The adjoining Convent (modern) is of vast size, and is now occupied by Camaldolese monks, though in the time of St. Gregory it belonged to the Benedictines. In its situation it is beautiful and quiet, and must have been so even in the time of St. Gregory, who often regretted the seclusion which he was compelled to quit.
"Un jour, plus accablé que jamais par le poids des affaires séculières, il s'était retiré dans un lieu secret pour s'y livrer dans un long silence à sa tristesse, et y fut rejoint par le diàcre Pierre, son élève, son ami d'enfance et le compagnon de ses chères études. 'Vous est-il donc arrivé quelque chagrin nouveau,' lui dit le jeune homme, 'pour que vous soyez ainsi plus triste qu'à l'ordinaire.' 'Mon chagrin,' lui répondit le pontife, 'est celui de tous mes jours, toujours vieux par l'usage, et toujours nouveau par sa croissance quotidienne. Ma pauvre âme se rappelle ce qu'elle était autrefois, dans notre monastère, quand elle planait sur tout ce qui passe, sur tout ce qui change; quand elle ne songeait qu'au ciel; quand elle franchissait par la contemplation le cloître de ce corps qui l'enserre; quand elle aimait d'avance la mort comme l'entrée de la vie. Et maintenant il lui faut, à cause de ma charge pastorale, supporter les mille affaires des hommes du siècle et se souiller dans cette poussière. Et quand, après s'être ainsi répandue au dehors, elle veut retrouver sa retraite intérieure, elle n'y revient qu'amoindrie. Je médite sur tout ce que je souffre et sur tout ce que j'ai perdu. Me voici, battu par l'océan et tout brisé par la tempête; quand je pense à ma vie d'autrefois, il me semble regarder en arrière vers le rivage. Et ce qu'il y a de plus triste, c'est qu'ainsi ballotté par l'orage, je puis à peine entrevoir le port que j'ai quitté.'"—Montalembert, Moines d'Occident.
Pope Gregory XVI. was for some years abbot of this convent, to which he was afterwards a generous benefactor;—regretting always, like his great predecessor, the peace of his monastic life. His last words to his cardinals, who were imploring him, for political purposes, to conceal his danger, were singularly expressive of this—"Per Dio lasciatemi!—voglio morire da frate, non da sovrano." The last great ceremony enacted at S. Gregorio was when Cardinal Wiseman consecrated the mitred abbot of English Cistercians,—Dr. Manning preaching at the same time on the prospects of English Catholicism.
Ascending the steep paved lane between S. Gregorio and the Parco, the picturesque church on the left with the arcaded apse and tall campanile (c. A.D. 1206), inlaid with coloured tiles and marbles, is that of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, two officers in the household of the Christian princess Constantia, daughter of the Emperor Constantine, in whose time they occupied a position of great influence and trust. When Julian the Apostate came to the throne, he attempted to persuade them to sacrifice to idols, but they refused, saying, "Our lives are at the disposal of the emperor, but our souls and our faith belong to our God." Then Julian, fearing to bring them to public martyrdom, lest their popularity should cause a rebellion and the example of their well-known fortitude be an encouragement to others, sent off soldiers to behead them privately in their own house. Hence the inscription on the spot, "Locus martyrii SS. Joannis et Paoli in ædibus propriis." The church was built by Pammachus, the friend of St. Jerome, on the site of the house of the saints. It is entered by a portico adorned with eight ancient granite columns, interesting as having been erected by the English pope, Nicholas Breakspear, A.D. 1158. The interior, in the basilica form, has sixteen ancient columns and a beautiful Opus-Alexandrinum pavement. In the centre of the floor is a stone, railed off, upon which it is said that the saints were beheaded. Their bodies are contained in a porphyry urn under the high altar. In early times these were the only bodies of saints preserved within the walls of Rome (the rest being in the catacombs). In the Sacramentary of St. Leo, in the Preface of SS. John and Paul, it is said, "Of Thy merciful providence Thou hast vouchsafed to crown not only the circuit of the city with the glorious passions of the martyrs, but also to hide in the very heart of the city itself the victorious limbs of St. John and St. Paul."[164]
Above the tribune are frescoes by Pomerancio. A splendid chapel on the right was built 1868;—two of its alabaster pillars were the gift of Pius IX. Beneath the altar on the left of the tribune is preserved the embalmed body of St. Paul of the Cross (who died 1776), founder of the Order of Passionists, who inhabit the adjoining convent. The aged face bears a beautiful expression of repose;—the body is dressed in the robe which clothed it when living.[165]
Male visitors are admitted through the convent to its large and beautiful Garden, which overhangs the steep side of the Cœlian towards the Coliseum, of which there is a fine view between its ancient cypresses. Here, on a site near the monastery, are some remains believed to be those of the temple built by Agrippina (c. A.D. 57), daughter of Germanicus, to the honour of her deified husband (and uncle) Claudius, after she had sent him to Olympus by feeding him with poisonous mushrooms. This temple was pulled down by Nero, who wished to efface the memory of his predecessor, on the pretext that it interfered with his Golden House; but was rebuilt under Vespasian. In this garden also is the entrance to the vast substructions known as the Vivarium, whence the wild beasts who devoured the early Christian martyrs were frightened by burning tow down a subterranean passage into the arena.
The famous Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice was founded by emigrants from this convent. The memory of these saints was so much honoured up to the time of Pope Gregory the Great, that the eve of their festival was an obligatory fast. Their fête (June 26) is still kept with great solemnities on the Cœlian, when the railing round their place of execution is wreathed and laden with flowers. When the "station" is held at their church, the apse is illuminated.
Continuing to follow the lane up the Cœlian, we reach the richly tinted brick Arch of Dolabella, erected, A.D. 10, by the consuls P. Cornelius Dolabella and Caius Julius Silanus. Nero, building his aqueduct to the palace of the Cæsars, made use of this, which already existed, and included it in his line of arches.
Above the arch is a Hermitage, revered as that where S. Giovanni di Matha lived, and where he died in 1213. Before he came to reside here he had been miraculously brought from Tunis (whither he had gone on a mission) to Ostia, in a boat without helm or sail, in which he knelt without ceasing before the crucifix throughout the whole of his voyage!
Passing beneath the gateway, we emerge upon the picturesque irregular Piazza of the Navicella, the central point of the Cœlian, which is surrounded by a most interesting group of buildings, and which contains an isolated fragment of the aqueduct of Nero, dear to artists from its colour. Behind this, under the trees, is the little marble Navicella, which is supposed to have been originally a votive offering of a sailor to Jupiter Redux, whose temple stood near this; but which was adapted by Leo X. as a Christian emblem of the Church,—the boat of St. Peter.