Walks in Rome

by Augustus J. C. Hare

"A recumbent statue, in pontifical vestments, rests on a sarcophagus, and two angels draw aside curtains as if to show us the dead; in the background is a mosaic of Mary enthroned, with the Child, the apostle Matthias, St. Jerome, and a smaller kneeling figure of Gonsalvi, in pontifical robes; at the apex is a tabernacle with cusped arch, and below the epitaph 'Hoc opus fecit Joannes Magister Cosmæ civis Romanus,' the artist's record of himself. In the hands of St. Matthias and St. Jerome are scrolls; on that held by the apostle, the words, 'Me tenet ara prior'; on St. Jerome's,'Recubo presepis ad antrum', these epigraphs confirming the tradition that the bodies of St. Matthias and St. Jerome repose in this church, while indicating the sites of their tombs. Popular regards have distinguished this tomb; no doubt in intended honour to the Blessed Virgin, lamps are kept ever burning, and vases of flowers ranged, before her mosaic image."—Hemans' Mediæval Christian Art.

At the west end of the right aisle is the entrance of the Baptistery, which has a vast porphyry vase as a font. Hence we reach the Sacristy, in the inner chamber of which are some exceedingly beautiful bas-reliefs by Mino da Fiesole.

One of the greatest of the Christmas ceremonies is the procession at 5 A.M., in honour of the great relic of the church—the Santa Culla—i.e., the cradle in which our Saviour was carried into Egypt, not, as is frequently imagined, the manger, which is allowed to have been of stone, and of which a single stone only is supposed to have found its way to Rome, and to be preserved in the altar of the Blessed Sacrament. The "Santa Culla" is preserved in a magnificent reliquary, six feet high, adorned with bas-reliefs and statuettes in silver. On the afternoon of Christmas eve the public can visit the relic at an altar in a little chapel near the sacristy. On the afternoon of Christmas Day it is also exposed, but upon the high altar, where it is less easily seen.

"Le Seigneur Jésus a voulu naître dans une étable; mais les hommes ont apporté précieusement le petit berceau qui a reçu le salut du monde, dans la reine des cités, et ils l'ont enchâssé dans l'or.

"C'est bien ici que nous devons accourir avec joie et redire ce chant triomphant de l'Église: Adeste, fideles, læti triumphantes; venite, venite in Bethleem."—Une Chrétienne à Rome.

Among the many other relics preserved here are two little bags of the brains of St. Thomas à Becket.

It was in this church that Pope St. Martin I. was celebrating mass in the seventh century, when a guard sent by the Exarch Olympius appeared on the threshold with orders to seize and put him to death. At the sight of the pontiff the soldier was stricken with blindness, a miracle which led to the conversion of Olympius and many other persons.

Platina, the historian of the popes, was buried here, with the epitaph: "Quisquis es, si pius, Platynam et sua ne vexes, anguste jacent et soli volunt esse."

Sta. Maria Maggiore was the scene of the seizure of Hildebrand by Cencius:

"On Christmas Eve, 1075, the city of Rome was visited by a dreadful tempest. Darkness brooded over the land, and the trembling spectators believed that the day of final judgment was about to dawn. In this war of the elements, however, two processions were seen advancing to the Church of Sta. Maria Maggiore. At the head of one was the aged Hildebrand, conducting a few priests to worship at the shrine of the Virgo Deipara. The other was preceded by Cencius, a Roman noble. At each pause in the tempest might be heard the hallelujahs of the worshippers, or the voice of the pontiff, pouring out benedictions on the little flock which knelt before him—when Cencius grasped his person, and some yet more daring ruffian inflicted a wound on his forehead. Bound with cords, stripped of his sacred vestments, beaten, and subjected to the basest indignities, the venerable minister of Christ was carried to a fortified mansion within the walls of the city, again to be removed at daybreak to exile or death. Women were there, with women's sympathy and kindly offices, but they were rudely put aside; and a drawn sword was already aimed at the pontiff's bosom, when the cries of a fierce multitude, threatening to burn or batter down the house, arrested the aim of the assassin. An arrow, discharged from below, reached and slew him. The walls rocked beneath the strokes of the maddened populace, and Cencius, falling at his prisoner's feet, became himself a suppliant for pardon and for life.... In profound silence, and with undisturbed serenity, Hildebrand had thus far submitted to these atrocious indignities. The occasional raising of his eyes towards heaven alone indicated his consciousness of them. But to the supplication of his prostrate enemy he returned an instant and a calm assurance of forgiveness. He rescued Cencius from the exasperated besiegers, dismissed him in safety and in peace, and returned, amidst the acclamations of the whole Roman people, to complete the interrupted solemnities of Sta. Maria Maggiore."—Stephens' Lectures on Eccles. Hist.