Mark’s Gospel (Mk 16:1-8) tells us that early in the morning, on the first day of the week, as the sun was rising, Mary Magdala, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb with spices to anoint the body of Jesus. The women were asking each other who would remove the large […]
The Year of Faith “And when they arrived [in Antioch], they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” (Acts 14:27) With this citation the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, initiated his Apostolic Letter Porta Fidae that inaugurated the Year […]
The profound crisis of faith that has affected many people arriving at the stage where the faith is no longer today considered an obvious precondition for life in society and so the Holy Father Benedict XVI has decided to introduce the Year of Faith so that every Christian may rediscover their journey of faith. The […]
This month’s newsletter is dedicated to St Teresa of Jesus, better known as St Teresa of Avila, because her 500th anniversary celebrations open this month and will last throughout 2015. St Teresa is famous as she was the reformer of the Carmelite order. Although she entered the convent at 20 years of age, her real […]
Federico Barocci (circa 1535-1612 ) was one of the most highly regarded mannerist painters of the 16th Century. His works were characterised by an exceptional use of colour and the composition of his works are both beautiful and intellectually interesting. Barocci, a third order Franciscan, was a man of faith and it influenced his art. […]
Where? Let’s go below the ground to look at the Churches first historic archive, to relive the authentic message of the Creed of the first Christians. We descend into St Priscilla’s Catacombs in the Via Salaria, Rome. The Catacombs are a place of rest. In naming their burial grounds the first Christians used a vocabulary […]
At the heart of the Pio Clementine collection in the Vatican Museums is the famous sarcophagus known as the ‘ dogmatic sarcophagus’ or simply the ‘dogmatico’. It is a masterpiece of early Christian sculpture from Rome dated to approx. 325-340 AD. Every part of the sculpted funeral monument in some way testifies to the Faith […]
In the Church of Saint Mary in Vallicella in Rome, the home of the Oratorian Congregation founded by St Philip Neri between 1602 and 1604, Michaelangelo Merisi, otherwise known as Caravaggio, was commissioned by the Vittrici family to paint an altar piece depicting one of the sorrowful mysteries of the Holy Rosary: the death of […]
Michael Angelo’s Crucifixion of St Peter in the Pauline Chapel The archeologist and graphologist, Margherita Guarducci, who lead the second phase of excavations to identify St Peter’s tomb in the Vatican Necropolis between 1940-1950, studied the various historic sources arrived at the conclusion that St Peter was crucified in Nero’s Circus in the Vatican on […]
The mosaic portraits of two young spouses, Simplicia Rustica and Flavio Giulio Giuliano originates from the Ciriaca cemetery, otherwise known as the Monumental Cemetery of Verano, near St Lawrence Outside the Walls in Rome. These two mosaics, which are conserved in the Pio Christian Museum in the Vatican Museums, Rome, date to 350 A.D. The […]