Collegio Capranica (picture 4) where our guide had arranged for us the special privilege to be allowed in to look at the chapel and to pray. The chapel was a very special place for the Sodality because it is where at least two popes (Benedict XV and Pius XII) joined.

From there we sauntered the few steps to the Pantheon, one of the most impressive buildnings in Roma - from the outside. Inside the Pantheon is actually a church but this is a fa

ct to which very few people pay the least bit of attention and upon entering you find yourself in a big hall, with excellent acoustics, where a couple of hundred people do their best to talk as loudly as possible and where tour guides happily stomp about with twenty or so photo-hungry tourists following. Here our tour ended and we made our way back to the convent for Benediction, Vespers, supper and bed. My advice after this first day; when in Rome - avoid the touristy places.

Feast days and name days - St. Agnes

St. Agnes died about the year 300 AD, at the tender age of thirteen. Like many other Christians during the first centuries in Rome, she was killed for her beliefs. She protects maidens and children, gardeners, engaged couples, chastity and rape victims. She is often, as in the pictures here to the left, depicted with a lamb, an agnus, signifying innocence and purity. The name Agnes, however, has nothing to do with agnus, but is derived from the greek word agnós, meaning chaste.

Today is the feast of Saint Agnes on the Church's Calendar. In the Swedish Calendar, it's also Agnes's Name Day. For each day, in the Swedish calendar, one or two names are being celebrated, these names usually correspond with the feast days of the Saints e.g. Stefan (Swedish version of Stephen) on Dec 26th, Michael on Sept 29th and Tomas (Thomas) on Dec 21st. On their day people named after these saints are usually congratulated and name days are celebrated like birthdays, though on a smaller scale. Some days, like New Years Day and June 24th, the day of John the Baptist, have no names attached to them, and some names, like Tor (October 19th) or Ragnar (October 1st) have name days, but have, of course, no connection to the Catholic Church whatsoever, being rather pagan in nature.

Agnes was a very popular name, in both Sweden and the English speaking world, at the start of the 20th century, and has now, in recent years, again become popular. Among the Agneses of the world we find, apart from the author of this blog-post, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known as Blessed Mother Teresa.

The Name Day Calendar of the Royal Swedish Academy is another link, probably an unconscious one, with Sweden's Catholic past. It is an example of some of the ways that Sweden, although technically a Lutheran Country, has many expressions of Catholicism. In many cases, Swedish National life retains many more of the outward signs of Catholic Civilization than many nominally Catholic Countries.