Tea at Trianon: Secret Chapel at the Colosseum

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Secret Chapel at the Colosseum

From Aleteia:

In 1622, the structure, known as Madonna of Piety, was acquired by the Confraternity of the Gonfalone, a group of laymen whose obligations included caring for the elderly and the sick, providing medical care for those who could not afford to pay for it and paying dowries to women who did not come from wealthy families. A hermit monk was appointed by the Confraternity as the church’s caretaker, making him the sole resident of the most famous ancient building in Rome.
In the 17th century talks of the construction of a far bigger, Baroque-style church designed by Pope-appointed architect Gianlorenzo Bernini were eventually set aside and the Madonna of Piety remained the only Catholic building within the Colosseum.
In the 1870s, the entire Colosseum, including the chapel, was taken over by the Italian State and archeological investigations began. The chapel thus stopped serving its purpose as a place of worship. But in 1936, the chapel, which is home to a marble bas-relief of the Virgin Mary, was taken over by a Rome-based congregation that takes care of it to this day. Saint Peter’s Circle, a Vatican-affiliated organization of laymen dedicated to helping the poor and the suffering, still manages the shrine today. A rettore (priest in charge) is periodically appointed by the local diocese and Mass is celebrated here every Saturday and Sunday. (Read more.)