Buon Natale! ♥ Buone feste!

I am not religious in any fashion whatsoever, but I thought it would be interesting to see a Catholic service in Rome for Christmas. When I asked at the hotel desk where I could find some, they suggested that I go to St. Peter’s Basilica… in Vatican City! It was an easy trip on the metro from my hotel near Piazza della Reppublica, and I was fortunate to arrive early enough that the line to get into St. Peter’s was not too long.

Piazza di San Pietro. You can see just a few of the statues of saints that surround the entire square, as well as the dome of the basilica itself.

Basilica Sancti Petri is the largest Christian church in the world. It can fit over 60,000 worshipers–9,000 more than Yankee Stadium–and is used for most of the religious ceremonies over which the Pope presides.

The basilica was constructed on what is said to be the burial site of the martyr St. Peter, next to the Circus of Nero. The original basilica was constructed under the Roman emperor Constantine in the fourth century CE, and was replaced in the 15th and 16th centuries with the current structure, designed predominantly by Michelangelo.

The interior of the basilica is astounding in its detail. Every inch of surface is gilded, carved, or painted. Even the architecture demonstrates this; although the basic form of the structure is a cross, each space branches into smaller and smaller rooms and niches, which house altars, statues, and relics.

I did not go into the chapel for the mass that morning, but stayed on the other side of the barrier with the other tourists. It was still a magnificent view of things.

As I was leaving, a little before the end of the mass, I noticed that there was suddenly a huge crowd around the basilica. As it turns out, it was almost time for the Pope’s Christmas speech, the Urbis et Orbis!

If you open up the very largest version of this photo, you can almost see him.

The address, at least as far as I could understand it, focused on the meaning of Christmas as a time to seek peace and love, asking for reconciliation in the many areas of the world that are hurt by wars, disasters, and political oppression. He ended it by saying “Merry Christmas” (and variations on the theme) in what I read later was sixty-five different languages.

I think that this is a Christmas to remember.