Walks in Rome - Augustus J. C. Hare

[268] Croiret, Vie des Saints.

[270] Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 177.

[271] It was found in the gardens of the convent of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva

[272] This pagan benediction of the animals is represented in a bas-relief in the Vatican (Museo Pio-Clementino, 157). A peasant bearing two ducks as his offering, brings his cow to be blessed by a priest at the door of a chapel, and the priest delaying to come forth, a calf drinks up the holy water. Ovid describes how he took part in the feast of Pales, and sprinkled the cattle with a laurel bough. (Fasti, iv. 728.)

[273] His flat tombstone is in the centre of the nave.

[274] This story is the subject of two of Murillo's most beautiful pictures in the Academy at Madrid. The first represents the vision of the Virgin to John and his wife,—in the second they tell what they have seen to Pope Liberius.

[275] This mosaic will bring to mind the beautiful lines of Dante:—

"L'amor che mosse già l'eterno padre
Per figlia aver di sua Deita trina
Costei che fu del figlio suo poi madre
Dell' universo qui fa la regina."

[276] See Sta. Dorothea, ch. xvii.