I leave tomorrow for several days in Prague, the Czech Republic, a city I’ve heard is stunningly beautiful and historic and yet, in all my travels, I’ve never been there! I’ve set up some wonderful appointments and hope to do stories on the Church history of Prague and environs – the monasteries and churches,, the statue of the Holy Infant of Prague, how the church struggled to come back to life after decades of communism when churches were closed or destroyed, religious orders, banned and so on.
I’ll do my best to post something every day, however brief, but sometimes a travel schedule is literally packed from early morning to late night. I’ve spoken to my Italian cell phone provider and am assured I have enough GB in my phone to do some Facebook live posts during foreign travel – even if they too are brief.
So, stay tuned…….
Yesterday was the feast of St. Mary Magdalene which was officially declared such by Pope Francis in 2016 in the following decree: “By express wish of the Holy Father Francis, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments published a decree, dated 3 June 2016, solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, with which the celebration of Saint Mary Magdalene, now obligatory memory, is raised in the General Roman Calendar to the degree of celebration.”
In May I wrote of a marvelous experience I had after a 6 pm Sunday Mass at San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, a church near my home where I have gone to Mass on a number of occasions. That special moment involved a relic for which the church has become famous and, since yesterday was St. Mary Magdalene’s feast, I wanted to re-post the story on her relic.
This church is so close to the Vatican that it really merits a visit after you’ve been to St. Peter’s Basilica, the Museums, gardens, etc.
A WELL-KEPT SECRET: ROME’S RELIQUARY WITH FOOT OF MARY MAGDALENE
I want to share with you one of the most moving and amazing experiences of my life that occurred after the 6 pm Mass last night in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. Ambassador Callista Gingrich and her husband Newt were also at this Mass and I asked them afterwards if they knew the church housed an astonishing relic – the left foot of St. Mary Magdalene.
I brought them to the shrine and explained the story (which I had recently researched for one of my “Joan’s Rome” videos – see story below). As we were about to leave, the sacristan came up to me and, with a huge smile and holding a key in one hand, asked if we’d like to see the relic up close. Well, of course we wanted to!
He opened the shrine and then – the truly amazing moment of the evening! – he took the Cellini reliquary out, showed it to us and handed it to me! What is not visible when the reliquary is inside the shrine is the glass-covered opening that reveals the bones of Mary Magdalene’s foot!
(I originally posted several photos that Amb. Gingrich sent me but can no longer find those to repost today)
I held the reliquary for dear life and slowly, prayerfully, moved one hand across the top of the reliquary. I think my breathing slowed as I held the relic! Several others were standing near us in total silence, also relishing uniqueness of the moment.
Just writing about this experience leaves me breathless again.
THE JOURNEY OF A RELIC
San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini – St. John the Baptist of the Florentines – is known as the regional church for expatriates from Florence whose patron saint is John the Baptist. There was a flourishing expat Florentine community in Rome in the mid-15th century that featured the bankers and artists for which the city was famous. That expat Florentine community was concentrated on a bend of the Tiber River where the church stands today.
San Giovanni was built for the first Medici Pope, Leo X, who started a competition for the church’s construction. Great numbers of famous artists participated in the project but the building was on-again off-again for a few centuries. Two of the most celebrated artists are buried here – Carlo Maderno and Francesco Borromini.
Only in recent years, however, has San Giovanni dei Fiorentini made a singular claim to fame: it possesses relics of the foot of St. Mary Magdalene that rest in a shrine to the left of the main sanctuary.
Historians seem to agree that Mary Magdalene died and was buried in Ephesus and that, given historical vicissitudes, her body – or parts of it, what we will call relics – was brought to Constantinople, then to the south of France and, finally Rome.
How the relics got to the south of France seems to be the biggest mystery – not all legends agree. One, in fact, says Mary Magdalene lived in a cave as a hermitess in the south of France where she died.
The historical account found in the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini says her body was sent by ship from Sainte Baume in Provence to Rome where her left foot was removed according to the Greek tradition that this is always the first foot that rises when you enter the after life. Her foot came to rest in St. Peter’s basilica with other passion relics.
For many years, pilgrims who came to Rome to visit the tomb of Peter would first stop to venerate the foot of St Mary Magdalene who was the first person to enter the tomb of the Risen One. This foot was first kept in a precious reliquary of silver- and gold-smith Benvenuto Cellini.
More historical vicissitudes and the foot finally came to rest in San Giovanni dei Fiorentini – but only in 1984! – where it was buried away in a closet with other forgotten relics and historical pieces.
Amazingly enough it was discovered only in the year 2000 when San Giovanni began work on its Museum of Sacred Art!
Joan's Rome 