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ROF= Ring of fire journey
ITL= Italy Journey
Sunday November 22, 2015
ITL Rome, Italy 3C
St Paul's outside the wall Courtyard
Rode the Metro subway out to St Pauls. 1.5 blocks from the subway station and there's a McDonalds on the corner for hot coffee on a cool day.
The bell tower is on the side.
Go around to the front and it looks empty.
Go inside,... Oh my god!
We're just in time for Sunday am mass.
the basilica is absolutely magnificent.
The service in Latin is equally magnificent and a gift to participate and pray.
Into the courtyard
I'm not Catholic but lined up for communion, crossed my arms to recieve the priests blessing and stepped aside.
This is a very powerful, sacred place.
After the service took some more pics inside the Basilica.
St Paolos tomb. More courtyard.
Absolutely breathtaking.
Exit and go out past the gift shop....
And then come to the courtyard and it's a magnificent spectacle.
The marble.... collumns,... statues...
And the palm trees. Palm trees are all over Rome. Over near the Veterans monument are some orange trees - see other post -.
St Paolo:
The Papal Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuori le Mura), commonly known as St. Paul's outside the Walls, is one of Rome's four ancient, Papal, major basilicas,[Notes 1] along with the Basilicas of St. John in the Lateran, St. Peter's, and St. Mary Major.
The Basilica is within Italian territory and not the territory of the Vatican City State.[1] However, the Holy See fully owns the Basilica, andItaly is legally obligated to recognize its full ownership thereof[2] and to concede to it "the immunity granted by International Law to the headquarters of the diplomatic agents of foreign States".[3]
The Basilica was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I over the burial place of St. Paul, where it was said that, after the Apostle's execution, his followers erected a memorial, called a cella memoriae. This first edifice was expanded under Valentinian I in the 370s.
In 386, Emperor Theodosius I began erecting a much larger and more beautiful basilica with a nave and four aisles with a transept; the work including the mosaics was not completed until Leo I's pontificate (440–461). In the 5th century it was larger than the Old St. Peter's Basilica. The Christian poet Prudentius, who saw it at the time of emperor Honorius (395–423), describes the splendours of the monument in a few expressive lines. As it was dedicated also to Saints Taurinus and Herculanus, martyrs of Ostia in the 3rd century,[4]it was called the basilica trium Dominorum ("basilica of Three Lords").
Under Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604) the Basilica was extensively modified. The pavement was raised to place the altar directly over St. Paul's tomb. A confession permitted access to the Apostle's sepulcher.
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You never drink twice from the same stream.
