For 12 days, I was blessed to journey with 83 pilgrims through the spiritual wonders of Italy! Beginning in Venice; on to Florence, Siena, and Assisi; stopping in Orvieto; and ending in Rome, this pilgrimage brought us face to face with remarkable saints from every age, the astounding beauty of the Renaissance, the transcendent grandeur of famous churches, and the innate goodness of the Italian people.
Italy is a treasure house of Catholicism and the culture of the West, which is the enduring heritage of the Church, with some of the greatest saints, architecture, history, art, basilicas, food, wine, and landscapes in the world.
In Italy, I always feel privileged and overwhelmed by the glories I experience! I want to share with you some of the extraordinary saints we encountered there along the way.
Exploring the richness of Catholic culture in Italy
In Venice, we celebrated Mass in the crypt of the Basilica of Saint Mark, right below the relics of the Evangelist. An astounding church built in the earliest centuries, Saint Mark’s contains mosaics, paintings, and statuary which proclaim the centrality of Christ and the Truth of the Gospel.
Believed to be a cousin to St. Barnabas, Mark traveled with St. Paul, but was a disciple of St. Peter himself, accompanying him on apostolic journeys throughout Asia Minor. Honored as the author of Mark’s Gospel, this disciple speaks to us of the centrality of the Word of God and our consistent need to be immersed in study and prayer of the Scriptures, especially the four Gospels.
While celebrating Mass in the crypt there, I felt a profound connection with Mark and a deep experience of the Lord’s presence in that holy place.We just celebrated his feast day on April 25.
In Florence, we experienced some of the greatest artistic masterpieces in the world, including Michelangelo’s David, the Dome and the Baptistery doors of the cathedral, paintings by Giotto, and the extraordinary work of Blessed Fra Angelico, a Dominican monk who created archetypical paintings of the Annunciation and the Deposition from the Cross, explosions of light and color which truly nourish the soul with a deep spiritual beauty.
St. John Paul II beatified Fra Angelico in 1982, both as an acknowledgement of his holiness and the important contribution of art to the mission of the Church.
In Siena, we celebrated Mass at the church which contains the relics of St. Catherine of Siena, a lay Dominican Tertiary who lived in the turbulent 14th century. One of 24 children, Catherine enjoyed mystical experiences throughout her short life (she died at the age of 33), including mystical marriage with Christ and the stigmata. She also had a profound impact on her world, organizing many people to serve the poor and the sick, and urging the pope to move back to Rome from Avignon, France.
During the Avignon Papacy, the Church was sharply divided over who was the actual pope. Catherine’s profound love for the Church led her to speak and act to heal this terrible ecclesial wound.
I encourage you to study her written treatises, the fruit of much prayer and grace. Her feast was on April 29.
My ‘favorite place’
Assisi is my favorite place in the world, a city of breathtaking beauty and deep peace, blessed by the holiness of Ss. Francis and Clare, whose radical embrace of the Gospel transformed the Church and the world in permanent ways.
Living at a time of much violence in society and corruption in the Church, they brought the Gospel to the people, inviting others by their joy and poverty to live Christian discipleship in all of its glory and renunciation.
The basilicas which house their tombs are filled with frescoes which narrate the spiritual drama of their remarkable witness.
We also had Mass in the church which houses the incorrupt body of Blessed Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager remarkably devoted to the Eucharist, who died of leukemia at the age of 15 in 2006.
He used his computer skills to assemble information on every Eucharistic miracle in the history of the Church.
Our traveling display of Eucharistic miracles in this time of the national Eucharistic Revival is the fruit of his work.
All of us were astounded when we prayed in front of his incorrupt body. Dressed in a hoodie and jeans, holding a Rosary, Blessed Carlo was taller than I thought he was, had a full head of black hair and seemed to be peacefully asleep, as if a gentle touch on the shoulder would awaken him. This saintly young man, who lived in our 21st century, speaks powerfully to the youth of today, demonstrating that holiness is perennial, that each one of us, in the here and now, is called by Christ to be a saint and to give our lives completely to Him. His feast is October 12.
We ended our pilgrimage in Rome, where we encountered so many saints that I would need another column to speak of them.
We visited all four major basilicas, had Mass in St. Peter’s and in the apse of St. John Lateran, visited the Holy Stairs (the steps which Jesus walked up to meet Pontius Pilate and which St. Helena brought to Rome from Jerusalem), went into the catacombs, and viewed the wonder of the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel, jostled along with 10s of thousands of other people.
Through all of it, I prayed for our diocese, our priests and leaders, our people, our efforts to evangelize and love, our Into the Deep process, and all of your intentions.
All the saints of Italy, pray for us!