Day 21 - Tuesday, 3rd Week of Lent - St. Pudenziana

It is easier to appreciate just how sunken it is, in relation to the street in this photo.  You can see pilgrims descending the stairs in front of the church.

Apse Mosaic

By Welleschik - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0" title="Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6835165">Link</a>

But at the moment, it was Wednesday, of the first full week of Lent.  We attended the  Station Church of the day, Santa Maria Maggiore on the Esquiline Hill, for the stational Mass (remember pilgrims, we were at Santa Maria Maggiore last Wednesday).   After Mass, a few of the stranded seminarians from the Pontifical North American College asked if they could tag along with us for the day,  so we enjoyed a light breakfast with them at an expresso bar, and then walked the few blocks to St Pudenziana.  We descended the stairs from the street above, down into what appeared to be a sunken courtyard, and found the church open.  There were no docents, no priests, no guides, no religious, and almost no one else but ourselves.   It was eerie walking through the unguarded and semi-lit nave with no one else around, almost as if we had slipped back through time within those ancient walls.  Some of the pilgrims were eager to move on, but I was on a mission - I had been told that the altar on which St Peter had celebrated Mass was preserved in this place.   

One by one, the others dropped out of the search until only a very tall seminarian named Levi from Louisiana and I were still exploring.   My information told me that the St Peter altar was in the far rear of the church at the end of the left aisle, but I could not find a way to get there.  I stepped down finally into what appeared to be the entrance to the crypt, only to be stopped by a locked gate.  I shook the gate gently in the event that the lock was not fast.  No luck.  I tried to reach through, but i could not make my hand assume the correct angle.  Suddenly I heard Levi who had come to my side, say, "I think I can reach over!"  In a moment we were through the gate, and into the gloom of the crypt. While it had been eerie in the church, now it seemed downright spooky, even macabre.  

Our flashlight made shadows dance before us, and revealed what appeared to be years of dust and rubble. Only faint light from the outside filtered in, enough to create ghostly silhouettes of the tombs and monuments.  We stumbled forward.  Finally we wound our way to the far left rear of the crypt in what had been the oldest part of the building.  There we saw on the walls of a small chapel, 2 plaques written in Latin.  You can see them in the photos below.  Neither Levi nor I was by any stretch of the imagination fluent in Latin, but we bumbled our way through enough to understand that we were being informed that St Peter had received hospitality in this house, and St Peter had offered the Body and Blood of the Lord on the remains of a table preserved within the altar.  We had found it!

The altar contains a part of the table at which Saint Peter held the celebration of the Eucharist in the house of Saint Pudens - St. Peter chapel  

Tomorrow we will spend the day with Pope St Sixtus, Deacon Lawrence's mentor, at the church of St Sixtus on the Appian Way.  He was revered by the ancient & medieval saints, and his intercession was frequently sought.  He is a powerful friend.  It will be our joy to make his acquaintance.