Pentecost: The Gift of the Spirit

Pentecost (1308) by Duccio

One of the biggest feasts of the liturgical year, Pentecost commemorates the fulfillment of Christ's promise to send the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to the apostles to aid them in preaching the Gospel. Fifty days after Easter, with the full gift of the Spirit, the Twelve (including the newly chosen Matthias) were then fully equipped to proclaim the salvation that is Jesus Christ -- and indeed they immediately begin doing so, speaking in the native tongues of the "Parthians, Medes, Elamites" and many others.

The feast of Pentecost then has a missionary spirit about it. Having fully received the Advocate who enlightened them and reminded them of all that Christ had taught, the newborn Church now goes forth to fulfill its mission of evangelization to the world. It's indeed fitting then that Pentecost is often referred to as the birthday of the Church. I thought I'd pass along some words about the importance of Pentecost from one of my favorite Church Fathers, St. Irenaeus, taken from the second reading of today's Office of Readings (originally also from Book III of Irenaeus' Adversus Haereses). It's a bit long, but very good:

Luke says that the Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them the new covenant. So it was that men of every language joined in singing one song of praise to God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were offered to the Father as the first-fruits of all the nations.


This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of broad, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.

"The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God" came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which, according to his own words, "the devil too had been cast down like lightning."

If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an advocate as well. And so the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, having himself bound up his wounds and left for his care two coins bearing the royal image, entrusted him to the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, the image and inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty to use the coin committed to our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the Lord.

Maybe you can see why I love Irenaeus. Veni, Creator Spiritus....

St. Philip Neri and the Oratorians

Hello friends, sorry for the absence of late. My schoolwork has been a bit more time-consuming than I had thought it would be, and so while I'm still hoping to get up a post soon on my Easter travels (to France and Poland), it may not be as soon as I would like. We're in our final week of classes and my first exam is a week from tomorrow, so academics take a priority right now.

I did want to drop in though to share a bit about the saint whose feast the Church celebrates today, St. Philip Neri. Born in Florence in 1515, he came from nobility and was educated by the Dominicans. After working successfully as a businessman for a while under the employment of a wealthy uncle, Philip decided to turn down the offer to be his heir because he realized his deepest desires were not for worldly success or material comforts. In 1533, he moved to Rome where he continued his studies, also working as a tutor in the house of a nobleman. After about three years, however, he decided that he had learned enough, so he sold his books and gave the money to the poor. Although he never studied again, his theological knowledge was highly regarded even many years later.

It was at this time, at about the age of 20, that Philip began to devote himself to serving the poor and visiting the sick of Rome, a ministry which would later earn him the distinction "Apostle of Rome." He traversed the city to talk with anyone of any social class and share with them whatever he saw they needed at the moment -- joy, sorrow, counsel, kindness. He dropped in on the brothels nightly to encourage the prostitutes of the city to join him in praying at the local church or a nearby catacomb. He visited business districts, the homes of individuals, merchants' markets, the slums, all in the desire to share the love of God with others and to convince them of serving the Lord in their daily life. In addition to the poor, Philip often mingled with the city's nobility as well, but he himself lived a very simple, almost hermitic life. He combated the intense spiritual persecutions he suffered with long periods of prayer and fasting, though usually always in ways unknown to those around him. He became friends with St. Ignatius of Loyola and encouraged many to join his nascent Society of Jesus. Meanwhile, his own apostolates continued to spread and diversify. In 1548, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Trinity to minister to convalescents and pilgrims to Rome. In 1551, upon the advice of his spiritual director, he was ordained a priest. His priestly ministry was legendary in the city, especially in promoting the regular reception of the sacraments. In particular, his skill and piety as a confessor was renowned and he was said to have told many penitents the secret sins they had failed to confess.

Santa Maria in Vallicella, better known in Rome as Chiesa Nuova

In 1556, he began the meetings of the group for which he would become most famous, the Congregation of the Oratory. It began informally, a group of men or boys whom he had met and whom he gathered together for prayers, hymns, readings from the Bible or Church Fathers, and a lecture and discussion on some religious or pastoral topic. These groups multiplied around the city, the continent, and eventually the world, and the congregation was formally recognized by Pope Gregory XIII in 1575. The Oratorians continue to play an active role around the world today, most prominently here in Italy where the group began. They are involved in parish administration, campus ministry, teaching, work with the poor, and various other active ministries.

I had the chance today on the way back from class to pray in front of the tomb of Philip Neri, located at the Oratorian headquarters at the Chiesa Nuova ("New Church") here in Rome. He died in 1595 after several years of suffering and was canonized relatively quickly in 1622. He remains an inspiring model of active priestly ministry for those of us studying to be priests and a model of holiness and service to the poor and needy for all of us.

St. Philip Neri, pray for us!

Tennis Weekend

Lots going on at the Foro Italico when the Internazionali BNL d'Italia's in town

Those who know me know that I'm a big sports fan. I'll watch pretty much any sport and follow most of them closely. Over the past several years, I've become increasingly interested in and a fan of tennis, especially men's tennis. Sometimes described as like boxing from a distance, the sport's particular combination of skill, grace, athleticism, intelligence and intensity really appeals to me, and I have high admiration for the game and its players.

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a top flight international tournament, the Internazionali BNL d'Italia or the Rome Masters for short. Formerly called the Italian Open, it's one of the nine ATP Masters Series tournaments held each year throughout the world, the most prestigious tournaments after the four Grand Slams and mandatory events for the top players. The Rome Masters is held on a clay surface and is an important lead up to the French Open, the year's top clay event. It was my first time to attend an international tournament and I was quite impressed by the size of the event. It's quite the party -- thousands from around Europe come to watch some high quality tennis and experience the international atmosphere of the sport. There are a lot of fun events and promotions as well, with booths for sports equipment, charities, and the tournament's particular sponsors. It's also a magnet for the young amateurs of the local area and so it's usually easy to find a good match, sometimes a very good one, at some of the smaller and quieter courts.

What the Stadio dei Marmi looks like normally...

... and its transformation for the Rome Masters

The tournament is held a few miles up the Tiber from the NAC at the Foro Italico, built in 1938 and originally named the Foro Mussolini after the dictator of the day. In fact, it's the only place in Rome that you can still see the name of Il Duce as there was quite the backlash against him and his legacy after his fascist regime fell in 1943. It's been expunged everywhere else since Mussolini is often blamed for the virtual civil war that Italy descended into after the '43 armistice with the Allies, a war that didn't end in many ways until the end of the anni di piombo, the "years of lead" in the '70s and '80s marked by numerous terrorist activities. The Foro Italico is modeled after the famous forums of the Roman Empire but also retains the particular fascistic and rationalistic style of its age. It's home to many sports complexes and is the prime location for sporting events in the city of Rome and hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics. The complex's largest structure, the Stadio Olimpico, is the home of the Azzurri, Italy's national team, as well as the local club teams of A.S. Roma and S.S. Lazio. The Stadio Olimpico will also be the site of the 2009 Champions League final later this month.

The tennis itself was a blast to watch. We caught the quarterfinal match between qualifier Juan Monaco and Fernando Gonzalez on Friday evening, and then returned Saturday for the semifinal matches Roger Federer v. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal v. Fernando Gonzalez. Djokovic, the third seed, rallied to beat Federer to face the top-seeded Nadal in the finals on Sunday. It was no surprise that Nadal was there. He's the top player in the world and currently the defending champ of 3 of the 4 Grand Slams. Besides that, he's been the best clay court player in the world (and, some including me would say, of all time) for several years running. Sunday's victory over Djokovic gave Nadal a record 4th title at the Rome event, 30 straight victories on clay, and a lifetime record of 147-4 on the red stuff. As you might imagine, Rafa, as he's known, is pretty amazing to watch.

Rafael Nadal, in yellow, winding up for one of his lethal forehands in Sunday's final against Novak Djokovic

The semester is winding down here in Rome, and it's time to once again start prepping hard for final exams early next month. I'll do my best though to provide those updates on my Easter travels, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Saturday Sojourn: Tre Fontane

The Abbey to the left and Our Lady of Martyrs to the right. Between them is the path to St. Paul at the Three Fountains.

Thanks to all of you that have commented lately, either to say hello or to pass along Easter wishes. I'm glad you're enjoying the blog, and I hope you can keep reading! Sorry for the dearth of posts lately. It's been a busy week since returning from Poland, getting back into the swing of classes, formation meetings, visits with pilgrims, apostolate work, and all the other things that are part of the exciting life of a NAC seminarian.

On Saturday, I was able to travel with some of the other Little Rock guys to Tre Fontane, the site where, according to tradition, St. Paul was martyred about 65 AD. The final years of St. Paul's life are a little sketchy, but most sources agree he was arrested some time after his third missionary journey (to Ephesus, Macedonia, and Corinth), probably somewhere in Turkey. He was taken to Caesarea and imprisoned for several years there before appealing to be judged by the emperor Nero, a right he had as a Roman citizen. However, since Nero was the first emperor to actively persecute Christians and since he needed a group to blame for the fire that devastated Rome in 64 AD, and the fates of Paul and St. Peter (also imprisoned at the time in Rome) were effectively sealed. They were executed on or about the same day -- Peter, a non-Roman, by crucifixion in the Circus of Nero (part of which is now St. Peter's Basilica and Square) and Paul, as a Roman citizen, by the more humane method of beheading outside the city walls.

"The place of St. Paul, apostle and martyr, where three fountains marvelously sprang forth"

That site, located along the ancient Via Laurentina about three miles south of Rome's center, is today a quiet and prayerful place set amidst gardens and tall stone pines. The complex consists of three churches, each within a few yards of each other. The Abbey of the Three Fountains, officially the Abbey of Saints Vincent and Anastasius, is the newest of the three, dating from about the 7th century and built to house the monks who were to care for the two older churches. Our Lady of Martyrs was built atop the relics of St. Zeno of Rome and his 10,000+ legionaries who were executed on the order of Diocletian around the year 300. In the crypt of the church is an ancient Roman prison, the same one which is said to have held St. Paul in the years leading up to his death.

The third and most important church is St. Paul at the Three Fountains, the site of Paul's beheading. According to ancient legend, after the saint was decapitated, three fountains miraculously sprang up at the spots at which his head bounced three times. (There's some evidence that the springs pre-date Paul though, as the area might have been known as Aquae Salviae, "Sage Waters," even before St. Paul's death). Today, three small shrines are built along one side of the church wall, above each of the three fountains. It's a popular tourist and pilgrimage destination, especially now as the Church is preparing to wrap up the Year of St. Paul this summer.


For me, it was also a powerful reminder of both the costs and the rewards of being faithful to the Christian message. Paul has always been meaningful for me -- my middle name, the name of an uncle I never knew, the name of one of the three or four greatest saints of the Church and maybe its greatest example of conversion. As I matured to adulthood, St. Paul has been an inspiration and a model of the Christian ideal, a man who had such a powerful encounter with Christ that he radically changed his life. He became one of those believers whom he had previously been persecuting -- indeed, not just a believer, but the "Apostles to the Gentiles," revolutionizing the mission of the Church and spreading the Gospel across the Mediterranean. Looking into the cramped, dirt-floor cell where he had been imprisoned, with its tiny window looking out on the garden, I could almost hear Paul as he wrote to Timothy: "I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Tm 4:6-7). At the end of his great career, his work accomplished, he waited quietly for death and, through death, his reward in Christ. Though Paul is a famous example, we as Christians are called to respond with similar fidelity, teaching and proclaiming the truth of Jesus even unto death, indeed, embracing the Cross of Christ, for only through it do we participate in his Easter Resurrection.

That's your Rome wisdom for the day. Prayers for all of you as this Easter season continues! And check back soon to hear a bit about my recent travels to Poland and France earlier this month.

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope this holiest of days finds you and yours well and able to share in the joy and peace of the Risen Christ.

I'm back in Rome for a brief respite between trips. I had a great time in France (details to come) and was able to make it back for the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Peter's Basilica last night. And I'm looking forward to spending this coming week in the land of my mother's side of the family, southern Poland. In fact, although my family has some very experienced world travelers amongst us, I think I'll be the first to venture there, which is exciting. It will be my first trip into a country of the former Eastern Bloc, and I speak even less Polish than French, so it should be interesting to say the least.

I had hoped to write a short reflection on this central feast of our faith, but finding myself a bit short on time, I'll just link to the Holy Father's words from last night and this morning, which are much more profound than anything I can offer. As he says, it is because Christ's resurrection is not a fairy tale or a myth but indeed the truest of realities that sin is for all time conquered. Because of this, we his disciples, more truly his friends, are called to be witnesses and symbols of his new life and through his Spirit to "renew the face of the earth." O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which won for us so great a Redeemer!

Buona Pasqua, friends.

Christmas Travels: Amsterdam & Luxembourg

Hope everyone is finally getting to enjoy some nice spring weather as the calendar turns to April. It's warm and often wet now in Rome, and I'm reminded of how much I'll miss having air conditioning here in the early summer months as the heat and humidity continue to rise!

Aerial view of Amsterdam's canal system (and obviously not my picture).

To close my Christmas series, I wanted to recount two day trips that I made to places outside of Belgium, namely Amsterdam and Luxembourg. Starting with Amsterdam, I was a little unsure that I would be able to fit a visit to the city into a day trip since it's located 200+ km north of Leuven and a little more than three hours away by train. But, feeling adventurous, another seminarian and I decided to make the trek to the capital city of the Netherlands. (Interestingly, although Amsterdam is officially the capital of the Netherlands, the country's seat of government, the parliament, and the supreme court are all located in The Hague.)

Montelbaanstoren, a 16th century defensive tower

Amsterdam is the youngest major city in Europe and much younger than other Dutch cities like Rotterdam or Utrecht. The area around the city does not seem to have attracted much interest until the early 13th century, when local Dutch fishermen settled around (and took over) a castle of the Van Amstel dynasty, located on a dyke on the Amstel river. Hoping to create some secure and fertile farmland, the fishermen built a dam bridge near the spot where the Amstel emptied into the IJ, a section of the Zuiderzee or the large, shallow inlet of the North Sea which extends even today some 100 km from the coast to the city of Amsterdam. The village of Amstelledamme -- "dam on the Amstel" -- was soon recognized as an ideal trade location, and because it was exempted from local tariffs and taxes, it became a prominent member of both the Hanseatic League and the Confederation of Cologne in the mid-14th century. Also, in 1345, Amsterdam was the site of a Eucharistic miracle when a consecrated Host did not burn when cast into a fire, and the city became a major pilgrimage destination for northern Europe until the Reformation, adding to its prominence and prosperity. After gaining independence from Spain at the conclusion of the Eighty Years' War, Amsterdam became the richest city in the world in the 17th century, when it possessed the dual distinction of being both the world's financial headquarters and Europe's center for trade. Much of the reason for both came from the city's extraordinarily prosperous shipping corporations, most notably the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and the GWC (Dutch West India Company), as well as being the site of the world's first stock market. The success of the shipping industry helped the Netherlands become one of the major players in colonization, with important settlements in North and South America, Africa, and Asia.

The Royal Palace in Dam Square

Damrak street, which follows the original route of the Amstel from the dam to the IJ bay

In the modern era, the city has continued to thrive. The Amsterdam-Rhine Canal and the North Sea Canal were constructed in the 19th century to further facilitate trade access to the city, and the Zuiderzee Works in the early 20th century (most notably the Afsluitdijk, a 30 km causeway that protects the freshwater IJselmeer and the land around out) aimed to prevent flooding from the North Sea, drain and reclaim marshland, and provide hydraulic energy to the country . The canal system of the city itself is preserved in much the same way as when it was constructed in the 17th century, with a series of four concentric half-circle canals connecting at the ends to the IJ bay, Amsterdam's waterfront (the Amstel river has now been largely covered over). While originally built to spur residential development and for defensive purposes, the canals today add a distinctive flavor to the cultural identity of the city; practically everywhere you turn, you're running into a canal. It adds a nice charm to the town, often called the "Venice of the North."

Looking down a canal to the Waag, a medieval defensive fort

I found Amsterdam a really nice city to walk around in, probably because the canals limit the need and access of cars to the city's interior. Bicycles are the preferred means of transport, and I saw literally thousands of them as I walked along. The canal system of the city makes it a pleasant place to stroll around, and it also lends it a kind of picturesque uniformity that I appreciated. The city has a bustling but congenial air about it; I also found the people to be very friendly and, without exception, excellent at English. Most Belgians that we ran across could speak it well enough, but there was always some kind of accent there, but not with the Dutch; they spoke English better than most native English speakers, which makes sense considering they probably learned it correctly in school and from a young age.

The Postkantoor: once a post office, now a shopping mall

These impressions were a bit different from what I had expected, since as you may know, Amsterdam has a bit of a seedy reputation, primarily due to its famous red-light district and the abundance of coffee shops, where marijuana is legally bought and sold. We decided to take a walk through the red-light district in the morning, thinking that this would be the safest time to do so. It's located in the oldest part of the city, known as De Wallen (the quays), and is the nightlife part of town, with a lot of restaurants, clubs, and bars, as well as the more risque offerings. Although it was pretty dead in the morning, there wasn't much to interest us, so we moved on to the center of the city, or Dam Square, the original site of the dam from which the city gets its name. Dam Square links the streets Damrak and Rokin, which were built over the original course of the Amstel. The Royal Palace is located in the square and is one of four palaces in the Netherlands that its parliament has given to the monarch, currently Queen Beatrix.


The highlight of our visit to Amsterdam, albeit a sober one, was certainly 263 Prinsengracht, also known as the Anne Frank House. It was in this location, in a rowhouse on the Prinsengracht canal, just a block down from the Westerkerk, that Anne and her family (who were Jewish) hid for more than two years during World War II to avoid Nazi persecution. Originally from Frankfurt am Main, the Franks fled Germany in 1933 after the rise of the Nazi party and moved to Amsterdam, where Otto Frank ran a successful spice company. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Otto Frank, immediately realizing the danger his family was in, began constructing an Achterhuis (literally, "back house") or secret annex behind the business office of his company and above its main warehouse and production facility. In July 1942, the Franks and another family moved into the location, which was ideal due to its nondescript appearance and its concealment from the small quadrangle in the back of the house. The secret annex consisted of a total of four very small rooms on two floors connected by a ladder; its entrance was hidden behind a bookcase in the business office, and its windows to the outdoor quadrangle were blacked out with tarp. Although the company's workers were not aware of the family hiding above them, four of Otto Frank's business office employees did know of the family's situation and risked their lives by bringing food, supplies, and news of the war. The confinement was naturally difficult on everyone, especially Anne and her older sister Margot. Anne recounts much of the emotional suffering of their isolation in her moving diary, which she kept for the two years they were in hiding.

263-267 Prinsengracht. The Franks' original house is the one withe black front and just to the right of the red canopy, though the museum now includes the two buildings to its right as well. You can see the museum queue at the bottom right.

The bookcase, concealing the entrance to the Achterhuis

Sadly, the family was arrested in early August 1944 by the Gestapo after having been betrayed by an unidentified informer, possibly one of the company's warehouse men who somehow found or heard evidence of the Frank family above. The Franks were separated and transported to concentration camps in Germany, where all eventually died except for Otto, who survived and returned to Amsterdam in 1946. Several of the effects of the family were found, including Anne's diary, which Otto published in 1947. It became, of course, an international hit and helped to pay for the purchase and renovation of the old house which became the Anne Frank Museum, serving as both a memorial to the Franks' bravery and as a testimony to victims of the Holocaust. Indeed, the story of Anne Frank is in many ways a microcosm of the experience of Dutch Jews during World War II, which was the cause of deep division for the city's populace. Its Jewish community was wiped out, with more than 100,000 deported by the end of the war. While many non-Jews opposed such persecution and some, including the friends of the Frank family, actively opposed it, some 120,000 Dutch were prosecuted for complicity with the Nazis in the years following the war.

A memorial statue of Anne Frank, a block from her house in front of the Westerkerk

Walking through the annex was a very moving experience. To stand in the tiny rooms of the annex or to see the blackened windows preventing sight from the quadrangle, I understood in a new way Anne's deep desire to play outside after more than two years of confinement, as she wrote in her journal. To see the desk on which she composed her diary, and to see the diary itself, gave me a new insight into the beautiful spirit of this young girl who captured her own thoughts and dreams so memorably before her tragic fate. The whole complex stands not only as a memorial to her and her family; not only as a stark reminder of the evils wrought by fear, prejudice, and hatred; but also a symbol of the human spirit, the power of which is not vanquished by adversity and the memory of which is not extinquished by death. This is the lesson I learned from visiting Anne Frank's house, and I can't imagine a better way to have spent my afternoon in Amsterdam.

* * *

Our final day trip was to Luxembourg, one of Europe's smallest countries and the richest in the world, based on GDP per capita. After another lengthy train ride, we arrived in the capital of Luxembourg (City) on the coldest and clearest day of our two weeks in the Low Countries. Like Amsterdam, Luxembourg is a great city for those who like to stroll around and, due to its unique topography, is one of the most interesting cities in Europe.

Luxembourg, from the Adolphe Bridge

Luxembourg's Grund district, from Judiciary City

The city is situated on an outcropping between two gorges, formed by the confluence of the Alzette and Petrusse rivers. A Roman fortress was located here, and the two Roman roads which it joined were probably used as trade routes in early medieval times. In 963, the surrounding lands were given to Siegfried, count of the Ardennes, who built his castle Lucilinburhuc ("little castle") on the Bock, a large sandstone cliff above the gorges. The town of Luxembourg slowly grew around this castle, and soon fortifications for the town were needed, as its location and unique geography made it both a highly desirable and highly exposed position. By the 16th century, its tiered walls and strong fortifications made it one of the strongest fortresses in Europe, and Luxembourg became a major military stronghold for more than a dozen different groups in the next 300 years. The Spanish added, and the French expanded, a series of casemates in the walls and cliffs of the city, further adding to its reputation as the "Gibraltar of the North."

The Bock, looking up from the Grund

The Grand Ducal Palace

In 1867, the Luxembourg Crisis nearly led France and Prussia to war over a dispute over who owned the city's fortifications, and as a result, Luxembourg's neutrality was decided by the Treaty of London and its fortifications were dismantled. In the late 19th century, the country became officially independent and remains today the only sovereign Grand Duchy in the world. Despite its neutrality, Luxembourg was occupied by German forces in both World Wars I & II, and as a result, it ended its neutral status. Since then, it has played a prominent role in European politics, and the city has served as the headquarters for many supranational bodies that prefigured the European Union, including the influential European Coal and Steel Community.

Today Luxembourg has retained its importance in the region, serving as the headquarters for the secretariat of the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice, the European Investment Bank. Because of these bodies, the city is in general a center for international banking and diplomacy; it is the second largest investment fund center in the world (after the U.S.) and is the biggest private banking and reinsurance center in Europe. Luxembourg is also well known for its major media and communications corporations, including Radio Luxembourg, the RTL Group, and SES.

The Adolphe Bridge

Walking along the wall of the Ville Haute quarter

Luxembourg has a complex geography; it is constructed on several different layers because of its rocky terrain and spreads down into two deep valleys which flank the city center. We crossed into the old part of the city across the Adolphe Bridge and walked around the Saturday market before stopping for a cup of gourmet hot chocolate (it was bitterly cold). We saw the changing of the guard at the Grand Ducal Palace and then visited St. Michael's Church, located along Fishmarket street in the heart of the Ville Haute quarter, the oldest part of the city. St. Michael's was a nice and quiet place for a little prayer, which makes sense as it was the oldest religious site in the city, built in the late 10th century as the castle chapel for Siegfried.

Looking down into the Grund from the Ville Haute, with the Bock to the left and Neumünster Abbey to the right

Looking up to the Ville Haute from the Grund

From there, we visited the ruins of Luxembourg Castle on the Bock and walked along the gorge to Judiciary City, the seat of Luxembourg's judicial buildings. After descending via elevator, we walked through the Grund, the quarter of the city located in the Alzette gorge, following the river to Neumünster Abbey, a medieval Benedictine monastery that has been transformed into a cultural center and meeting place. Before leaving Luxembourg, we returned to the upper part of town to visit the Notre-Dame Cathedral, originally built as a Jesuit church but elevated to the diocesan cathedral by Pope Pius IX in 1870. That all may sound like a lot but actually Luxembourg is not at all a large city and can be easily seen in a day. Its interesting geography and large number of parks and public spaces made it a really enjoyable visit, and despite the cold, it was probably my favorite stop of the trip.

From the train station - beautiful, no?

So, that wraps up the account of my 2008 Christmas travels. Though long delayed, hopefully they were interesting -- I certainly enjoyed going back through them and writing about them. Be sure to stop by soon for more travel news. Starting tomorrow, we get two weeks off for Holy Week and Easter, and I'll be making some more viaggi through southern France, Lourdes, and Poland. Hopefully it won't take me three months to write a little about each of them. :)

Christmas Travels: Ghent & Brussels

As I wrote in my last post, I'm doing a very long overdue recap on the travels to the Low Countries last Christmas, and I started with a bit about Belgium and the town that we stayed in, Leuven. While that was our home base, we did make some trips to other towns in Belgium as well.

Leuven was our base, and we made trips into Brussels and Ghent.

Brussels' Grote Markt

Foremost among these was a trip to the capital itself, Brussels. Because its metropolitan area is a kind of hybrid border region between Flanders and Wallonia, and thus essentially multicultural and multilingual, Brussels is one of the most cosmopolitan cities of Europe. Not founded until the 10th century, it came onto the scene later than most of the other cities in the region, and grew slowly from a fortress and chapel that housed the relics of St. Gudula to an important hub on the trade routes between Ghent, Cologne, and Bruges. This economic importance eventually made it the effective capital of the Low Countries and thus an important stronghold of the Holy Roman Empire. Upon the latter's disintegration and eventual dissolution, Brussels and its surrounding area fell under the control of France and eventually Napoleon's forces, though in 1830, the Belgian Revolution began there. In the 20th century, it played an important role in international politics, housing the headquarters of NATO and the European Union, making it the effective capital city of the EU.

Some of Brussels' fine dining options, just off the Grote Markt

Brussels is a city of contrasts. While parts of it are beautiful, especially around the medieval Grote Markt, I found it as a whole to be rather ugly (although, admittedly, it's perhaps unfair to compare it with the charm of, say, Rome or Paris). Historically Catholic (though now non-practicing), modern Brussels has one of the largest and most influential Muslim populations in Europe. And while it has important historical and cultural importance for traditional Europe, more than half of Brussels' populations is of foreign origin. Yet, despite this, more of Brussels' immigrant population has acquired full Belgian citizenship than has the migrant population of any other major European city. It's an interesting and diverse place, to be sure.

St. Michael & St. Gudula Cathedral

St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, named after the patron saints of the city, was quite impressive. Originally constructed in the Romanesque style in the 11th century, it was refurnished about 300 hundred years later in the high Gothic style. Its façade and interior were some of the better examples of that kind of architecture that I've seen, at least since my first trip to Europe in 2003. The cathedral is renowned for its ideal acoustics, and as luck would have it, we just so happened to visit in the middle of a Christmas children's concert, which featured some excellent vocal work and musicianship by the local youngsters. With the otherworldly harmonies of children's voices and with the church decked out in its Christmas best, it was a nice place to pause and appreciate the Christmas spirit.

Brussels' town hall

Some of the guild halls

The King's House

From the cathedral, our group made its way to the heart of the city, the medieval Grote Markt, or central square, which features another outstanding stadhuis (town hall) as well as the various guild halls of Brussels. In the medieval guild system, these halls were the centers for the associations of merchants, laborers, or craftsmen for particular industries, e.g. bakers, tailors, shipbuilders, grocers, etc. The guilds controlled labor (much like modern unions) as well as trade and production (like cartels) and even apprenticeship and skills, often operating as exclusive or secret societies. Granted charters by the ruler of the area, guilds controlled the business for their particular wares, from the raw materials to the finished product, and protected their monopolies by force if necessary. The guild houses of Brussels are probably the most famous in the world and representative of the opulence and importance they had in their time. The halls themselves became symbolic of their respective guilds, and they took on colorful names as a result, e.g. House of the Swan, the Golden Tree, the Mountain of Tabor, the She-Wolf. In addition to being the economic center of the city, the Grote Markt also housed government and administrative buildings, and even a royal house, should the royalty decide to visit.

The rest of our time in Brussels was spent walking around the city. We saw the famous Manneken Pis statue, walked through the Kunstberg (Hill of the Arts) and then walked up the Coudenberg hill to the Palace of Coudenberg and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, though unable to visit the latter. We only had a day there, so we weren't able to make it to all of the place we would have liked, including the Royal Palace and the European Quarter, that part of the city that houses the EU's base of operations. As I'm sure will be the case with many of the places I'll visit, I hope to make it back there in the future to see more.

We also visited the Royal Galleries of Saint-Hubert, one of the older covered galleries in Europe, which functions as more or less an up-scale mall. It had some amazing chocolate shops, whose wares we delightfully sampled. Brussels is famous for having some of the finest cuisine in Europe, ranking among Paris and Barcelona in this regard, and certainly the finest of the world-famous Belgian chocolates are found there. The country is also very well known for its waffles, as you probably know, and we sampled several of these as well. The Brussels waffle is lighter, crispier, and usually rectangular, while the also-common Liege waffle is richer, heavier, chewier, and often comes in a more rounded shape. I preferred the latter, but both were excellent. They also come with a variety of toppings; I liked mine with just some powdered sugar on top, but most people enjoy theirs with chocolate, fruit, or slagroom -- whipped cream.

A fine chocolate shop in the Saint-Hubert Galleries

And, of course, any discussion of Belgian food would be incomplete without mentioning their superb beer. Though major corporations like InBev mass produce standard, relatively bland lagers, the traditional Belgian brews are among the most diverse in the world. There are more than a dozen standard types, with some 500 commonly produced beers in the country. Many of the best beers though come from the smaller of the 125 or so breweries in the country; altogether, there are more than 8000 Belgian beers available throughout the year. Each of these has its own glass, and it's very bad form to drink a Belgian beer in any glass other than its own. Don't even think about drinking it out of the bottle, and as far as Belgians are concerned, there's no such thing as beer from a can. Most agree that the very best Belgian beers are still the Trappist beers, those brews that are made entirely by Trappist monks on the site of their monastery and only as a means to remain monks rather than for profit. Only seven breweries still meet this qualification. Of the ones I tried, the Westvleteren beers (especially the "12") were the very best. Apparently, I'm not alone, as the Westvleteren 12 has been rated "The Best Beer in the World" by at least two beer connoisseur websites. Considering that, I feel privileged to have tried it!

* * *

Although Brussels was nice, I enjoyed even more my trip to Ghent, located about 60 km northwest of Brussels and 90 km west-northwest of Leuven. Although still a major Belgian city, Ghent is much quieter today than it used to be. In the Middle Ages, it was one of the largest, richest, and most important cities in Europe.

A memorial to Jacob van Artevelde, with St. Jacob Church in the back right

A little more history, if you're interested. The oldest human settlement at the confluence of the Scheldt and Lys rivers can be dated to the Stone Age. There is evidence that the Romans had fortresses in the area, and the Franks drove out the native Celts from the region of Ghent around the 5th century AD, but the city was not really founded until the early 7th century, when St. Amand founded two abbeys in the area. Due to this monastic presence and the trade opportunities that existed by virtue of the Scheldt and Lys, Ghent began to grow rapidly. It attracted continual attention from the Viking invaders and was plundered twice in the 9th century. It recovered well, however, and soon became the dominant city of the region for trade, especially for English wool, and it was the European capital for the cloth industry. Because of its very advantageous economic partnership with England, Ghent and the rest of Flanders enjoyed good relations with the English. This often led to divisions within the medieval society, as the Flemish merchant class often sided with the English when wars arose, in subordination of and to the great consternation of their French lords. The most famous example of this was during the Hundred Years' War, when the local weaving magnate Jacob van Artevelde organized Flemish towns against the Count of Flanders (who was supporting France against England) in an effort to preserve the economic relationship between England and Flanders.

Enjoying Liege waffles in front of Ghent's belfry

St. Nicholas Church

The city suffered after the unsuccessful Revolt of Ghent in 1539, a reaction to higher taxes (used mostly to fund wars in Italy) placed on Ghent and the rest of Flanders by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain. In the 16th and 17th century, too, Ghent continued to decline due to the religious wars of the time, and it passed hands several times between Calvinist and Catholic rulers. As a result of this upheaval, Ghent's importance as an international center for trade largely ended, although it recovered some of its regional influence in the 18th and 19th century with a revived (and mechanized) cloth industry. More significant to our history, the city was the site of the official end to the War of 1812 when the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 18, 1814. However, news of the treaty didn't reach the U.S. until February 1815, several weeks after the Americans' decisive victory at the Battle of New Orleans.

St. Bavo Cathedral, and its Christmas market

Ghent is one of the most beautiful medieval cities I've been to, with a lot of surviving medieval architecture and a well-preserved central historical part to the city (sans automobiles). We tried to gain access to the impressive Gravensteen castle, but despite several brave attempts at breaching its walls, we were repulsed by fearsome city tourism officials. Ghent has several massive, magnificent Gothic churches in the city center, most of which are very close to each other. St. Jacob Church, St. Michael Church, and St. Nicholas Church are all within a few blocks of each other. The town belfry also dominates the city's skyline. Probably the most impressive structure though is St. Bavo Cathedral, just up the road from the belfry and St. Nicholas. Its single tower façade is, in a word, awesome; it has become a symbol of Ghent and its people in modern times.

The Ghent Altarpiece, closed...

The cathedral is most famous, however, for housing the Ghent Altarpiece, formally known as The Adoration of the Lamb by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, completed in 1432. It's one of the most famous northern Renaissance works, specifically in the Early Netherlandish style, and one of the largest of the time, measuring some 12 feet tall and 17 feet wide when open. The Ghent Altarpiece was commissioned by a wealthy merchant and his wife for the altar of the parish church St. John the Baptist, which would later become St. Bavo Cathedral when the city became its own diocese about a century later. Most historians agree that Hubert van Eyck originated the design and began the work on it and that his younger brother Jan (who would become the more famous artist in time) completed it after his death. The polyptych has 24 compartmented scenes, each of them painstakingly designed and most of them highly symbolic. As a whole, it is a visual depiction of the Christian theology of the salvation of humanity by God.

... and open

It can be displayed two ways, either open or closed. Closed, it shows a fairly sober depiction of Gabriel's Annunciation to Mary as well as a scene of the patrons of the piece in prayer in front of statues of Sts. John the Evangelist and John the Baptist. When opened, however, it displays a vibrant heavenly scene of Christ as the Lamb of God being adored by angels, saints, martyrs, Old Testament prophets, and more, as described in Revelation 7:9-12 Above the scene, the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist flank a divine figure whose specific identity is still much debated. He displays qualities of both God the Father and Christ as King, and most art authorities today believe the figure represents some amalgamation of both and thus is a depiction of the Trinity itself as one. Upon completion, it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece and was highly revered; Napoleon, for example, thought so highly of it that he dismantled it and moved it to the Louvre Palace in Paris. The altarpiece remained closed most of the time and was only opened on Sundays, feast days, and during the Easter season. It would have been especially striking during Mass, as the Agnus Dei prayer was said immediately prior to receiving the Eucharist: "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us." The Ghent Altarpiece is undoubtedly one of the most stunning pieces of art, especially religious art, that I have ever seen. If you ever find yourself in Ghent, do NOT miss it.

The Graslei at dusk

Before leaving Ghent, we walked by the guild houses along the Graslei and Koornlei in the old harbor district of the city, and sampled some of the local beer. It was a delightful city to visit, especially at Christmas-time, and I hope to make it back there in the future. In the last installment of this little series of mine, I'll recap some travels to Amsterdam and Luxembourg.

Christmas Travels: Leuven

Leuven's Grote Markt or central square

I know, I know -- Christmas travels in March? Yes, it's way late and probably a bit too late now, but I still wanted to write a little bit about the trip I made to the Low Countries over Christmas break. I was there about ten days total, most of that time spent in Belgium, with about equal parts sight-seeing and relaxing. While I love to travel and explore, it was also necessary to mentally relax and rest up, as well as appropriately celebrate Christmas. I'll spare you the details of the latter activities -- it mostly consisted of eating good Belgian food, drinking good Belgian beer, watching American movies at the seminary, and sleeping in. Rather than try to tell you about the whole trip together, I decided to break it down into several posts, so although it's much belated, I hope this little series will at least give you a taste of what these countries are like.

The home base for the trip was the American College -- besides the NAC, the only other American seminary in Europe. The NAC and the American College have a nice exchange program where the students of each can stay at the other for free; it allows us to cheaply visit Belgium once in a while, and their students can do the same for Rome. The American College is located in Leuven, Belgium, about 30 km east of Brussels. Leuven is the capital of the province Flemish Brabant and one of the more important cultural centers in the Flemish part of the country. Interestingly, it's also the international home to the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, which made headlines in the States a few years back for buying out Anheuser-Busch. Belgium, as you may know, has only existed as a united country since 1830, when the southern provinces of the United Kingdom of Netherlands seceded and declared their independence. Today, the country remains culturally and linguistically diverse mainly because it was artificially comprised of sections of older cultural territories, most notably parts of Flemish-speaking (and mainly Catholic) Flanders in the north and east of the country and French-speaking (and mainly Protestant) Wallonia in the south and west. Since the cultural differences between Flemings, Walloons, and other groups that make up the country run deep and memories are long, relations between them have not always been peachy.

NAC men enjoying various Belgian delights

The world-renowned K.U. Leuven library

Modern-day Leuven is a testimony to this tension. Leuven has long been a university town, originally the home of the Catholic University of Leuven, founded in 1425 and the oldest university in the Low Countries. The university's language for most of its history was Latin, but after being refounded in the late 19th century, the modern languages of French and Dutch (a dialect of which, Flemish, is spoken in Flanders) were allowed. Due to the strength of French cultural influence at the time, however, French culture, French viewpoints, and the French language became the effective standard for the university, much to the displeasure of the still largely Flemish student body. In 1968, after much rancorous debate and student demonstrations, the university decided to split into two, with the Dutch-speaking contingent remaining in Leuven as the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the French-speaking part of the university becoming the Université catholique de Louvain and moving to Louvain-la-Neuve, a planned city about 30 km to the south. The modern K.U. Leuven has over 30,000 students (more than a third of the town) and is a major force both in Flemish culture and in the larger world of European academia. It houses, for example, one of the best university libraries in the world and is a major research university with more than a dozen major disciplines and faculties.

Leuven's historical and cultural influence in northern Europe extends back to medieval times. Originally settled in the mid-800s by Vikings, the area was taken later that century by Arnulf of Carinthia, the King of East Francia and soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor. It became an especially important city in the 11th century as it was the major industrial center and effective capital of the Duchy of Brabant, well-known especially for its very fine linen. By the mid-14th century, Brussels had become the premiere city of the area and Leuven, in an attempt to assert its independence from the area's aristocracy, reorganized itself to make the guilds a powerful rival to the town's rich families. Leuven slowly transitioned from a center of industry to a center of learning after the founding of its university in the early 15th century, with famous scholars such as Desiderius Erasmus, Cornelius Jansen, Gerardus Mercator and Andreas Vesalius all spending some time there.

The impressive town hall, or stadhuis

The medieval beguinage, now university housing

In modern times, the town was heavily damaged during both World Wars, although remarkably the exquisite stadhuis, or town hall, escaped such harm, as did other medieval buildings. Today the town is well-known for its friendly and youthful population as well as for some of the best medieval architecture in the area. Besides the town hall, a highlight of this is the quite well-preserved beguinage, the housing of the Beguines, a semi-monastic community of lay women who flourished for a time in the Low Countries during the Middle Ages but later ran afoul of the Church because of their questionable theology and uncertain existence between consecrated and unconsecrated life. Today, the beguinage serves as housing for the university.

Interestingly, the town is also home to the relics of Blessed Damien of Molokai, a 19th century Belgian priest who ministered to lepers on the island of Molokai in Hawaii. Desiring to be a priest and missionary from a young age, Damien left his homeland to serve as such in Hawaii. Responding to a pastoral need recognized by his superiors, Fr. Damien volunteered to minister to the leper community in Kalawao County, Molokai, Hawaii, which had been quarantined there by King Kamehameha V. He served there for more than 15 years, building churches and homes and helping to establish a sense of hope and pride in the community, before dying of leprosy himself in 1889. He is considered a "martyr of charity," and is known as the Apostle to the Lepers as well as the patron of lepers, HIV and AIDS patients, and outcasts. He will be canonized a saint here in Rome on October 11 of this year.


So, that's it for Leuven. In the next installment of this series, I'll write a bit about the places we visited in Belgium.