RECOLLECTIONS OF ROME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 37, 10 January 1874, Page 8

RECOLLECTIONS OF ROME.

NO IV. My Crst feeling on seeing the Basilica of St. Peter, wns not wonder uor admiration, I think it wa» something more like disappointment It may seem incredible in these days of photography when the asneet of the great buildings and great men of tho world are almost as fan-iliar to us as our parish churches and tho faces of ou>« dearer friends ; but nevertheless it is a fact that my ideal St. Peter had no definite form ; I had often pictured it to mjself, but alwave differently according to what I had been reading or thinking most of." Sometimes I imagined an ecclesiastical Aladdin's Palace gleaming with goIJ, silver and precious stones ; sometimes I dreamed of a stately building of fair white marble, round which were to hover angel forms, which were to be so beautiful as to almost make the beholder behevo that they had flown do'»n from Heaven to guard the world's catucdrul • and sometimes I liked best to think that St. Peter's would resemble 'some of the ivy-grown churches of my native land, and that its best riches would bo the fuithful worshippers who would th"ong its aisles. For v moment the great Dome which, standing on the Pirn ion II ill I suw in the distance, did not entirely satisfy me; but this feelw* did not last long, and as I gazed its beauty grew on mo till I conld not tell what I had expected or wished for that had not been realized. And when I came near and stood in the Piazza San Pietio, vi h it* sparkling fountains and magnificent coloi.nides, and looked up at the most sublime edifice ever raised by man for the worship of his Creator 1 was more than content to give up my misty, intangible ideal, for the marvellous reality which stood before me. Weil may Miclmel' An»elo whose genius planned this church of churches, have exclaimed with the Psalmist :— " The beauty of thy house I have lov, d, O Lord, and the place whoie tly glory dwelleth."

I dare not attempt to describe in a technical way the noble facade nor the colossal statues of the Saviour and the Apostle?, which from tho topmost story keep watch over the city, lest I should lose mymjlf in a string of architectural terms, which I only half nndcr&tnnd. Alv memory for details is very faulty, and I can only tell you of what I best recollected. Perhaps, however, this i» not altogether to b* regretted, as the troasures of St. Peter's are so inexhaustible thur, supposing I succeeded in getting through the entrance (which would take a considerable time if the immense extetior were to be first described)

and then give a minute account of each altar, statue, and mosaic in the Basilica, the editor of the Tablet would possibly grow weary of my reminiscences and tell mo that a bore who has been sent to Rome is very much more to be dreaded than a bore who has stayed at home. One has to see St. Peter's many times before it is possible to realize its immensity, as everything in it is on such a large scale, and in such just proportion, that the eye becomes accustomed to a false standard, and groups of marble cherubs which do not strike one as being larger than human infants, prove on examination to be the size of grown men. I remember being amazed wheu I touched what, looked like a dimpk d little marble hand, to find that the angel fingers were much longer and plumper than my own. The Basilica is built in the form of a Roman cross, and the high altar, at which only tb.B Pope or a cardinal with special permission may officiate, is erected where the lines of the cross meet ; it is immediately above the crypt containing the relics of the Apostles. Over this rises the Baldacchin^, a magnificent canopy of bronze, which is supportel by columns covered "with exquisite designs in foliage, the gilding of which is said to have cost twenty-two thousand pounds. A hundred lamps are burning day and night around this altar, and close by is the famous bronze statue of St. Peter. Of the lesser altars one of the most admired is in the Capcllo della Pieta, so called from the celebrated group by Michael Angelo of the Virgin with the dead Christ resting on her knees. This is a most touching and lovely image of the holy grief. The features of the blessed Mary aie by many crilics considered too young, and it is perhaps more like the face of the Virgin to whom the Angel announced that she was to become the mother of God, than of the same Virgin, who, thirty- three years later, received the body of her Diviue Son from the cross ; but Michael Angelo wished to represent Mary to us as the model of purity, and the Queen of Heaven ; and very few Catholics are disposed to find fault with him because he has made her •0 beautiful in spite of the years she had spent on this earth The catholicity of the Church which is to last till the end of time and be spread over all nations, is nowhere so clearly pourtrayed as in St. Peter's. There one sees confessionals inscribed with the names of all European languages, and many languages which are not European where penitents from every land may ia their own tongues seek the consolations of religion. I find it impossible to describe for you the Dome of St. Peter's as I do not know how its marvellous beauty is produced. I only know that as it mounts towards the sky it seems to have the power of drawing the soul heavenwards with it. Beneatli its shelter is the spot of all others where I would choose to pray, as nowhere have I felt so strongly the necessity of gaining heaven, whoso mansions are to exceed in beauty everything thnt the heart of man has conceived It is a curious fact that St. Peter's possesses a climate of its own with an equable, delicious temperature which is not affected by the heat or cold outside. One can examine the statuary in St Peter's without, a shiver during the winter months, when it requires almost the endurance of an Arctic explorer to pass many hours in the freezing galleries of the Vatican. s I was astonished at first to see how much people live in St Peter's and the other great chuiches of Rome, as well as pray in them Men and women talk, walk <»bour, and amuse themselves ; be^ars bee children play, and tourists wander from picture to statue, "criticising everything and reading aloud from their guide-books ; and yet no one seems duedified or distracted. When I had seen two cardinals com Terse for a long time in St. Peter's, wheu I had been spoken to by Dr Burke and other grave Dominicans in the Lateran, I beffau to think such conversations could not be very wrong, an d my J a «t scruple vanished when I had been addressed in St. Paul's (outside the walls) by Dr Polding, the venerable Archbishop of Sydney. This s-emin' wt»nt of reverence may be accounted for in two ways • firstly thl churches are so immense that although there are several masses going on together at different altars, there is always a large part of the church at a sufficient distance from any service where one may talk without disturbing those who are at prayer ; and secondly, the R oman people and others who hve much in Rome do not divide their religion from ttjeir everyday life so much as we do. They are accustomed to think of God while they are at work, and to keep themselves alwiys in Hi presence, so that they do not feel the same awe in church, which to them is the house of their loving Father, whose goodness and mercy they daily remember, as we do who only go to church from time to time to render homage to a Master whom we fear to disobey As I come to the limits of my space; I remember that I have told you nothing of the ceremonies of St. Peter's— nothing of the tombs nor the mosaics. But as Rome was not built in a day, neither can St Peter's be described in one short sketch. Like a sensational novel this description will be continued \a our next." S G D