Today being Saturday, the news at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family slowed down a bit, so I took the opportunity to a) get my laundry done and b) finally do some real sightseeing. (One of these tasks was supposed to be exciting; unfortunately both of them were, but I won't bore you with the laundry story.) No one can come to Rome and fail to be moved by the beautiful churches in the city, and not just the biggest ones. Even the small church by the Vatican where I attended Mass last Sunday, Santa Spiritu in Sassia, had a gorgeously appointed worship space.
However, the larger churches are utterly magnificent. One favorite of mine -- and definitely my wife's favorite -- is Santa Maria Maggiore. Parts of this church go back to the 5th century, including the columns on either side of the nave and the nave itself.
The church not only has a gorgeous and awe-inspiring main altar but, like others of its kind (St. Peter's Basilica and St. John Lateran, for example), almost impossibly beautiful side chapels, too.
The altar features an amazing baldacchino, similar to that at St. Peter's Basilica but on a smaller scale. Along the walls above the column, you can make out a few of the mosaics and frescoes that adorn the entire nave.
Unlike some other churches, Santa Maria Maggiore allows visitors to go under the altar.
Usually, this church has self-guided audio tours available, but not today for some reason. It was still well worth walking through on our own, observing all the beauty and history. My wife found this to be one of the most moving experiences of our first visit to Rome in 2011, when we came for the beatification of St. John Paul II. She felt a strong connection to the Blessed Mother, and she's not alone.
And here's one observation I made today while strolling through with my camera (and pausing to pray). Normally, tourists tend to skew much older, which isn't a big surprise since expensive trips usually take place after a couple has set aside some money for retirement and fulfilled other family needs. The mix today seemed a lot younger than I would have expected, and the same was true when I walked through St. Peter's Basilica earlier this week. If the Catholic Church wants to bring younger people back to the fold, expressions of beauty and truth seem to go a long way. Not coincidentally, we've heard the bishops this week make reference to both.
If you want to see larger versions of these pictures, just click on them. Later this week, I'm hoping to post a few photos from a church off the beaten path, one with a different but perhaps deeper sense of beauty -- Santa Maria in Trastevere.
