2012-04-13 12:50:06

The living stones of Aquileia ...


A year ago more or less, it was Saturday 7th May 2011, Pope Benedict XVI left the Vatican, for a week-end visit to Aquileia and Venice.

Veronica Scarisbrick shines the spotlight on the lesser know of these cities, Aquileia. An ancient city located in north eastern Italy.

Not just because it’s a year since the Pope visited, but because on the 13th May, right until the 15th the Second Ecclesial Assembly of Aquileia is taking place there and in the nearby city of Grado.

When the Holy Father was in Aquileia last year he attended the Preparatory Assembly for this event in the Basilica there. The first Assembly was held there in 1990.

On this occasion he highlighted the pivotal role of the ancient Church of Aquileia in the evangelisation of Central Europe :
" It is appropriate that you wanted your Ecclesial Convention to take place in the Mother Church of Aquileia, from which the Churches of the North East of Italy have germinated, but also the Churches of Slovenia and Austria and some Croatian and Bavarian and even Hungarian churches. .."
Naturally the Pope spoke too of the future of the region, of the mission of the North East where Christians have to face new challenges:
“ … Coming back to Aquileia means above all learning from the glorious Church which generated you, how to commit yourselves today, in a world which is radically changed, to a renewed evangelisation of your area, and how to hand down to future generations the precious heritage of our Christian faith.”
While there Benedict XVI also spoke of this meeting as : “ a significant return to the “roots” in order to rediscover the living “stones” of the spiritual building that has its foundation in Christ and its extension in the most eloquent witnesses of the Aquileian Church: Sts Hermagoras and Fortunatus, Hilary and Tatian, Chrysogonus, Valerian and Chromatius.
Veronica places Aquileia on the map before stepping back in time with an archaeologist who has a particular expertise in the stones of Aquileia ; specifically the body of inscriptions which witness to Aquileia's Christian heritage.
She's Katherine McDonnell who teaches Roman Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles in the United States.
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