End of an Era

Our homilist this morning noted that this was the last of our Masses in the Station Churches this year, as Lent draws to a close. Tomorrow we have the morning Chrism Mass at Saint Peter's, and then the Triduum starts in the evening with the Mass of the Lord's Supper at Saint John Lateran's.

Our final station church is one already familiar to us from our forty day trek. One of the four major basilicas of Rome, Saint Mary Major's is also happily the closest to my residence. The clouds were illuminated brilliantly as we hiked up to the church, whose piazza was already well populated by pigeons when we arrived.

Having returned from Aviano the day before, I had been away for Monday and Tuesday's Station Masses. Mary Major already showed signs of preparation for the Triduum, with chairs set up through the nave, and the massive Easter Candle resting in the sacristy.




The diameter of this candle is about six inches--the length over six feet.





















Resting in the sacristy, the massive Easter Candle.







A rare occurrence: a mosaic on the outside of a church. This is over the main entrance of the basilica:



















Below is the ceiling of the Baptist Church:













Wait, not the Baptist Church; the Baptistry inside the church.





And finally, just to give a different perspective than our earlier visits, the nave of the basilica as seen through the baldechino of the main altar: