Roman Forum, Colosseum, and Basilica of S. Clemente

Class beneath the Arch of Titus, Roman Forum

This morning we enjoyed a wonderful tour with American art historian Dr. Elizabeth Lev, who teaches at Duquesne University's Rome program, as well as the Rome program of the University of St. Thomas.  We visited the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and the Basilica of St. Clement (where, unfortunately, photography is not allowed).  Perhaps the best part of the tour was Dr. Lev's refutation of the popular assertion that no Christians were killed in the Colosseum.  She explained that the Christians who were martyred at the Colosseum (where bloodsport occurred for some 450 years) would have died anonymously.  The real heroism of their martyrdom took place at their trials, which is why there are no Christian accounts which explicitly record the Colosseum as the place of their deaths.  What is certain is that those guilty of treason were killed there, and that Christians were among that number.  Thus it is right to claim the Colosseum as a martyrium, as the Church has done for centuries. 

Roman Forum

Deacon BEN HADRICH, Diocese of Duluth, asks Dr. Lev an insightful question.

Dr. Lev explains the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in the Roman Forum

Manuel Gomez-Reza and Deacon Peter Akudugu leaving the Roman Forum and walking toward the Colosseum

In the Flavian Amphitheater (Colosseum)

Dr. Lev demolishing the erroneous revisionist-history assertion that Christians were not killed in the Colosseum

The bronze Cross erected in the Colosseum by Bl. John Paul II in the Jubilee Year of 2000.  Since the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, the Popes have traditionally led the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum on Good Friday each year.