Visit to the Cimitero delle Porte Sante

     Cimitero delle Porte Sante is located beside the Church of San Miniato al Monte which is above Piazza Michelangelo overlooking the city of Florence. Needless to say the walk up the hill to get to the cemetery was long, but it was worth the view. After walking through the beautiful Church we entered the graveyard. The cemetery was filled with sculptures and elaborate tombstones. The cemetery was created in 1854 and is the resting place of many well known Florentine writers, artists, and thinkers. There ground was covered in stone the graves were well kept. The elaborate decoration and amazing view made it clear that this graveyard must have been reserved for the rich and respected people of 19th century Florence. I couldn't help but compare this cemetery with fine carved stone above individual tombs to the one that I saw in Prague where jagged tombstones were clustered together. This comparison shows what most would like to do to honor their dead, and what others are forced to do for lack of an alternative.

Visit to The English Cemetery

     Of the three places that I visited for my learning service assignment, this was my favorite one. When we arrived we walked around a little and it did not seem much different than graveyards I had seen before. We were then greeted by the Nun who looks after the cemetery, Sister Julia. She brought us inside and told us a few things about the history of the cemetery and the people buried there. It was impressive how much Sister Julia knew about the people buried there and their connections with each other. The Cemetery was created originally as a place for protestants to be buried in Florence.

     Walking around the cemetery listening sister Julia helped me understand its significance as a hopeful place of rest for the people buried there. Her stories and descriptions transformed the rows of gravestones into more of a museum. Families and friends were buried together making the cemetery as a whole a monument to the community there. I felt hopeful because some day I would like to be buried and commemorated in a special place like this. Sister Julia's knowledge of the lives of the deceased buried in the cemetery ensures that their legacy lives on and they are not forgotten.

Visit to the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague

     As part of my learning service assignment on hope I visited the Old Jewish Cemetery while traveling in Prague. The cemetery was unlike any that I had seen before. It was filled with old jagged gravestone that were almost stacked on top of each other. The stones were worn leaving the inscriptions barely visible and some completely unreadable. The cemetery is enclosed by stone walls and not much bigger than a football field in total size. The isolation of the cemetery gave me an erie feeling.

     The guide told us a little bit about the history of the cemetery. The cemetery was used from the 15th to the 18th century to burry the Jewish people of Prague. This small area was the only place that Jewish people had to burry their dead. To make the most of the small cemetery without disturbing graves they added layers of soil and lifted the tombstones to the surface. 12,000 tombstones are visible and up to 100,000 people are estimated to have been buried there in 12 layers of graves.

Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia

Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia means the Convent of Santa Appolina. Perhaps the most famous painting in the convent is a fresco called "The Last Supper" by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea del Castagno. I've always admired depictions of the last supper because they can evoke a dramatic feeling. These are the last moments of Jesus Christ. Castagno conveys a natural style in his painting. There is no hyperbole. In terms of visits of art museums, I preferred the Uffizi. It was certainly of smaller scale. There is a certain darkness and suspicious nature in the figure of Judas, which foreshadows his eventual betrayal in the Bible. 

Palazzo Medici Riccardi

The Palazzo Medici Riccardi is a Renaissance palace designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo. The rooms inside the palace were immaculate and fancy.  They demonstrate the vast wealth of the Medici Family. I was also informed that family would leave their leftover food outside in the holes for the homeless next to the rusticated masonry.  The ground floor exterior is rusticated masonry. The classical courtyard was incredibly peaceful and serene with its large stone fountain. The Chapel of the Magi contained an elaborate altar. The Eastern Wall depicting the procession of the Magi was quite colorful, portraying a Tuscan landscape. 

Duomo and Baptistery

On Halloween this year, I climbed the Duomo and visited the St. Giovanni Baptistery. The interior of the Florence Cathedral is just as beautiful as the exterior. The artwork depicting heaven and hell in the inside of the Duomo is incredibly detailed and quite graphic. It is a fresco completed by Federico Zuccaro in 1579.   It truly is an historical and cultural landmark. The real task of the visit was climbing up all the narrow stairways to get to the top. The views of Florence from the top of the Duomo are pretty close to perfect. It was interesting to see the celebrant not using a microphone because the interior of the Cathedral possesses great acoustics. The whole facade is dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ. The amount of detail that is put into the figures is astounding. The beauty of the Baptistery is no different from it's neighbor landmark. I appreciated the astronomical depiction on the floor and the meaning behind it. The Gates of Paradise in the Baptistery are actually copies of the originals. 

Pilgrimage

            Before watching the movie, I did not know much about Catholic pilgrimages. In reality, the only religious pilgrimage that I knew about was the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. However, after watching the movie, I realized that many other religions have pilgrimages or religious journeys, even Catholics. In the movie, a group of Catholic pilgrims journey to the Cathedral of Santiago de Campostela in Chile. This particular pilgrimage was longer than most. However, this group of travelers made the hard journey to find some sort of spiritual enlightenment.

            The sacrifice that these people make to journey across the country for the sake of their beliefs is remarkable. Personally, I do not think that I am going to ever take part in a pilgrimage, mainly in part because I am not very religious nor do I currently have the courage to sacrifice a lot of time to enhance my religious beliefs. Yet, hopefully, later in my life, I will find that courage and that spirituality that will force me to make the sacrifice and take part in a Catholic pilgrimage.  

Faces of Mary

       Last week, we watched a very interesting video on the different depictions of Mary in artwork. It is amazing how many actual art pieces there are that solely focus on the Virgin Mary or Mary holding the baby Jesus. The day after I watched the video, my art history teacher took our class out on a field trip to the Uffizi Gallery. When we first walked through the rooms on the top floor, I noticed that almost all of the paintings were focused on religious subjects. Surprisingly, Mary was featured in more paintings than Jesus himself. Also, when I visited the Vatican, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Michelangelo’s Pieta was the most precious piece of art in the entire church. The Pieta is a marble sculpture of Mary holding the lifeless body of her son, Jesus Christ. It stands behind bulletproof glass in an effort to protect it from intruders (In the 1980’s, a man tried to destroy the statue in a terrorist act against the Catholic Church because he believed that the Pieta was the single most important piece of art in the Vatican.) All in all, I now realize that Italians adore Mary as much as they adore Jesus.

San Miniato

Recently, while walking up the stairs to the Church of San Miniato al Monte on the outskirts of Florence, I never thought I could see such a beautiful view. The entire city of Florence is visible from the porch in front of the church. The Duomo dominates the skyline while the mountains and hills of Tuscany form a beautiful backdrop of the city. Before my visit, I knew of the church but I did not know where it was located. Yet, since I walked along the Arno River everyday in order to reach school, I would see this magnificent church perched on top of a hill as if it were looking down upon each and every Florentine. Little did I know that this church I saw each and every day was the Church of San Miniato al Monte, one of the most beautiful churches in all of Italy. As for the church itself, the Romanesque structures of its interior and exterior are perfectly built. The splendid marble façade of the church is gorgeous and can be seen form throughout the city of Florence. The gold mosaic in the center of the façade, depicting Christ as the Redeemer, is beautiful as well. Also, the entire complex if San Miniato al Monte is huge. The Cimitero delle Porte Sante, which surrounds the church itself, is lined with an abundant amount of superb neo-Gothic tombstones, including the tomb of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. As for the interior of the church, the beautiful marble columns stand out to the casual viewer. The work of art above the alter, Pantokrator, or Divine Christ,  is absolutely stunning as well. 

Duomo and Baptistery

       The Duomo is absolutely amazing. The outside of the building is as impressive as anything one may see throughout the globe. The front façade of the Duomo is perfectly designed and immaculately kept. The statues that fill up the most of the façade are beautifully built and perfectly maintained. The sheer size of the Duomo makes it easy to see through the entire city of Florence, letting people know that the shrine to Jesus Christ is the de facto center of town. However, even though the inside of the Duomo, also known as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, is still beautiful, it was surprisingly quite plain and bare. The similar cathedrals that I have visited throughout my travels, such as the churches in Siena and Assisi, are decorated to the nines in its interior. Even though Giorgio Vasari’s Last Judgment in a masterpiece art, the cathedrals in Siena and Assisi have many more beautiful works of art than the Duomo.
       The Baptistery of St John is equally as beautiful on the outside of the Duomo. However, “somewhat” unlike the Duomo the interior of the Baptistery is also immaculately designed with all sorts of gold statues and gorgeous paintings.  Yet, the true treasure of the Baptistery lies on the building’s front doors. The “Gates of Paradise,” as Michelangelo named them, were built by Lorenzo Ghiberti. These golden doors have twenty-eight different panels on them, with each panel showing a different story of Christ in the New Testament. Overall, both the Duomo and the Baptistery were spectacular. However, I believe that the baptistery is kind of a hidden treasure that must not be missed on anyone’s trip to Florence.

12A Tomkins, A Short History of Christianity 238-243

            In chapter nine of Stephen Tomkin’s A Short History of Christianity, he talks about the conditions of the Catholic Church under the great and almost immortal Pope John Paul II. Tomkins describes the Pope as a “progressive” and “conservative” who promised not to bring back the values of the old Catholic Church, but to push for a new, modern face of the Church. Pope John Paul II also argued for rights and religious freedom and had a more liberal stance when it came to foreign relations. However, in this chapter, Tomkins mentions another important and powerful priest who also argued for people’s rights and religious tolerance. His name was Bishop Oscar Romero.

            As Archbishop of San Salvador, Father Romero was a source of strength and hope for the poor and for the oppressed of his country, working with and for them, taking their struggles as his own. Romero wrote and spoke passionately and publicly of the need for Christians to work for justice, frequently faced with threat and danger from those who opposed his ideas. On March 24, 1980, while celebrating the Eucharist, Archbishop Romero was shot and killed at the altar by a death squad assassin, paying the highest price for the commitment about which he spoke so often and so eloquently. Because of his courageous stand for justice, he became a martyr not only for poor Salvadorians but for all struggling to overcome oppression and poverty. Today, his sermons are read as powerful reminders of Christians' obligation to fight for a just society. Shortly before he was murdered, Romero said: "It is my hope that my blood will be the seed of freedom and the sign that hope will soon be reality" The example of Romero's courageous life and ultimately death continue to inspire those who struggle for human dignity and justice.

            In conclusion, both Pope John Paul II and Bishop Oscar Romero were revolutionaries during a time of desperate need for both of their countries/churches. I recently read an article about Bishop Oscar Romero and how the Vatican blocked his canonization because they did not want to impose a liberal stance for revolutionary figures. However, to great joy, I read another article about a few months later on how Pope Francis is now “unblocking” the canonization of Bishop Oscar Romero and is now pushing for his sainthood.