Notes of Travel

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 22, 17 June 1925, Page 25

Notes of Travel

DAYS INCOME. >,By J.K.) ;

and continuity. One cannot get away from such stubborn facts. Side by side with St. Clement's house, deep underground, is a well-preserved temple of Mitras. And here we touch the pagan times, right beside the beginnings of Christianity. * # * Again 1 climb the hill to St. Pietro in Montorio to visit the tombs of the exiled princes of Tirowen and Tirconnell, and to enjoy the view of Rome below its hill. Again I walk among the ilexes and statues and fountains of the Villa Borghese. Again . I sit at sunset in the Pincian Gardens, hearing the music and watching the carriages and motors pass, as the elite of Roman society take the air. Students of all nations walk past me. There are Germans, with their scarlet soutanes; Dominicans, all in white; English, in black; Irish, in black with a red facing on their sopranos; and so on. Doing the Jubilee rounds, I see again and again St. Peter's, St. Paul's, St. Mary Major's, and St. John's. The charm and beauty of these great churches never pall. The more one sees of them, the more one loves them. They are like great mountains, like tke sea itself, in their grandeur. And then the picture and sculpture galleries! Not in a lifetime con 1:1 one exhaust them. So I go quickly and visit a masterpiece here and there —my own special favorites which I have always loved. I send you some pictures of them which will be better

than trying to describe them. I hope the Tablet will reproduce them all, and thus supply in interest what (his short article lacks. * * * Later' 1 will write and tell you about Florence and some other places in Italy, and, later still/about Spain, I hope. For the present 1 have done writing and am 1 going to take things easy and dream of old days in my beloved Rome.

I am back again in Rome, settled down in the Irish College, where I lived so many i happy years as a student, and where I learn- : ed to know every church, villa, palace, and V street in the Eternal City. The days pass < quietly and pleasantly, revisiting old scenes .:'■. and meeting old friends. I shall be here for , : another week, but already the shadow of departure casts a gloom on my soul. I shall -not enjoy leaving Italy for any other country in the world. * * * In one of my walks I called to see the Irish Dominican Fathers, at San Clemente. What -an interesting church it is! The modern church —the one in daily use —goes back to the eleventh century. It has beautiful mo- !'; saics and rare old ambones, and"the celebrant /stands behind the high altar facing the people, as he does in the great basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul, and the Lateran. By a stairway yon descend to a subterranean church'-—the St. Clement's : of the fourth century, which had been lost and was excavated by Father Mulhooly. It's old frescoes still remain, showing the vestments of that time, /and proving they were substantially the /same as at present. ■ .. ■:'&.'/' ///...•- » * « ■ ■',' v , '.'_:■ 'i:,\ v/./-\. i »<. .>:-''v'i ./ ■''■■.-■ '.'■. ■ That is not all. Deeper again into the earth we go, and find ourselves in the actual Y': house in which St. Clement lived. You rev 1 member that he was the fourth Pope. The \ onder was: Peter, Linus, Cletus, Clement. ig ; Thus you get right back here to apostolic M times. - This church.-, with its history, -set P before your eyes in lasting monuments, is a very effective sermon in apostolic succession