Highlights from the cultural world of Rome
Dr Andreas Rehberg (DHI) will give a lecture at 17.30 in the Casa delle Letterature (Piazza dell'Orologio, 3) on the topic: ‘In cerca di una nuova patria. Destini su ‘pietra’ dei germanici nella Roma del XV e del primo XVI secolo’. Rehberg draws heavily on examples from the Campo Santo Teutonico (and the indispensable edition by Albrecht Weiland).
For decades, the North American College (NAC) has been organising daily services at 7 a.m. during Lent in the various ancient churches of Rome. The Stations of the Cross have been part of the typical Roman liturgy since the early Middle Ages and were only removed from the missal during the liturgical reform. However, they still exist in Roman practice.
The Catholic Academy of Bavaria is organising a conference on the concordats of the Holy See with Bavaria on 21/22 March at Casa Santa Maria (guest house of the Archdiocese of Munich). The speakers will be Ferdinand Müller, Katharina Weigand, Jörg Zedler and Florian Heinritzi.
By Ignacio García Lascurain Bernstorff
Holy years are currently a welcome occasion to organise exhibitions in Rome. Although it was the newly elected Julius III Del Monte (r. 1550-1555) who opened the Holy Door on 24 February 1550, the concept of the Jubilee Year and even its appeal go back to his immediate predecessor Paul III Farnese (r. 1534-1549). The reconstruction of the Capitoline Square for the Holy Year 1550 by none other than Michelangelo is the opening theme of a ‘small but fine’ exhibition in Palazzo Caffarelli (which is actually called Villa Caffarelli).
A few months ago, Paul Badde and Stefan Heid spoke in the former dining room of Campo Santo Teutonico (now Charlemagne's Hall) about the ‘Hero of Campo Santo’, the Irish curia employee Hugh O'Flaherty, who helped countless Jews to escape from the Nazis in 1943/44. EWTN has now made a film about it.
By Nikolas Möller
Until 28 February 2025, you can visit an exhibition on early Christianity in Jordan at the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome. In fact, it is worth bearing in mind that there were also sites of the New Testament in Jordan - for example the baptism of Christ in the Jordan, which is thought to have taken place in Al-Maghtas. The subtitle of the exhibition proudly reads: ‘Jordan: Dawn of Christianity’.
From 17 to 19 March, the Villa Massimo in Rome will host a wide-ranging conference on modern German medieval studies, which is likely to rekindle interest in the subject. Participants include the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and the DHI. Speakers include Martin Baumeister, Tobias Daniels and Klaus Herbers.
In an interview with Athinea Andryszczak from k-TV, Stefan Heid from the Santa Maria dell'Anima College gives a historical context to the Holy Year 2025.
A few days before the start of the Holy Year 2025, a new museum tour was opened in the papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The Polo Museale Liberiano, under the direction of Dr Andreas Raub, consultant for art history at the RIGG, has thus undergone an impressive expansion and renewal.
On 10 December, the joint celebration of the Pontifical Commission for Christian Archaeology and the Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the ‘Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana’ took place in the Palace of the Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology (via Napoleone III, 1).
Römisches Institut der Görres-Gesellschaft
