Days 53-55: Assisi

I'm not going to be able to blog about this quite yet, but I will when I get back from my free ten day in England and Ireland, so I will come back to this blog post later. I also have to blog about a hiking trip in Switzerland I did the weekend after ten day in Rome and Assisi, so I will also get to that after my free ten-day. So, until then, TO BE CONTINUED. ;-) Thank you for your patience.

Days #47-48: Siena, Italy

This past Monday night I returned from my ten-day break traveling around Italy. The school sponsored a trip to Rome and Assisi, and gave us a little bit of time before and after to do some traveling, so I went to Siena, Venice, and Padua as well. There is so much to say about all of these places, and so little time, so I will attempt to limit myself to just some of the highlights of the trip.

I went to Siena with my household sisters as our traditional household pilgrimage, as St. Catherine of Siena is one of our patron saints. Siena I must say is one of the most beautiful cities to which I have been over this entire semester. The winding cobblestone streets, the terra cotta brick buildings, the beautiful Tuscan countryside. The hostel we stayed at was next door to the house where she grew up and lived. The hostel was one of the nicest ones I have stayed in - albeit it was not cheap - but it was full of images of St. Catherine! It was as if we had fallen into her sweet embrace, she was leading us and guiding us through her earthly home. The hostel smelled like my paternal grandmother’s house - my grandmother died this past summer - this also gave it a very comforting feel. 

In her house we saw the cell where she had lived and prayed, a chapel which contained the crucifix that had given her the stigmata. The chapel was my favorite part. There was a little Italian Dominican sister doing a holy hour in the church when we arrived. As we were praying I caught her eye and she smiled at me. I cherished that smile. We also went to St. Dominic’s church where she would have gone to Mass and been exposed to the Dominican spirituality. There was a painting of her saying the Liturgy of the Hours with Christ walking next to her. There was also a side chapel where her head is venerated. The chapel was covered with beautiful frescos of her life, including one of Bl. Raymond of Capua, a Dominican and one of her confessors and close friends. We had a good day there as a household, had dinner together, exchanged stories, browsed the little shops, finished the night with Lord’s Day and leaving a voice mail for our sisters back in the U.S. The next day we spent the morning wandering the streets of Siena. We wanted to check out the cathedral but it didn’t open until later when we had to be heading to the bus to catch our train. That was a shame, as I had read that the cathedral has four organs and I would have appreciated seeing them here in Siena. But it wasn’t meant to be. We also returned to St. Dominic’s, where we met up with some other Franciscan students who had also gone to Bologna, the burial place of St. Dominic. I didn’t get to speak to them, but we prayed in front of the side chapel. I was glad for the chance to pray a rosary and pray Morning Prayer in the church, two distinctly Dominican prayers : St. Dominic promoted the praying of the Rosary, and St. Catherine was a devout prayer of the Divine Office. Later though, we met up in Rome and my friend Hannah, who was in the group who went to Bologna, came up to me. I had been praying my rosary next to her in St. Dominic’s. She said that she had felt like we had had an entire conversation even though we had not said a word to each other. We left later in the morning to make our way to Rome to join up with the rest of the school.

Day #35: Poland, Krakow

Today we went on a tour of Krakow, went to Mass at the Dominican Church, and went to the Divine Mercy Shrine. Last night we went exploring around Krakow and got some Polish hot chocolate! So good! The whipped cream isn't sweet here in Europe. It was similar to the hot chocolate to that in Vienna, like drinking a melted chocolate bar.

Yum!

Part of Wawel Castle

This morning I learned that my friend Elisabeth Hofer was meeting her spiritual director, a Dominican sister, and going to Mass at the Dominican church here in Krakow. Elisabeth also mentioned something about Polish Dominican church. I immediately knew I had to try to find a way to get to this church for Mass. So at breakfast I enlisted Craig Brummer, one of the prethes, and Mark Daniel from our choir to come with me. We decided to go to the noon Mass after the morning tour of Krakow. 

More of Wawel Castle

Krakow is one of the greatest cities in Poland. It was the setting for the novel by Eric P. Kelly, The Trumpeter of Krakow, which is centered around the true story of the trumpeter in the tower of the Church of Our Lady Mary. According to the story, during the middle ages, the trumpeter was slain by an arrow from an enemy bow in the middle of warning the city of the enemy's arrival on his trumpet. He was in the middle of playing a note of the melody when he was slain by an arrow in his throat, so to this day the trumpeter of Krakow only plays the melody up to that note when he trumpets the hour, in honor of his predecessor.

The door to Wawel Cathedral. See the bones hanging on the left wall? Those are dragon bones!!! ;-)

Wawel Cathedral from a distance

The dragon by the river and Wawel Castle

Krakow is also the bishop's seat in Poland, or the seat of one of the bishops anyway. John Paul II lived here for several years, first with his father, studying at the university, then as a priest, and as bishop. The bishop's cathedral is called Wawel Cathedral and is part of the Wawel Castle, the royal castle. Our tour began with the Wawel Castle. By the castle walls bordering the river we could see the statue of a large dragon who ever so often would breath large tongues of fire. We saw a little bit of the castle's exterior, then we went inside the cathedral. The cathedral was the coronation site and the burial ground for many of the Polish royalty and saints. The chief saint for which the cathedral is named is St. Stanislaus, the first saint of Poland. They had tombs around the cathedral similar to that of King Elessar in the flash forward in The Two Towers, with the deceased's full body laid out on top as if asleep and arrayed in all his splendor. My favorite tomb was that of Queen St. Jadwiga, who was also a saint. She was so beautiful in her sleep of death - I wish I had had a drawing pad on me to sketch her. Josh and I both appreciated her tomb very much. It was intriguing to see the cathedral, since parts of it were familiar from watching the John Paul II movie on the bus, such as the big black crucifix donated by St. Jadwiga located at the back of the church. John Paul II is seen praying in front of the crucifix at one point in the movie. 

The park around Old Krakow

The Church of Our Lady Mary in Krakow's main square

After the cathedral we saw a little more of the castle, the university where Karol went to school until the Nazis came, the bishop's palace which was converted into a museum for John Paul II. We saw the window where he used to address the people of Krakow. We also saw the Franciscan church here in Krakow - we would see the Dominican one on our own time. There was also a church to St. Peter and Paul - apparently Krakow has a lot of churches, so many in fact that it is called the second Rome. Not because Krakow is that big, but I think the normal building to church ratio is similar perhaps. We finished in the main square of Krakow where the tour guide told us about St. Mary's and the trumpeter of Krakow. At the end of the tour I got to meet Elisabeth's friend the Polish Dominican sister. It turns out she studied at Franciscan so our TOR sisters knew her. 

The piano in honor of Chopin! (I'm not sure if it was Chopin's actual piano...

I saw this along the walls outside of Old Krakow as we were walking through the park to the Dominican church!

Craig, Mark Daniel and I went to Mass at the Dominican church after shopping a little at the mall. On the way to the mall we went through the park that surrounds the old city of Krakow : the moat that surrounded Krakow was filled in and converted into a park. In the park was what appeared to be a smashed piano in a glass case, with Chopin's music coming from a couple of speakers nearby. There were advertisements for a Chopin concert around the square. The piece they were playing was the same one Cameron Carpenter the American organist plays on the organ with unbelievable skill on the pedal board. Demonstration: Chopin on the Organ

Polish Dominicans saying afternoon prayer!

This was my favorite part of the Dominican church: The Good Shepherd carved on one of the confessionals.

Mass at the Dominican Church was lovely! We did get to hear them chant, though I wouldn't call it full-scale. I got to hear them play the organ, which was lovely. I think the organist may have played a Bach chorale prelude, or some Baroque composer anyway. I'm so glad I've taken music history! After Mass we got to explore the church and watch the Dominican friars say afternoon prayer! That was so cool! They bowed at the Glory Be! There was a shrine to St. Dominic up a flight of stairs. Near the main entrance were two side chapels to St. Catherine of Siena, one of her holding the child Jesus, the other of her receiving the stigmata. I prayed my household prayer in front of the latter chapel.

When we finished in the church we did some souvenir shopping, then boarded the bus for the Divine Mercy Shrine. When we got to the shrine, it felt like being back on main campus to look at the architecture of the shrine itself. The church looked like a space station. I heard a rumor that it was built to look like a cruise ship. Why one would build a church with that in mind is beyond me. But regardless, the actual chapel for the sisters was very beautiful and much more traditional. We went into the chapel to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The chaplet was prayed in Polish alternating with decades in English and French. After the chaplet I venerated the relics of St. Faustina, kept on a side altar in the church. There was perpetual adoration at the church so there were no photos allowed. We were given a talk on the life of St. Faustina and on devotion to the Divine Mercy by one of the sisters. After the talk we had a brief time to go make our purchases at the book store then we had Mass. 

The Divine Mercy Shrine

Inside the shrine

The Divine Mercy chapel for the convent. 

During the chaplet in the chapel, I kept getting musical ideas for a cantata or a song cycle for our Poland pilgrimage, centered around Psalms, Our Lady, and the Divine Mercy devotion. I hope to realize it one day!