Friday, February 22, 2008

The Feast of the Chair of Peter

Some of the fun of being Catholic is having feastdays for pieces of furniture.


I went to the 5:00 Mass this evening at St. Peter's, which was celebrated at the "altar of the chair," which stands before Bernini's exquisitely over-the-top sculpture of the chair of Peter, symbol of his authority and the authority of his successors.
For this feastday, they cover the sculpture with candles; I was only able to get a blurry photo:

OK, so it's not really a feast day for a piece of furniture, but rather one that celebrates the role of Peter and his successors in strengthening the faithful, but the furniture does get a lot of attention.


The Mass was very nice, with music by Palestrina and large clouds of incense, which always makes me happy.


The famous statue of Peter by Arnulfo di Cambio (it's the one that everyone touches/kisses the foot of) was specially decked-out for the occasion.

--Fritz

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Photos continue to be really spectacular! Not much new here but more snow & cold. On my walks the last 2 days saw 5 dogs & 2 women ,none of them bit me. 2nd day 4 dogs 1 man 1 woman, none of them bit me. Peanut, Clayt has solved all the problems of the estate which you & I didn't know existed. No other big news Love to 1 & all Papa/Dad

Anonymous said...

From you accounts of visits to the markets I presume you are preparing most meals at home. But, have you investigated any of the local tratorria? I always found them the best and cheapest bet for wholesome and plentiful food in Italy -- of course the best of these in any locale have to be discovered or found by word of mouth.