Scala Sancta, Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and "Nennolina"

After our visit to the Lateran Basilica, we walked across the street to a neighboring structure which houses the Scala sancta, or "Holy Steps" - which, according to tradition, are the set of stairs brought back from Jerusalem by St. Helena along with the relics of the true Cross.  These stairs once led to the Praetorium of Pontius Pilate and would have been ascended by Our Lord in the course of his Passion.  They are twenty-eight marble stairs, encased in wood.  It is a common devotional practice for pilgrims to ascend them slowly on their knees, in a penitential sharing in the Lord's suffering.  At the top of the stairs is a chapel.  Most of the class completed this devotion today.

Deacons Steve Jones, Robert Abotzabire, and John Rutten ascend the Holy Steps

Isaiah 53:5, But he was pierced for our sins,

crushed for our iniquity.

He bore the punishment that makes us whole,

by his wounds we were healed.

Full shot of the Scala Sancta

 Following the Scala Sancta, we moved on to the nearby Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.  In a chapel here are kept several reliquaries containing pieces of the Holy Cross, spines from the Crown of Thorns, a part of one of the Nails, a fragment of the Good Thief's cross, and the finger of St. Thomas which touched the Risen Lord's wounds.  Photography was "not allowed" at the Basilica, so photos were taken hastily and clumsily - we apologize.

Exterior of the Basilica

Chapel of the Relics

Echoes of Good Friday: "Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Savior of the World, come let us adore."

Reliquaries containing the Passion relics

Lastly, the Basilica of S. Croce holds a more recent treasure: the body of the Servant of God Antonietta Meo.  Antonietta, or "Nennolina" as she was affectionately called, was a cheerful, pious, and indeed, saintly child who lived only to the age of six in pre-war Rome.  She was stricken with cancer and died in 1937, and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was her parish.  She had a great love for Jesus and wrote many mystical letters to God the Father, Jesus, Mary, and the Holy Spirit, among others.  Should her cause proceed to canonization, she would be the youngest canonized Saint in the history of the Church.  It was a great joy to pray at her grave today.