ROME 22/10 – Day 8: More about fish, forbidden games, and a new book

Sunset… sunset… 7:12… 18:42. The Ave Maria is at 1900. Today is the traditional Feast of St. Bridget. I’ll stop later to see if the nearby sisters keep the traditional day.

TOMORROW, however, is the Feast of. St. John Leonardi whose remains are at not too distant S.M. in Campitelli. There will be a procession this evening with his relics through the streets of that quarter. I hope to get there. Here is his enclosure from my last visit.

Tomorrow will also be the Feast of St. John Henry Newman.   It is possible to celebrate him with the TLM when not blocked by a heavier day (such as a Sunday, like tomorrow).  For you priests out there who may desire to do this in the future, here is my post about the LATIN Collect for St. John Henry Newman: HERE  Bookmark or copy now so you have it.

I made a bit of a stroll yesterday and the knee did well.   Over in the ghetto, the Jewish quarter, I was able to visit, just to keep the fishy theme going, St. Angelo in Pescheria.  This little church is sort of inside the Portico of Octavia, which was built by Augustus Caesar to replace the Portico of C. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, between 33 and 23 BC.

To right, you see the entrance of the Oratorio dei Pescivendoli, of the Fishmongers which was part of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament.  The inscription reads: LOCUS ORATIONIS VENDITORUM PISCIUM.  Note the image of St. Andrew, who was, of course, a fisherman.

Inside St. Angelo in Pescheria.

The side altar with St. Andrew.

NB: Universitas Piscium Vendotorum Urbis.   Eventually it was suppressed in 1801.  Too bad.  I’d like to think that my fishmonger, near Campo de’ Fiori, was a member and participating in veneration of the Blessed Sacrament as part of his membership.

From this church Cola di Rienzo made his attempt at a coup.

On the Portico itself is this marvelous sign.  It strikes home to all players of games.

There was a list of prohibited games in Rome, generally involving dice and cards, and therefore susceptible to bloodshed.   Chess – waaaaaay back – once involved dice!  That’s why at the time St. Peter Damian railed against chess for clerics and it came to be forbidden.   It couldn’t last, of course.  Great saints played chess, St Francis de Sales… St. Theresa of Avila is the patroness of chess!  Several Popes were avid players, including Leo X and Leo XIII.  John Paul played a lot of chess, too.

Speaking of chess….  BLACK to move for a winning position.

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I’m starting to read… by Peter Kwasniewski (if it is Saturday, he must have another book out)…

The Once and Future Roman Rite: Returning to the Traditional Latin Liturgy after Seventy Years of Exile

More later.