Day 3- St. Paul Outside the Walls & St. Peter’s Basilica

Dear diary,

Neil Amrstrong’s first words on the moon were, and I quote: “This is one small step for [a] man, one large step for mankind......my feet really hurt.” We took over 28,000 steps today (Mr. Romano had an app that counted) so I could definitely relate to Mr. Armstrong and his foot pains. Our house, Frassatti House, of Ethan Caligur, Manuel Vera, Carlos Cerda and Mr. Romano is near the Campo Fiori and the Piazza Navona, the Plaza with the Church of St. Agnes of Rome. We walked to the Colosseum, some 15 minutes away, to get to the metro that would take us to St. Paul Outside the Walls. We had each done presentations of the churches we were going to see in Rome before the trip, and the presentation done by James Jones in class was good and told us the interesting parts and history of the church, but the pictures didn’t prepare me at all for what the real thing was like. When we got there I was struck by how big St. Paul’s statue in the courtyard was. For perspective in the picture below, my friends and I’s heads barely reached his pedestal.

It’s a big freaking statue.

Before we entered, Colton Marks told me that I wasn’t ready for what was inside. He told me to close my eyes and that he would lead me to where the view was the best. I closed my eyes and was immediately aware that I had set myself up for a slap or to be led right into a column. But I let myself be guided and told myself that if it happened I wouldn't even be mad because it would totally be my fault. Lord knows I would do the same. But Colton’s words were true and I really wasn’t prepared for St. Paul Outside the Walls.

This was the view to which I opened my eyes to. I just stood there and finally walked up through the central nave. We had nearly two hours in the church and I spent most of it journaling, writing down everything I saw, from what altars were at the end of the far horizontal nave to whose statue was the cutest. It was Peter. I’m joking of course. It was St. Thaddeus, whose statue is in the left nave.
Praying before the tomb of St. Paul, I thought of how no one in our pilgrimage group is Jewish by either tradition or relation. We’re all Gentiles. If we are christian it is large part thanks to the vision of the man before me. I was very grateful. In the reflections of the end of the day, other guys said that they enjoyed spending a lot of time at and the quiet of adoration in the chapel of the church, especially when compared to the bustle and constant movement of the chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica, not to mention in the main area of St. Peter’s.  I regret not having spent more time there. I went in only after going around the entire church and describing everything as best as I could in my journal and completing the instructions for the plenary indulgence. The requirements were to visit one of the four main basilicas of Rome, pray the Creed and for the intentions of the Holy Father and wham bam all your punishments have been remitted. It felt kind of fast and easy, like a Billy Mays commercial about how the newest towel will clean your table, get rid of the nasty stain the shower, pay your taxes and come up with the money to send your kids to college. A friend told me how he felt like the he didn’t feel the magnitude of what he thought a plenary indulgence should feel like and I shared this with him. It was lost in how quickly it could be done. In that sense, I think that as a group we aren’t aware of the extreme uniqueness of this trip. We’re all grateful for it but like looking up at the statue of St. Paul in a picture- we lose perspective of this trip relative to our usual day-to-day lives. This is amazing. Rome was the capital of the western world for 1000 years and has been the center of the Catholic faith for over 2000 and here we are. Being here, in the church of St. Paul Outside the Walls, where the remains of the Apostle of the Gentiles himself are found, is once-in-a-lifetime.

After we ate near St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, we took the metro back to the Colosseum. From there we went to our group’s house, where everyone decided collectively to take a dump and that is the story of how our last roll of toilet paper, brand new, was used up in less than 40 minutes. I don’t even know what was going on in there. We only have two bathrooms, and one is for Mr. Romano and the other is for us four seniors. So everyone was using the same toilet, and I think some of the guys must have been pulling on the roll of toilet paper like it was Rapunzel’s hair hanging out of the tower. We have to save the planet guys and the only way is to use a single square when cleaning our butts. Using any more than 3 is not just irresponsible, inconvenient, rude, but like a bathroom sign outside of St. Peter’s Square read, a failure in our moral responsibility.

We walked to St. Peter’s and by now our feet are starting to hurt pretty badly. Back at our house more than one guy had fallen asleep on the couch and we were really feeling all the steps on the uneven cobblestones of the city. But earlier on in the day Mr. Cole had sent us all a text saying that today we were not going to complain and instead be grateful for what we’re doing. At first I thought the text was kind of weird but it ultimately made the day easier to bear, not just as a group but for each person. Because we weren’t allowed to complain thoughts of pain and fatigue were more easily pushed away. At the Scavi we met our tour guide, Mateo, who took us down to the necropolis underneath the Basilica. This is one of the places featured in the movie Angels and Demons, starring Tom Hanks as the daring scientist who defeats the Illuminati and heroically destroys the Vatican Archives. Mateo explained to us that what we see today as the Basilica was built on top of the remains of the Constantinian Basilica, destroyed in a fire, which was in turn build on top of what was  the ancient roman burial ground outside of Nero’s Circus, dating back to before the 3rd century. It’s built around and top of Gaius’ trophy, a small mausoleum measuring less than eight feet that had the remains of St. Peter inside, so named because a late-first century to early-second century Roman priest named Gaius wrote letters to foreigner friends telling them that when they came to Rome he would show them “the tomb of St. Peter.” Throughout the tour Mateo was friendly and approachable and had a deep knowledge of what he was talking about. His thick italian accent was even cool once you accepted that not every word was going to be understood. Babe Ruth once said “They can’t all be home runs.” And so it was with Mateo’s english.
The Scavi was cramped, humid and smelled of rusty water. There were few lights, in order to preserve what has been so far excavated. Of special distinction was a tomb of an entirely Christian family, with christian symbols all around the small 6 by 5 foot tomb. I’m not sure I got those dimensions right. They lived and died in a time of christian persecution, so they had to disguise their symbols as pagan symbols for fear that the tomb would be desecrated and the remaining family members killed. On the roof was a mosaic of a man riding a chariot, carrying the sun. In his hand he held a blue globe, a symbol of power. This was Jesus. The left wall had a fish, an early christian symbol, and the right wall had scenes from the story of Jonah and the Whale. To a pagan, this all looks like the tomb of a family devoted to the sun god Helios, of fisherman stock and whose relative had died at sea. Very cool to see a little of how early Christians lived and practiced their faith in secret. The most significant moment of the Scavi tour by far was seeing what we suppose, “to a 95% certainty” as Mateo explained, what are the mortal remains of St. Peter. Visible through an stone arc, still housed in Gaius’ Trophy, we could make out the white slivers of the remaining bones of the Princeps Apostolis. We took a moment to reflect and pray and slowly made our way out. We said thank you to Mateo and walked through the Vatican tombs. We saw many papal tombs on our way out.
From the tombs we walked outside to the front of St. Peter’s. Before entering the Basilica itself through the front doors I asked Mr. Romano if he would lead me inside with my eyes closed to where I could best, and suddenly, see the basilica. I’m really grateful that he led me to under the golden nave and where I could see the basilica all the way to the end. I opened my eyes and stood there for a while.

The letters at the top are more than nine feet tall. Even in the basilica it’s hard to see the dimensions of such a huge structure. The proportions are exact. For a long time it was hard to focus on anything for more than a few seconds before the eyes were drawn to another detail right next to it. The only thing I could seem to fixate on were the words “Caelorium”, written in the dome on the other side of the central nave. Unlike St. Paul Outside the Walls, where each nave was about equal in size, the central nave of St. Peter’s dominates the church, at least at first sight. Once you wander around there seems to be no distinction in the importance or beauty of the statues and art as to its location in the church. There were many beautiful side altars and paintings. I found the time in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, separated from the rest of the church by a thick purple velvet curtain to be significant. I got a lot of personal reflection inside especially as to the nature of the Church which is something I've always found difficult to understand as a whole. Instead of the solo journey spirituality can sometimes seem to be, the traditions of the Church are what guides us towards God. Many great and holy people have gone before us and laid their own stones in the foundation of the Church. They help us reach higher to God and someday we’ll leave our own stones in the Church.

Outside the chapel the level of detail in every inch of the church is of an extreme degree.

The impression is that someone worked for years on every tiny thing we saw. All for the greater glory of God. Even though that’s the Jesuit motto it’s been a theme throughout the history of the Church and it’s easy to see in St. Peter’s where you have to look up to see everything, up towards God. We were blessed and celebrated Latin mass in the church. I didn’t understand a whole lot but was struck by the monumental significance of what we were doing, celebrating mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City, not 50 feet from St. Peter’s tomb. After the visit we kept repeating to one another “we’re coming back Wednesday” as if to reassure each other- and ourselves- that we would be back. We ate dinner near our house and bought gelato and to finish off the day restocked on supplies, including toilet paper. We’re all excited for tomorrow.

Jacobo Nieto