DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71133#0019
INTRODUCTION.
Petrarch speaks, in one of his letters, of the fervour
with which he visited Rome during the Jubilee of 1350,
of the deep religious impression produced upon him by
its sanctuaries; an impression which did not stop short
at barren emotion, but bore fruit in the amendment of
his life.1 He speaks also of the necessity of visiting
these sanctuaries devotions Catholica, in a Catholic spirit
of devotion, and not curiositate poetica, with the curiosity
of poets or artists, and adds: “ However delightful
intellectual pursuits may be, they are as nothing unless
they tend to the one great end.”2
In another beautiful passage he says : “ How well it
is for the Christian soul to behold the city which is
like a heaven on earth, full of the sacred bones and
relics of the martyrs, and bedewed with the precious
blood of those witnesses for truth; to look upon the
image of our Saviour, venerable to all the world;3 to
mark the footprints in the solid stone, for ever worthy
of the worship of the nations ;4 to roam at will from
tomb to tomb rich with the memories of the Saints; to
wander at random through the basilicas of the Apostles,
with no other company than good thoughts.”5
Blessed Peter Canisius, S.J., writing in 1575, on the
1 Thurston, S.J., Holy Year of Jubilee, p. 139.
2 Epist. de Rebus Famil. XII. 7.
3 The Volto Santo, or Veil of Veronica, preserved at St. Peter’s.
4 He probably refers to the impression of our Lord’s feet left in
the stone, when He appeared to St. Peter near the little oratory
known as Domine, quo vadis ? (Thurston, Ibid.).
B Epist. de Rebus Famil. II. 9.
Petrarch speaks, in one of his letters, of the fervour
with which he visited Rome during the Jubilee of 1350,
of the deep religious impression produced upon him by
its sanctuaries; an impression which did not stop short
at barren emotion, but bore fruit in the amendment of
his life.1 He speaks also of the necessity of visiting
these sanctuaries devotions Catholica, in a Catholic spirit
of devotion, and not curiositate poetica, with the curiosity
of poets or artists, and adds: “ However delightful
intellectual pursuits may be, they are as nothing unless
they tend to the one great end.”2
In another beautiful passage he says : “ How well it
is for the Christian soul to behold the city which is
like a heaven on earth, full of the sacred bones and
relics of the martyrs, and bedewed with the precious
blood of those witnesses for truth; to look upon the
image of our Saviour, venerable to all the world;3 to
mark the footprints in the solid stone, for ever worthy
of the worship of the nations ;4 to roam at will from
tomb to tomb rich with the memories of the Saints; to
wander at random through the basilicas of the Apostles,
with no other company than good thoughts.”5
Blessed Peter Canisius, S.J., writing in 1575, on the
1 Thurston, S.J., Holy Year of Jubilee, p. 139.
2 Epist. de Rebus Famil. XII. 7.
3 The Volto Santo, or Veil of Veronica, preserved at St. Peter’s.
4 He probably refers to the impression of our Lord’s feet left in
the stone, when He appeared to St. Peter near the little oratory
known as Domine, quo vadis ? (Thurston, Ibid.).
B Epist. de Rebus Famil. II. 9.