ST. PETER'S AT NIGHT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 175, 4 August 1876, Page 14

ST. PETER'S AT NIGHT.

I* you happen to be in Rome ever on a Holy Thursday, remain after the Miserere until the hour of church closing, and give yourself to the exquisite reverie and quiet, you will gain a repose to the soul that is unusual ; a divine peace will come down upon you that will make amends for much of the wear and tear of the storm and unrest of everyday life that is forever about and within all mortals, even the quietest existence. What a sight it is ! The vast mysterious spaces ; the huge vaults of darkness ; the great dome of domes that seems unfathomable ; the dark solitudes of the many unlighted chapels, and the profound depth jof the Council Hall as seen over the tympanum of the great enclosure. Then the lurid light of the torches, the masses of light, enter at the sepulchre altar. These throw strange, bright streams into the transept, up into the far-off dome, even touching here and there a glittering stone or a shining marble cornice down the long naves ; then they plunge into the dark apse and are lost. Added to these curious unearthly effects of light in the great space is the strange population of colossal marble figures that start into a new and weird life. They are high up in air, leaping over entablatures or stepping forth majestically from huge dark niches — great giants clothed in ancient draperies, all of whose gestures seem to tell the one solemn story of Christ crucified. It is the most wonderful combination of mysterious space, effective architecture, grandiose decoration and strange effects of lights and shadows ever created by mortal genius. — Anne Brewster in ' Philadelphia Bulletin.'