Highlights from the cultural world of Rome
Deadline: 21 March
From 16-22 June, the Netherlands Institute in Rome is hosting a summer school on the topic of ‘Schools in Transition: Situated learning, Discipline and Monasticism in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages’.
The third edition of the book on the Christian catacombs of Rome, edited by Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai, Fabrizio Bisconti and Danilo Mazzoleni in collaboration with the Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra and published by Schnell und Steiner, is now available in four languages. It will be presented at the German Archaeological Institute on 24 March.
On a trip to Rome organised by MYRIAM Tours in March, the Irish Hugh O'Flaherty Memorial Society visited many of the sites where the courageous priest O'Flaherty worked during his time in Rome, including the German cemetery, as he lived in the Priests' College from 1938 to 1947. All participants had already read the booklet published in English by Schnell und Steiner about his exciting life story and were well informed. The reason for the trip was the 100th anniversary of O'Flaherty's ordination to the priesthood.
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.
Römisches Institut der Görres-Gesellschaft
