The festive season in Rome has begun, writes Matteo Ciofi
December 8, long associated in the Irish mind with country people coming to the city for Christmas shopping, has a special significance for Italy in general and Rome in particular.
The feast day, which celebrates the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the last Italian public holiday before Christmas and marks the beginning of Christmas celebrations. The feast day is an important moment to arrange and decorate the family Christmas tree and nativity scene. Traditionally, Italians stay at home on December 8 rather than go shopping to make preparations for the coming celebration of Christmas.
December 8 this year also saw the lights on the enormous Vatican Christmas tree in St Peter’s Square illuminated. Hailing from Waldmuenchen, in Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s native Germany, the 25 metre tree stands tall, dwarfed only slightly by the 4,400 year old Egyptian obelisk of red granite at the centre of the square.
The Immaculate Conception is of a Church dogma promulgated by Pope Pius IX in 1854 through the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus. The dogma holds that, from the moment of her conception, the Virgin Mary was preserved from original sin so that she was, from the very first moment of her being, filled with the sanctifying grace normally conferred by the Sacrament of Baptism.
Roman tradition
This feast day is a major celebration in Italy, and it is now a Roman tradition on December 8 that the Pope goes to the Piazza di Spagna in the city centre just near the landmark Spanish Steps. There the Pope prays before the Column of the Immaculate Conception which was dedicated on December 9, 1857, just three years after the solemn definition of the dogma. The column of Cipollino marble, 11.8 metres high, was designed by architect Luigi Poletti with the statue of the Blessed Virgin on top sculpted by Giuseppe Obici.
It was Pope Francis’ first visit since his election earlier this year. The Argentine Pontiff was welcomed by thousands of people and received a gift of a chalice from local shopkeepers in the affluent shopping district surrounding the piazza.
“Never be indifferent to the cry of the poor, the sick, the elderly, of children, and every human life,” the Pope told the gathering of Romans and visitors to the city.
Renewed desire
Seeking the intercession of Our Lady, the Pope prayed that Mary would help “awaken in us a renewed desire for holiness,” and to “make present all of the Gospel’s beauty” in our lives. He went on to ask Mary’s intercession in helping Christians remain attentive to the Lord’s voice.
Blessed Pope John XXIII, who will be canonised along with Blessed Pope John Paul II next year, was the first Pontiff to go to Piazza di Spagna to venerate the statue in 1958 when he placed a basket of white roses at the base of the monument.
After the celebrations at Piazza di Spagna, Pope Francis made the short trip through the centre of Rome to the Basilica of St Mary Major where he prayed privately before the image of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani (Protectress of the Roman People).
