ROME 22/10 – Day 31: Car, Choir, and Carbonara

Thank you, Lord, for this day upon which the Roman sun rose at 6:39 and will set at 17:08.  The Ave Maria would ring at 17:30.  I leave the City in a week.  Advent begins on 27 November.   PRIESTS: Get an Ordo.

While it is a dies non in the 1962 Calendar, it was the Vigil of All Saints, All Hallows E’en, celebrated in violet and which had its own Mass texts.

Today and tomorrow the Roman Martyrology is a little chattier than usual. To wit:

THE vigil of All Saints.—At Rome, the birthday of blessed Nemesius, deacon, and his daughter, the virgin Lucilla. As they could not be prevailed upon to abandon the faith of Christ, they were beheaded on the 25th of August by order of the emperor Valerian. Their bodies were buried by the blessed pope Stephen, and afterwards more decently entombed on this day, on the Appian road, by blessed Xystus. Gregory V. translated them into the sacristy of Santa Maria Nova, together with the Saints Symphronius, Olympius, tribune, Exuperia, his wife, and Theodulus, his son, who, being all converted by the exertions of Symphronius, and baptized by the same St. Stephen, had been crowned with martyrdom. These holy bodies were found there during the Pontificate of Gregory XIII., and placed more honorably beneath the altar of the same church, on the 8th of December.

We need more children named Exuperia. The Latin is from “ex-superius … from higher up“. There was an early Bishop of Toulouse named Exuperius to whom Jerome dedicated his commentary on Zachariah.

On the way to church to be in choir for the Solemn Mass of Christ the King, I spotted this gem.

A Rome D2 license plate.  Old and looking mighty fine.

The church was JAMMED yesterday, people standing in all the aisles, even the cross aisle in the center.  A great number of young people.

My vantage point in the choir.

Lunch.   Carbonara.

This morning in the piazza.  Brighter than a couple days ago with the change of the daylight savings time to regular time.

Meanwhile….

BLACK to move.  A Knight is hanging on a8. Material imbalance: white is up. The e file is dangerous. Black’s light square bishop is well placed. There is a discovered attack and a removal of the guard tactic in this one. Be careful and don’t just react.

NB: I may hold comments with puzzle solutions a little longer than others so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Interested in learning?  Try THIS

Beer from the monks of Norcia would be spectacular with traditional fixin’s on Thanksgiving Day!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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14 Comments

  1. JonPatrick says:

    Knight to B4 traps White’s queen, I think.

  2. Suburbanbanshee says:

    We do see the male saint’s version of the name, in the name of the famous French aviator and author, Antoine de St.-Exupery.

    Halloween and All Saints’ Day in November exist because Pope Gregory II, Pope Gregory III, and other Roman popes refused to knuckle under to the iconoclast Byzantine emperors, despite Emperor Leo III and others sending/funding assassins to try to kill them.

    After Emperor Leo III imprisoning Gregory III’s papal envoy in order to avoid receiving his admonitions and excommunication, Pope Gregory III held a synod on the proper respect for saints, Mary, images, and so on. The synod started November
    1, and opened with the dedication of a new oratory in the nave of Old St. Peter’s that was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to all saints, and containing two altars, under which were buried various famous Roman relics from now-delapidated or dangerously situated churches. The oratory had famous paintings and statues around the altars, as well as a famous inscription, but I haven’t been able to find out what it said.

    Pope Gregory III also built a beautiful iconostasis for the main altar of Old St. Peter’s, and lit it with silver lamps that hung in the main altar area.

    Raphael’s four paintings of big historical events at Old St. Peter’s do give an idea of how Old St. Peter’s looked, with the oratory of All Saints and the iconostasis.

  3. Suburbanbanshee says:

    Btw, Father Z — The Chapel of the Madonna of the Partorienti (the Madonna for the Pregnant Women) contains the Altar of St. Leo IX, which used to be called “the Altar of the Dead” because it had so many indulgences for saying Masses for the dead. The stpetersbasilica.info site talks about it.

    So there’s another Hallowtide thing!

    And the Chapel of the Madonna of Bocciata, along with the Chapel of the Madonna of the Partorienti, have a series of pictures commissioned to show Old St. Peter’s monuments as they were, before the demolition. So that’s neat too

    The Vatican archives digitized the big mss book of all the stuff and buried bodies that they found during the demolition, and what they did with the stuff, and what history was known about them. And there was a diagram and some illustrations, and translations, and it’s well worth going through it as I have done. But seeing the pictures would be even better.

    Apparently there’s a 2010 anthology of papers (Old St Peter’s, Rome, British School at Rome Studies) from Cambridge’s press, talking a lot about how the papal tombs were arranged in the old church, and how St. Veronica’s veil being present also fought iconoclasm, since it was an image not made by hands, as well as the whole deal with Pope Gregory III’s oratory. But I haven’t been able to get hold of it.

  4. Suburbanbanshee says:

    Ooookay… Apparently Amazon now has several new features for expensive academic books from Cambridge.

    You can buy the print book — and they offer you an installment plan for payment.

    You can buy the Kindle book. Or you can rent it for a month.

    Oh, man… Well, it’s not useless to have these options, but so weird.

    [So long as you use MY Amazon links to get what you want! Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE ]

  5. acardnal says:

    Why is there a military/carabinieri outpost in the vicinity under the white canopy?

  6. Joseph7505 says:

    Great puzzle I thought about how the queen could escape the discovered check and then found the only way to make that square unsafe at the same time attacking the queen so i played Nd4!!!!

    I checked out remote chess academy and yesterday i beat this 2400 In rapid https://www.chess.com/game/live/60899379791

  7. acardnal: Palazzo Farnese is also the French embassy. There are usually three types of security there, private, Italian regular Army and Carabinieri. That canopy is where people can be screened if it is raining and it provides some relief from the hot sun.

  8. Kentucky Gent says:

    I would play

    1…Nd4, and the queen is nearly trapped.
    2.Qxe5 (the only try, but it doesn’t work) Nxf3+!
    3.gxf3 Qxe5 and black is winning

  9. FranzJosf says:

    The Carbonara looks great. I ordered it often when I was studying in Rome. I think I’ve perfected making it at home for 1 to 4 people. (Timing and heat to thicken the eggs without scrambling.) I guess that it isn’t intended to made in large quantities, but no doubt someone has figured it out.

  10. teomatteo says:

    When my kids were teens I taught them to make carbonara to be their ‘go to’ meal– in the event they needed to serve unexpected guests. They have thanked me for that.

  11. Neal says:

    1. …e4
    2. dxe4 fxe4
    3. Nh4? Na5
    4. Qd3? Qxd4
    Momentum has shifted to black with pending attacks on the light square bishop and other knight.

  12. Diana says:

    Hi Father! My sister and her family were at that Mass. Some of her kids are in the photo you posted. She asked me to ask if you’d share where you found that Carbonara. :) it made her mouth water.

  13. Neal says:

    Kentucky Gent, your solution is better.

  14. TonyO says:

    That dish of carbonara has a way higher meat / pasta ratio than some (desultory) recipes I have seen. Me, I say add in the meat. I don’t often find gianciale so I use bacon, which I know is a cop-out but better than nothing.

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