Chandlery, Peter Joseph; Gerard, John: Pilgrim-walks in Rome: a guide to the holy places in the city and its vicinity (New York: Fordham University Press, 1908)

viii PREFACE
life shone forth, and whose footsteps, as is but natural,
are nowhere else so thick as in what is fitly called the
Eternal City.
It is this more than any other feature that has during
so many centuries attracted to Rome crowds, who were
not merely students or sightseers, and who came not
merely to gaze and wonder, but in the hope of earning
for themselves some portion of the saintly spirit through
the example and intercession of those whose history is
the supreme monument of God’s grace and power.
And as it has been from the first days of Christianity,
so is it still in this twentieth century, when facilities of
travel make it easy for multitudes of Catholics to come
from the ends of the earth, for whom in no former age
could such a visit have been thought of as a possibility.
It is in the hope of helping those animated with
this pilgrim spirit, that these Pilgrim-Walks have been
prepared. .They are just what their title indicates, a
handbook for such as desire to know about the spots
which history, or even legend, marks as holy. During
a prolonged residence in Rome, it has been the author’s
object to collect all the information he could for the
benefit of others having no such opportunities, and while
he has endeavoured to guard the truth of history by
consulting the best authorities, he has thought it well
not to disregard traditions long and widely current,
merely because they are unconfirmed by such positive
evidence as will satisfy the demands of the higher critics.
It occurred to him that the best thing he could do for
his readers was—so far as possible—to place them in
his own position, by enabling them to see and hear for
themselves what he has seen and heard: and this he
has tried to do in the following pages.
John Gerard, S.J.

London, 1905.