Church of Domine Quo Vadis

Started by Vetus Ordo, January 29, 2019, 05:24:48 PM

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Vetus Ordo



I've been to this small and quaint church on the Appian Way back in 2010. Has any of you been there?

It has an interesting history that is based on the famous legend of the Quo Vadis present in the Acts of Peter.

QuoteThe Church of St Mary in Palmis (Italian: Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Piante, Latin: Sanctae Mariae in Palmis), better known as Church of Domine Quo Vadis, is a small church southeast of Rome, central Italy. It is located about some 800 m from Porta San Sebastiano, where the Via Ardeatina branches off the Appian Way, on the site where, according to the apocryphal Acts of Peter, Saint Peter met Jesus while the former was fleeing persecution in Rome. According to the legend, Peter asked Jesus, "Lord, where are you going?" (Latin: Domine, quo vadis?). Jesus answered, "I am going to Rome to be crucified again" (Latin: Eo Romam iterum crucifigi).

History

There has been a sanctuary on the spot since the ninth century, but the current church is from 1637. The current façade was added in the 17th century.

It has been supposed that the sanctuary might have been even more ancient, perhaps a Christian adaptation of some already existing temple: the church is in fact located just in front of the sacred campus dedicated to Rediculus, the Roman "God of the Return". This campus hosted a sanctuary for the cult of the deity that received devotion by travellers before their departure, especially by those who were going to face long and dangerous journeys to far places like Egypt, Greece or the East. Those travellers who returned also stopped to thank the god for the happy outcome of their journey.

The presence of the Apostle Peter in this area, where he is supposed to have lived, appears to be confirmed in an epigraph in the Catacombs of Saint Sebastian that reads Domus Petri (English: House of Peter). An epigram by Pope Damasus I (366–384) in honor of Peter and Paul reads: "You that are looking for the names of Peter and Paul, you must know that the saints have lived here."

The two footprints on a marble slab at the center of the church — nowadays a copy of the original, which is kept in the nearby Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura — are popularly held to be a miraculous sign left by Jesus. It is to these footprints that the official name of the church alludes: palmis refers to the soles of Jesus' feet. It is likely that these footprints are actually the draft of an ancient Roman "ex voto", a tribute paid to the gods for the good outcome of a journey.



(Footprints in marble, said to be those of Jesus Christ, preserved in the Church of Domine Quo Vadis.)

There was an inscription above the front door on the church's façade which used to say: "Stop your walking, traveller, and enter this sacred temple in which you will find the footprint of our Lord Jesus Christ when He met with St. Peter who escaped from the prison. An alms for the wax and the oil is recommended in order to free some spirits from Purgatory." Pope Gregory XVI found the advertising tone of this inscription so inappropriate that he ordered its removal in 1845.

There is also a modern column with a bust of Henryk Sienkiewicz, the Polish author of the famous historical fiction novel Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero (1886). It is said that Sienkiewicz was inspired to write his novel while sitting in this church.

The church is currently administered by priests of the Congregation of Saint Michael the Archangel.
DISPOSE OUR DAYS IN THY PEACE, AND COMMAND US TO BE DELIVERED FROM ETERNAL DAMNATION, AND TO BE NUMBERED IN THE FLOCK OF THINE ELECT.

MilesChristi

I was there on my last trip to Rome. I made it a mission (which I completed) to see the Seven Pilgrim Churches and this one.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
    And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Vetus Ordo

Quote from: MilesChristi on January 29, 2019, 11:36:11 PM
I was there on my last trip to Rome. I made it a mission (which I completed) to see the Seven Pilgrim Churches and this one.

Actually, I did that pilgrimage too with a SSPX priest, Fr. Chad if I recall his name correctly, and some laity of Rome back then.

We stopped at the Quo Vadis Church before taking our lunch break at the Catacombs of St. Callixtus. It was a lovely experience.
DISPOSE OUR DAYS IN THY PEACE, AND COMMAND US TO BE DELIVERED FROM ETERNAL DAMNATION, AND TO BE NUMBERED IN THE FLOCK OF THINE ELECT.

joe17

Was able to visit it on a couple of pilgrimmages, the last being in 2010 as well. If doable, get to Rome while there are still things to see.