Day four - Tuesday 22nd October

After breakfast we gathered to take a coach to the catacombs of S Sebastiano. This was along the Via Appia and is now served by the Franciscan fathers. Fr Michael celebrated Mass here over the original tomb of St Sebastian. Then we had a guided tour by Maria, who led us down to the second level of this four level catacomb. We learnt that no-one was to be buried inside the city walls of Rome, so all who died, pagan, Jew or Christian, would be buried in such cemeteries. We saw Christian tombs, many bearing a symbol such as fish, anchor, lamb or ship, and elaborately made and decorated pagan family tombs as we made our way into the claustrophobic passageways beneath the ground in the limestone rock.

The bodies of St Peter and St Paul were moved here temporarily in the 3rd century. This was a really superb visit to a place we had heard about as children. The church above was quite beautiful and contains the tomb of St Sebastian, one of the traditional Seven Churches of Rome.

We returned to the hotel, passing the Church of Domine Quo Vadis, and lunched locally before boarding the coach once more to visit the church of Santa Croce. Here we met our guide for this visit, Flavia, who was most knowledgeable and came equipped with microphone and loudspeaker, which helped us to hear. This is the church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem because St Helena went to Jerusalem to bring back soil for the foundations in the 4th Century. She is reputed to have brought back a piece of Christ's Cross, thorns from his crown, one of the nails, the INRI title and the crossbeam from the cross of the Good Thief. These are displayed in the chapel at the altar end of the left aisle. We prayed in the chapel for a while before seeing around the remainder of the church now served by the Carthusian monks.

Then it was a short walk to the basilica of St. John Lateran. We noticed the statue of St Francis in the Piazza, he is holding his hands up in front of him symbolising holding up a building. The Pope had dreamt of the church falling down and a beggar saving it from collapse.

On the façade of the basilica is written "Mother and Head of all Churches in Rome and in the World." It was on this hill that Constantine built the first public Christian church on the property taken from the Laterani family. The palace alongside was the official residence of Popes from the 4th to 14th Centuries, and even following the move to Vatican hill, the Lateran remains the site of the papal cathedra or throne. The early church was dedicated to the Saviour, but the adjoining baptistry has allowed John the Baptist to take over the name of the Church. The façade has fifteen colossal statues of Christ, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist and twelve saints acclaimed Doctors of the Church. Inside, between the plastered pillars of the nave, are the twelve apostles. Over the high altar is a gothic canopy said to contain the heads of SS Peter and Paul. The apse contains a mosaic showing Christ surrounded by angels and saints.

The Scala Sancta or Holy Stairs, which tradition says came from the Roman Praetorium in Jerusalem, are in a separate building and we visited these to pray and for some to ascend on their knees. This is especially so in Holy Week as a sign of sharing in the suffering of Jesus and those suffering in the world today. We walked back to Sante Croce Church where we collected the coach and returned to our dinner taken in a local restaurant near to the hotel.

On arriving in the Via Della Conciliazione, we were astonished to see a Jumbulance parked up by our stop! It turned out to be one of the very early vehicles operated by Across and sold to a group from Croatia who now took sick pilgrims all over Europe. As a number of our group had traveled to Lourdes on Jumbulances with Across, we were delighted to meet the organizer, the driver and the priest. After exchanging stories of our journeys with them, the photographs were duly taken to record this amazing co-incidence.