Day 20: Walking with a very troublesome woman

It was a quiet morning at leisure and many of the group was heading off to the religious shopping district to buy goodies to take back to Australia. Given that Chris was not feeling fabulous and needed a visit from the doc,  I decided to stay pretty close to the Domus with him, went for a walk, mooched around, took some pics of this amazing piece of Australia in Rome and had a lovely lunch at a trattoria around the corner...Veal Limone and Rigatoni Meatball. Yum!

The afternoon session was a pilgrimage walk in the footsteps, not of St Paul this time, but of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, that very troublesome Aussie woman.   Mary journeyed to Rome at a very turbulent time in Italian history to visit the Pope and gain papal approval for the rule of her sisters.  So we headed off in light rain, past Termini Station where Mary would have arrived in Rome and then on to some of the places where she either lived, prayed or sought support.  One point of interest was St Andrews’ church, place of regular worship for Mary and the place where St Stanislaus Kostka lived, a young Jesuit seminarian who was canonized for his good works. The chapel is small but quite stunning with a lot of coloured marble. Beyond this small chapel we saw the Presidential Palace, not that it had anything to do with Mary per se but it was an important part of Italian history. The next stop was to be at the Church of St Agatha of the Goths which is a tiny church that was originally home to Aryans who supported the Aryan heresy that denied the divinity and humanity of Christ. When the Aryans were overthrown in the 6^th century the church reopened as a place of Catholic worship. It was a surprising little oasis of peace. Looking fairly run down and small from the street, we descended into a courtyard and entered through small doors into a beautiful worship space where quiet organ music was playing. A real sense of history in the nondescript building. 

Moving from there we stopped at the Convitto san Tomaso which was originally the Irish College in Rome. Here Mary worked to prepare her case for the Vatican and we were fortunate to be welcomed by Dominican Father Luke who showed us into a tiny and rather Spartan chapel with a stunning contemporary tabernacle. We paused for prayer again in this beautiful place. Passing several other sites including the Trajan market and the Forum we ended up at our final destination, the home and death place of St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. The Church of the Gesu is next door, and here we saw an amazingly ornate ceiling which the Cardinal described as perhaps the best vision of heaven he had ever seen.  We shared Eucharist together in a small chapel within this massive space, before viewing the arm of St Francis Xavier which is housed in a large reliquary at the front of the church. Eminence tells us that this relic is touring Australia later in the year!

It had been another interesting day, perhaps today seeing things that only pilgrims to the holy city would be likely to see. The little churches along the way revealed stories that both educated and inspired. And so ends another day.