Fr. Z's Blog

Roman sunrise was at 7:32 and Roman sunset will be at 18:16.  The Ave Maria bell ought to ring at 18:30.  There will be a partial eclipse of the sun at 10:59 UTC (9:59 Rome time) and the maximum in Rome 11:25 Rome time.

My maximum view today, slightly cloudy.

It is the Feast of Sts. Crispin and Crispinian, whose relics are at San Lorenzo in Panisperna about which I wrote recently in regard to Card. Sirleto.

Thank you, O Lord, for this day.

My offering to you all in this daily column today is about… columns.

This is the column at Santa Maria Maggiore set up by Paul V (Borghese +1621).

Sixtus V (+1590 Peretti) had remapped the city in a massive urban project of straightened streets and piazzas marked with obelisks and by christianizing the ancient columns of Marcus Aurelius and of Trajan.  Sixtus’ goal was to present Rome as a city that was no longer pagan, but was sacred and dedicated to Christ.

Here is the obelisk at the apse of St. Mary Major, a starting point of one of the rays of the star configuration of streets to plazas that would be imitated in Paris and Washington DC.

Staying in place and turning around you see all the way down a straight shot to Piazza del Popolo.  The top of its obelisk is visible.

You might remember the trident of streets that spoked out from P.za del Popolo.  On the left, the Via del Babuino, center Via del Corso, right Via della Ripetta.

Paul V continued in this vein with the column of the Blessed Virgin at St. Mary Major.

Sixtus had raised four obelisks, at important places, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, P.za del Popolo and St. Peter’s Square.   The column of Trajan, set up in 113 after the campaign in Dacia with Trajan on the top as “divus… a god“, near the Forum was rededicated to St. Peter.

The column of Marcus Aurelius, set up in 180 by Commodus to mark the Danube campaign, was rededicated to St. Paul.

There were other pagan columns, such as the Column of Phocas in the Forum from 608.

Sixtus had planned to take the last surviving column of the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine and set it up in front of Michelangelo’s Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli in the old baths of Diocletian, now the Piazza della Repubblica.   Sixtus had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin which is why he arranged for the “Sistine Chapel” of St. Mary Major to be the place of his burial.

Sixtus didn’t get to carry out his project.  Paul V took it up.   St. Mary Major was dear to him because as a young priest he had served at the Basilica.  He also wanted to be buried in the chapel across from the Sistine, the Pauline Chapel that has the famous image of S.M. del Popolo, the image of Mary most important to the Romans.

So, on 23 Oct 1613, after two months of planning, and the allocation of almost 11K scudi, they started to move the massive column to its new place.  It was a huge project, on the scale of the moving and raising of the obelisks, requiring a casing for the column, and a wooden causeway to move it with 60 horses.   It took them until April 1614 to move it 1.5km.   Carlo Maderno (buried near Borromini at the Florentine church S. Giovanni) was in charge of the restoration of the capital and for the fountain fed by Acqua Felice that was to be at the base of the column.   Meanwhile, a French sculptor Guillaume Berthelot prepared the 4 meter tall statue of the Blessed Virgin in gilded bronze.  It was put in place 18 July 1614.   The four inscription panels were installed in June.  And the Borghese eagles and dragons from the family coat of arms soon followed.  Paul V granted a perpetual indulgence of three years and 40 days to anyone who venerated the statue and prayed there on their knees.

Sixtus had cleared the area behind the basilica and set out new streets.  Paul continued the work in the front of the basilica and spoked streets out from it also, leading to the Suburra area, the Via Paolina, Via Urbana, the V. Gregoriana opened by Gregory XIII to St. John Lateran (now called Merulana), etc. These spoking streets were to showcase the 38 meter tall Marian column.

The opening of the area in front of the Basilica and the placement of a fountain for the good of the people in the area had been desired by the canons of the Basilica.  That clearing was done with the help of “il Monsignore Presidente delle Strade” who is still commemorated around the city in the famous “no littering … no dumping” inscriptions, 67 surviving.  One of them has its anniversary tomorrow.  I should post it.  It’s just up the street from where I write.

There were pagan columns with statues all around the ancient Empire.  In the Christian era this practice was “baptized”, as it were, and pagan memorials were repurposed.   They were religious and also political symbols.   Think of the columns in Venice near San Marco or Trafalgar Square in London.

Paul V’s column had come from the Basilica of Maxentius which was considered to have been the Temple of Peace.  There was a tradition that the temple caved in when Christ was born.  Just as the column remained intact, so did the Virgin Mother of God.  Once a pagan symbol, it was now a sign of the true Prince of Peace in the arms of the Virgin.  The theme of peace is in the inscriptions.

VASTA COLUMNAM MOLE
QUAE STETIT DIV
PACIS PROFANA IN AEDE
PAULUS TRANSTULIT
IN EXQUILINUM QUINTUS
ET SANCTISSIMAE
PAX UNDE VERA EST
CONSECRAVIT VIRGINI

Perhaps another day we can get into the connection of columns or pillars, in Scripture and in literature, another day.

White to move and win material.   Pretty straight forward… especially after yesterday.  I posted more about that one.  Solution.

Remote Chess Academy has a beginner pack.  If you see something at that site that you want, let me know and I can create a specific link to it.

Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance. US HERE – UK HERE  These links take you to a generic “catholic” search in Amazon, but, once in and browsing or searching, Amazon remembers that you used my link and I get the credit.

The sunrise here in Rome was at 7:31, sunset is at 18:18 and the Ave Maria should ring at 18:30.

It is the traditional Feast of the Archangel Raphael, the healing angel who acts in the Book of Tobit, one of the seven Archangels who stands before the Lord.

O Lord, thank you for this day.

Here is a lovely devotional painting of St. Raphael and Tobit with his fish.

Remember that we are not to invoke the names of angels that are not in Scripture.  We have only three names: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.   I have always thought it odd that we have so few angelic names even though angels are all over the place in Scripture.

Inside the rarely open church of the Archconfraternity of the “Palafrenieri”, that is, of the guys who used to carry the sedia gestatoria and the deceased popes.

An early morning street.

I still have some alstroemeria going, pink and white, but I’ve culled it a bit and put it in smaller vases (actually cheap 1 liter pitchers).  I couldn’t pass up a good deal with my flower guy at the Campo de’ Fiori for white lilies.  It smells like an Easter altar in here. They’re huge.

I’ll arbitrarily thank the last person who made a “wavy flag” Roman Trip donation that was about amount I spent on the flowers.  Thanks DH!  Your donation brightened up the place, as do your occasional comments and notes.  I remember all my benefactors with Masses and prayers.

The Summit Dominicans make more than soap. They make splendid candles, too. I have them in the Two Trinities Chapel across the pond.  Advent is coming up FAST, 27 November, just over a month away.  Whaddya say? Get your candles from these lovely sisters?

This was, for me, really hard.   Take note of the situation.  Each side has both rooks and passed pawns close to promotion.  White’s King is in the path of the enemy black pawn.  On the other hand, the black King is on the other side of the board from white’s passer.

White to move and maybe provoke a headache!

1. Kf3 is to block the f4 pawn is tempting, but then black can play … Rb8, blocking white’s pawn attacking it twice. So that’s not going to work. We have to start with something that will force black. The enemy King is stuck on the 8th rank and is limited by the f8 Rook. That’s a clue. Hence, 1. Ra7 connects the Rooks on the 7th rank (often a deadly combo). Black’s f6 Rook can’t take the a6 pawn, because that would hang inevitable mate in three. 1. … Rb8 to clear space for the King and attack the pawn brings 2. b7, which threatens Ra8. So that’s not going to work for black. Instead, make a check with 1. … f3+. This brings 2. Kf2 to block the passer. However, black takes the g file with 2. … Rg6. This leaves the f pawn protected by the other Rook, threatens a check and protects that vulnerable g7 square and the mating net. Now 3. b7 and white’s passer is one square from promotion and Ra8 looms large. Would black’s 3. … Rb3 work to attack the pawn and X-ray the b8 promotion square? No (4. Ra8 Rb2+ 5. Kg3 f2 6. Rxf8+ KxR 7. Kg2 Ke8 8. Rc8+ threatening promotion). Black needs counterplay. 3. … Rg2+ 4. Kf1 f2. White must not succumb with 5. KxR because then f8=Q protected by the f8 Rook and the 7th rank mating net won’t work anymore because of the b7 pawn. Instead there is 5. Rf7. If black’s King takes the Rook, white promotes with a discovered check. If black’s Rook takes the Rook on g7, then the pawn promotes with check. It looks like black’s option is Rb8 to block the passer.

Good grief… I’ll stop there and let you work it out.

I’ve gotten you to about half way. What’s your solution?

Sunrise in Rome was scheduled for 07:26, and it happened. Sunset has been arranged by our Creator for 18:23. Today the Ave Maria bells moves up to 18:30 from 18:45. Time marches on. It is the Feast of St. John Cantius in the traditional calendar.    He was famous in life for his great generosity to the poor.  In the intellectual sphere his scientific work anticipated Galileo and Newton on the theory of impetus.

Anecdote: The other day I was at the Piazza der Fico when some real characters from central casting play chess, or was passes for it.  They engaged me a bit, as Romans will, dressed as I was as a priest.   One of the younger of the gang, sprawl carelessly in a plastic chair magisterially announced that the Catholic Church is against science.  I asked for an example and he came up with the Church saying the world was created in six days and the Big Bang.  In that context let’s just say that he “hanged mate”.   Side-stepping the issue of creation and days, I asked him what his opinion was of the work of Fr. Georges Lemaître.  “Who the (uncouth word) is he?”  He’s the guy who came up with the theory that phenomenon of galaxies receding from each other is explainable by an expanding universe.”  Blank stare.  He’s the guy who came up with the Big Bang theory.

Anyway, St. John Cantius, who died in 1473, worked on Burdian’s theory of impetus, trying to describe motion against gravity.

Some of you might remember this.  It seems a lifetime ago.

Meanwhile, to satisfy those who like the food pics.   There is a piazza by the slice place in the Jewish “ghetto” quarter where the kosher pizza is spectacular.  The pizza scene has over the last years been revolutionized.   The game was kicked up about a hundred notches by Gabriele Bonci.

In the little S.M. di Loreto, next to Trajan’s Column, there is an altar dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo, an amazing saint whose impact on the Church endures today.  Above the altar is this image of the great Bishop of Milan.  I believe it shows San Carlo giving Holy Communion to a victim of the Black Plague: the setting is outside and not in a church, there is a languish figure in the background.  Note the figure carrying the tricerium, the three-fold candle.

In the same church we find a statue of St. Expeditus, about whom I wrote recently.

In Santa Prassede this guy saw the consistory list.

GO TO CONFESSION.

Here I am, mailing post cards to a few particularly helper donors for this Roman sojourn.  This is to prove that I mailed them for, it being Italian post, I have no idea in which year they might reach there destination.  You might have two questions.  First, yes, those are scars.  Second, I didn’t use Vatican Post because I avoid going there as much as possible: I find it very creepy over there, as if the very air is greasy with something wrong.

Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.   US HERE – UK HERE

Right now I am reading Scott Hahn’s newest

Holy Is His Name: The Transforming Power of God’s Holiness in Scripture

It has a forward by Peter Kreeft.  That’s a really good sign in itself.     The book explores what “holiness” is.  We often talk about holiness.  But what is it?

The holy Benedictines of Le Barroux are making very good wine with an interesting story.  How about some for Thanksgiving?

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

Click

I have an affiliate program with a Chess GM with the terrific name of Igor Smirnov, which summons images. In any event, and I’ve related this before, I had a terrible OTB and online slump. One of his online courses pulled me out of that slump and I won a bunch of games in a row against some strong opponents. He is a good teacher. Not all online chess instructors are good teachers. Here’s a new course he has on the middle game.

And your puzzle.  White to move for great material and positional advantage.

Some updates.   I was asked by email what flowers I now have in the apartment. I still that that alstroemeria! It is getting to the end, but it is still lovely. All the blooms are well opened.

In other news, I retrieved a cassock that needed some work. My tailor is a wizard. Also, I spoke with the goldsmith about my chalice which, after over 30 years of use, needed refurbishing. I’ll go have a look at the progress early next week. However, he told me he was able to reset the gems on the node so that the now receive light! They no longer look like black solids, but sparkle (I hope) as the green garnets that they are. I look forward to seeing how he solved the problem.