Visit to The Gesu (Rome, IT)

At long last, I finally got inside the Church of the Gesu!  For those of you not familiar with Rome, the churches are closed between Noon and 4 PM, so you need to plan your church visits accordingly.  As for the Gesu, it is the "mother church" of the Society of Jesus.  The tomb of St. Ignatius Loyola is there, and the hand of St. Francis Xavier is kept in a reliquary in the church.  It is also where Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, a former Father General, is buried.  The interior of the church is considered to be one of the finest examples of the Baroque period.  The photo above is the Madonna della Strada which is in a chapel.  The fresco of the Madonna is a part of Jesuit history in the significant relationship of St. Ignatius to the Blessed Mother, the church building itself, and the presence of Jesuits in Rome.  [Something for you to Google!]

Once again, the morning was very busy at Casa O'Toole, but the afternoon was free.  I was able to take a leisurely 20 minute walk to the Gesu and visit there for a good amount of time.

In yesterday's posting, I mentioned that a few of us were planning to visit Naples for the weekend.  Plans have changed.  We are now looking into a visit to Florence and the surrounding countryside.  Our destination may be a moving target, but since everything in Italy is a train ride away and it is not the tourist season, we can wait to Friday to make the reservations we need. 

Before getting to the Gesu, I passed a small church, Santa Barbara, that caught my attention and walked inside.  It was in disrepair, but had a beauty of its own as you will see in the photos.  On my way back from the Gesu, I stopped at the Church of Saint John the Baptist. The church is a destination church because it has the reliquary which holds the foot of Mary Magdalene.  As you will read in the photo, it was the first foot to enter the tomb of Jesus.  [The area around the reliquary had a floodlight on it, so it was difficult to take a direct photo of the reliquary itself.]  Needless to say, many of the reliquaries in Rome and its churches require a lot of faith!!

The only door to the Church of Santa Barbara in a narrow alley off a side street near the Campo di Fiori.

Main altar of Church of Santa Barbara.

Side chapel of Santa Barbara

Main altar of the Gesu

Interior of the dome of the Gesu

Tomb of St. Ignatius Loyola

Altar at the tomb of St. Ignatius

Side chapel

Reliquary of the hand of St. Francis Xavier

Now that's what I call a pulpit!

Main altar of the Church of St. John the Baptist

Small area holding the reliquary of the foot of Mary Magdalene.

After a long walk, you can refresh yourself and drink directly from this fountain on the grounds of the North American College.