Daily Rome Shot 60

4 Comments

1. ThePapalCount says:

   26 January 2021 at 11:51 AM

   A favorite neighborhood and lots to see here. FrZ I suspect you’ve been here to the church many times and perhaps have a good meal nerarby. The stags head and cross adorn the top of an ancient church dedicated to an early saint – St Eustachio. This photo shows the church on the left but the photo doesn’t show the entranceway. To the right is a large building – an old palazzo with beautiful art on its exterior walls. This is the building where the Marquessa Della Chiesa had an apartment-suite. She was the mother of Pope Benedict XV who was pope during World War One. As a monsignor working in the Vatican the future pope, Msgr Della Chiesa, offered Mass in this old church and preached frequently. Today, the pulpit bears an inscription honoring his contributions to the parish. He was very familiar with this area. St Eustachio was a pagan but he saw an image of the cross between a deer’s antlers and converted. The place where his conversion occurred is near Rome in the mountains at Mentorella. The ancient Marian shrine there was a favorite retreat for St John Paul II. Today that shrine contains a first class relic of the saintly pope.
   But, back to the photo. The photographer took this photo with her back to one of Rome’s most popular and most famous and among the oldest coffee houses in the city. Called simply Sant Eustachio. The coffee and cakes and tarts can be pricey though but then its “Sant Eustachio”. To the right of the photographer down a narrow street for about 200 or so feet is L’eau Vive – a unique restaurant operated by a religious community of sisters. French food mostly. And at 9pm everyone in the restaurant stops eating as the nuns offer a prayer to Our Lady and sing a Marian hymn. Prayer/hymn cards are given out for everyone to join in. Pope St John Paul ate here when he visited Rome as a bishop and cardinal. Proceeds from the restaurant go to their missionary work. Back to the photo…. if you walk beyond the church you will see the Pantheon but also in this area you can window-shop for your priest or bishop at Gammerelli, the famous Roman papal and ecclesiastical tailor. Fr Z has the Mass vestments for the Madison TLM society tailored there.
   This is a great neighborhood that leads to many other great neighborhoods. And the beautiful church is open in the summers in the evenings for concerts(pre-Covid). During the day its not open in the afternoon until about 4pm or so. To visit go Sundays or weekday mornings.
2. Andreas says:

   26 January 2021 at 3:13 PM

   Dear ThePapalCount; Many thanks indeed for your ongoing commentaries accompanying each of the posted photos. Your narratives are both very informative and highly entertaining, filled with such rich detail that one could only hope to learn from experienced professional guides or in high quality tour publications. Please let us know should you ever decide to compile and set your wonderful narratives into a single published hard copy or internet-based guide, I strongly suspect that many of us here would be most eager to possess such an invaluable resource.
3. JonPatrick says:

   27 January 2021 at 6:33 AM

   Thank you ThePapalCount. These posts make me yearn even more to visit Rome. There is a possibility later this year if the Wuhan virus has subsided enough to allow us to travel.
4. teachermom24 says:

   27 January 2021 at 12:55 PM

   Thank you so much ThePapalCount for these photo explanations. You should make a book of all this. As it is, I am keeping copies for my next trip to Rome, God willing, this coming summer. I have been twice but there is still so much to see and do!

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