Relics, the tombs of the popes, and seminaries

We started today with mass at St. Mary Major, where the relics of the crib of Christ are, as well as the tombs and relics of St. Jerome and St. Pius V, as well as the tombs of a half dozen other popes.  When we finished mass, we had a few hours before our class lecture so TJ and I tracked down the Church of St. Peter in Chains, which houses the tomb of Pope Julius II (who will never be a saint, riding out in golden armor to subject rebellious city isn't exactly saintly) as well as a pair of 1st century chains that are supposed to d from Acts 11.  They were a gift to Leo the Great from the Byzantine emperors, so this morning was full of relics that really should be in Israel.

The chapel of the manger.  The pope is one of the 19th century

Piouses (Piousi?)

The tomb of Julius II

After a lecture that turned into a discussion about what exactly evangelization is that devolved into a debate about whether there has ever actually been an ideal time period where the Gospel has been proclaimed with other motives (I took the con side), we visited the North American College for lunch.  It is really hard not to compare seminaries, but to be brief I liked their building more, but ours better because we have better community (simply because of logistics: we're 20% of their size, we all go to the same classes, and we all are from roughly the same geographical area).  But their view is amazing!

The view from the NAC.  Our main chapel is nicer though!

Following that, we had a holy hour and dinner with the Missionary Priests of Charity, which is affiliated with the Missionaries of Charity.  They do not have a nicer building, because they hold to the absolute poverty of the order, but they are far holier than we are.