On Sunday, 29 June, Rome celebrates Saints Peter and Paul, patron saints of the city and founders of the new Christian Rome, with a series of widespread initiatives, including religious celebrations, cultural events and secular traditions, transforming some of the most iconic sites of the capital into a stage of spirituality and beauty that tells a thousand-year history.
This year's events include the 10.30 a.m. Solemnity Mass in the Basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyres, the Pantheon of Rome, described as "the most beautiful relic of ancient Rome, a temple so well preserved that it appears as the Romans must have seen it in their times" by the French writer Stendhal. The evocative religious celebration is accompanied by the Chorus of the Basilica and the Salvo D'Acquisto Chorus.
Not to be missed is the traditional "Girandola di Castel Sant'Angelo", one of the most loved historical events by Romans and tourists, which, this year, reaches its 18th edition: the event, which has its roots in 1481, illuminates the Roman night, offering an extraordinary fireworks display from the Lungotevere Tor di Nona and the Vittorio Emanuele II, Sant'Angelo and Umberto I Bridges.
Among the most ancient of the liturgical year, the feast of the two saints, who have always had great significance for Rome, was particularly rich and scenic. Among the rites still celebrated today are the ‘pallium’, the white wool stole that the pontiff gives to some bishops as a symbol of the union between the universal and local churches, the kissing of the foot of the bronze statue of St. Peter, adorned for the occasion with the red sacred vestment in the shape of a cloak, the procession accompanying the chain of St. Paul, a relic of 14 iron rings kept at the Ostiense basilica, and the historic “infiorata” flower carpet on Via della Conciliazione, with natural paintings composed by more than a thousand master florists.
The programme is being finalised.
Photo Pixabay
Informations
Condividi
