What a long day! And wet.
Tour today, though wet, was wonderful. So blessed to see Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the famous portrait of St. John Neumann in one church. And just the story of Santa Maria Maggiore was beautiful.*
Met Corinne at St. Peter's after tour and walked to Santa Croce, her college - with a stop at the Polish market. Homeland! And 40 cent coffee!
Studied for hours, but had a really long, really interesting conversation with Corinne when we broke from work. It was a relief to just "chill," a sort of productive down time. I chipped away at my presentation. I am so nervous.
Mr. Assaf gave us a ride back to the villa. And now, more work.
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*From the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia: "During the pontificate of Liberius, the Roman patrician John and his wife, who were without heirs, made a vow to donate their possessions to the Virgin Mary. They prayed that she might make known to them how they were to dispose of their property in her honour. On 5 August, at the height of the Roman summer, snow fell during the night on the summit of the Esquiline Hill. In obedience to a vision of the Virgin Mary which they had the same night, the couple built a basilica in honour of Mary on the very spot which was covered with snow. From the fact that no mention whatever is made of this alleged miracle until a few hundred years later, not even by Sixtus III in his eight-line dedicatory inscription ... it would seem that the legend has no historical basis."
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