St Paul’s Outside the Walls – A Week in Rome

A long subway ride from the old city, deep in the Roman suburbs, is a massive but ordinary-looking outcropping of the Vatican known commonly as St Paul’s Outside the Walls (of the city of Rome). One of the largest churches in the world, it is about as far from any other tourist attraction as you can get and still be roughly inside Rome. On the blustery November afternoon when we took the trip, we thought we’d see the peaceful columns of a stately cathedral, good for a picture or two. We got a full-blown religious experience.

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The streets outside the far-flung subway station were nearly empty as we walked through the rain toward the flat, featureless backside of the church. A few police cars were parked along the side, and a few nicely dressed people drifted in and out of a small door. We wandered around the front, which faces a poorly maintained park. The grey day seemed to sop up whatever color the unkempt grass had to offer. The front of the church was deserted, and we wondered if we had stumbled into the wrong place altogether, or if the cathedral was closed.

Disappointed after the riches of Florence and the Vatican City, we wandered back the way we came, past the small door. We saw some tourists disappearing inside, and in a last-ditch effort to get something out of our long trek to this place, decided to follow them.

We found ourselves in a small anteroom. A young priest, dressed in formal robes, motioned for us to go forward toward another door around a corner. We did so, and as we stepped through the inner doorway, were bathed in a blaze of candlelight and color.

Some kind of massive ceremony was going on. Another young priest motioned for use to proceed into the main section of the cathedral.

A crowd of about a thousand parishoners is packed in, watching a ceremony presided over by a Cardinal. It is clear from the behavior of the parishioners that this man with his red hat is special, as they strain to take pictures of him, flashes sparkling throughout the crowd. Signs warning not to take pictures are universally ignored. Video cameras run. Parishoners in wheelchairs are parked throughout. The crowd is diverse in age, from young families to the elderly. Priests are dotted throughout the crowd, watching with rapt attention.  In the back, the fathful take to their knees as the ceremony, which seemed to involve the blessing of some sort of artifact, went a hundred yards away in the altar.

Well, almost all of them were paying attention. Some were looking a bit, er, bored.

Or perhaps they are just meditating, in one of the most religiously significant places in the history of the earth, surrounded by the ghosts of Diana and Jupiter and those that came even before them. Rome is, above all, a spiritual place.

Note: photographs here were originally taken November 2004, a few months before John Paull II’s death..

Table of Contents
The Colosseum
Palatine Hill
The Forum
The Pantheon
The Vatican
St. Peter in Chains
Imperial Lion
St. Peter’s Square and Basilica
Atop St. Peter’s Dome
Castel Sant’ Angelo (Pope hideaway on the Tiber River)
Day Trip to Florence
Castel Sant’ Angelo, Continued
St. Paul’s Outside the Walls (Vatican church in Rome’s Suburbs)
Great Fountains of Rome
Musei Capitolini (Capitoline Museum): Romulus and Remus and Random Body Parts
Victor Emmanuel Monument (VE Monument)
National Museum of Rome: A Treasure Vault and Lots of Heads
Wrap-Up-The-First – Summary of the Trip
Wrap-Up-The-Last – Final Summary of the Trip