The Powers family tradition

Today was a very full day for the deacon class.  We started the day with mass at the altar of St. Sebastian, which has the body of Pope St. John Paul II.  Following that, we had a classroom session, followed by a scavi tour.

The scavi are the ruins of the 1-3rd century graveyard that was filled in to make the Constantine basilica, which was then replaced by the current structure.  Unfortunately since there are still people buried there and very delicate frescos (in your best Italian accent) No Photo!

After the tour through the ruins, which includes the highlight of seeing the Tomb of St. Peter and a quick dash through the grottos where most of the people who have funeral monuments in the upper church are actually buried, we met with Cardinal Comastri, the archpriest of St. Peter's.  Following that we had a meeting with the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, and Cardinal Turkson stopped in to say hello and gave us about 20 minutes of his time.

Tomorrow we are off for our one and only class field trip to Montefiascone, where we will be staying overnight with the Institute of the Incarnate Word.  We are unsure if we will have wi-fi, so tomorrow there may not be a new post.

My final consideration for the evening is of St. Peter's itself. As you can guess, the building is full of the funeral monuments of popes, but there are 4 monuments to 6 non-popes in the Basilica (thus the title, we Powers tend to visit graveyards).  The first is of St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, and he has his own altar, so he's not exactly out of place.  The other 3 are more touching in my opinion.  One is to Queen Christina of Sweden, one to the Stuart who should have been James the III of England and his two sons, and the final to James's wife.  These people lost their thrones because they refused to abandon the Catholic faith when doing so would have earned them vast political power and wealth.  It would make sense that they are remember with the Popes for their great witness.

Altar of John Chrysostom 

Queen Christina's monument 

The grave of the Royal Stuarts, or as the English know them,

 the old and young pretenders and the Cardinal duke of York.