A Holy Visit – Year 5 in Rome

Rome has long drawn pilgrims from all over the world since the times when the Romans embraced Christianity under the ruler Constantine. Our Year 5’s, along with Y5’s of St Helen’s and St Edward’s, travelled on the second week of Lent on the 2nd March to this exciting city full of such fantastic Christian history and heritage. Our main purpose was to visit the Pope as it has been for many years. This was the first time children have seen in person Pope Leo XIV. There was of course great excitement for the occasion, and we were not disappointed as the Pope made his way around St Peter’s square, much to the joy of the thousands of pilgrims from all around the world. He spoke to us all in many languages, including English, calling us all to share the peace and joy of Christ. In Rome we also visited the tombs of St Peter and St Paul as well as that of many other saints. We visited the four great basilicas of the world; St Pauls Outside the Walls, St Peter’s, St John Lateran and St Mary Major, three of which we celebrated Mass in with our own Fr Dan. On the Wednesday, following the papal audience, we went to the Venerable English College in Rome where we celebrated Mass along with pupils and staff of St Bonaventure’s, who were also on pilgrimage. On the Thursday we travelled to Assisi, in the middle of Italy, to visit the churches and relics of St Francis, St Claire and St Carlo Acutis. Assisi was choc-a-bloc with Franciscans from all over the world, visiting to mark the 800th anniversary of St Francis. The queue to visit St Francis relics was hours long, so we visited St Claire’s and St Caro Acutis only. We heard both their unique stories of how and why they became official saints of the church.

On the Friday we visited the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We toured around inside learning about how the Colosseum was created in the first place and how its usage changed over hundreds of years from an amphitheatre for gladiatorial battles and mock sea battles, to latter, becoming a great market place and a place to live and even a church. Although we were only in Rome for 5 days we visited over 12 churches, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Scala Sancta and even climbed to the top of St Peter’s dome. It was a remarkable trip never to be forgotten.