Station Church of the Day: San Lorenzo in Panisperna

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone!  Today is also a special day for Italians.  150 years ago, Italy became unified to the country it is today.  To mark the occasion, Italians have gone crazy with hanging Italian flags from their windows, decorating buildings with green, red, and white lights, and are also marking the occasion with many festivities throughout the country.  This is the closest thing that Italy has to our “Independence Day,” but this is the first time they have ever really celebrated the date with much fanfare.  To give you an idea of the magnitude of the celebration, instead of all of the street vendors selling umbrellas and fake watches, they were also selling Italian flags.  Good for them!

All of the universities were closed today to mark the celebration, so it was a free day.  I went to Mass this morning at St. Lawrence in Panisperna, the Station Church of the Day.  If you don’t know what the Station Churches are, look at one of the previous posts or look it up on Wikipedia.  It is a pretty cool tradition within the Church.  The church was small for the amount of people that squeezed in there, but it was amazing to celebrate Mass over the spot where St. Lawrence was martyred by being roasted alive on a grill.  The grill can still be seen in the Crypt of the church.  My father’s name is Larry, which is a derivation of Lawrence, so… “Happy ‘Station Church Feast Day’, Dad!”

After the Mass, I ate a nice breakfast with my two diocesan brothers at McDonald’s.  Unfortunately, they don’t have a breakfast menu, so I ate a Big Mac Meal at 8am.  What a wonderful way to start the day!  After breakfast, I walked to the Church of St. Peter in Chains (St. Pietro in Vincoli) for the first time and saw the chains that bound St. Peter while he was imprisoned in Rome.  The church is also famous for the statue of Moses, sculpted by Michelangelo.

After leaving the church, I started wondering around and stumbles upon the Coliseum.  I took a few pictures, but the seasonal rain began and within moments, sheets or rain were being dumped upon the city.  I barely made it into the Metro station before I was completely soaked.  It was a great morning to relax and spend some time in the Eternal City.