Virtual Tour of the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

Last week I took part in an East Coast road trip, visiting historical sites and shrines.  My travels took me to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC on the campus of the Catholic University of America. Below is a virtual tour of the Basilica including the many altars in the crypt, the statues, the museum quality artifacts, and the Church.

 

Tiara is from Paul VI and the stole was worn by John XXIII at the beginning session of Vatican II

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Virtual Tour: National Shrine of St. John Neumann

Please excuse the delay in recent posts as I have been traveling across much of the country this past week.  I was able to stop by the National Shrine of St. John Neumann, at which I shrine I saw the body of St. Neumann. 

Below is a series of photographs from that Shrine:

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St. Pantaleon

Simple (1955 Calendar): July 27

St. Pantaleon is numbered in the West among the late-medieval Fourteen Holy Helpers and in the East as one of the Holy Unmercenary Healers.  He was a martyr of Nicomedia in Bithynia during the Diocletian persecution of 303 AD.

Taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Martyr, died about 305. According to legend he was the son of a rich pagan, Eustorgius of Nicomedia, and had been instructed in Christianity by his Christian mother, Eubula. Afterwards he became estranged from Christianity. He studied medicine and became physician to the Emperor Maximinianus. He was won back to Christianity by the priest Hermolaus. Upon the death of his father he came into possession of a large fortune. Envious colleagues denounced him to the emperor during the Diocletian persecution. The emperor wished to save him and sought to persuade him to apostasy. Pantaleon, however, openly confessed his faith, and as proof that Christ is the true God, he healed a paralytic. Notwithstanding this, he was condemned to death by the emperor, who regarded the miracle as an exhibition of magic.

According to legend, Pantaleon's flesh was first burned with torches; upon this Christ appeared to all in the form of Hermolaus to strengthen and heal Pantaleon. The torches were extinguished. After this, when a bath of liquid lead was prepared, Christ in the same form stepped into the cauldron with him, the fire went out and the lead became cold. He was now thrown into the sea, but the stone with which he was loaded floated. He was thrown to the wild beasts but these fawned upon him and could not be forced away until he had blessed them. He was bound on the wheel, but the ropes snapped, and the wheel broke. An attempt was made to behead him, but the sword bent, and the executioners were converted. Pantaleon implored heaven to forgive them, for which reason he also received the name of Panteleemon (the all-compassionate). It was not until he himself desired it that it was possible to behead him.

The lives containing these legendary features are all late in date and valueless. Yet the fact of the martyrdom itself seems to be proved by a veneration for which there is early testimony, among others from Theodoret (Graecarum affectionum curatio, Sermo VIII, "De martyribus", in Migne, P.G., LXXXIII 1033), Procopius of Caesarea (De aedificiis Justiniani I, ix; V, ix), and the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (Acta SS., Nov., II, 1, 97). Pantaleon is venerated in the East as a great martyr and wonderworker. In the Middle Ages he came to be regarded as the patron saint of physicians and midwives, and became one of the fourteen guardian martyrs. From early times a phial containing some of his blood has been preserved at Constantinople. On the feast day of the saint the blood is said to become fluid and to bubble. Relics of the saint are to be found at St. Denis at Paris; his head is venerated at Lyons. His feast day is 27 July, also 28 July, and 18 February.

Source: Löffler, K. (1911). St. Pantaleon. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved July 25, 2013 from New Advent.

Collect:

O Almighty God, through the intercession of Your blessed martyr Pantaleon, shield us from bodily harm and purify our minds from evil thoughts. Through our Lord . . .

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Feast of St. Apollinaris

Double (1955 Calendar): July 23

One of the first great martyrs of the church. He was made Bishop of Ravenna by St. Peter himself. The miracles he wrought there soon attracted official attention, for they and his preaching won many converts to the Faith, while at the same time bringing upon him the fury of the idolaters, who beat him cruelly and drove him from the city. He was found half dead on the seashore, and kept in concealment by the Christians, but was captured again and compelled to walk on burning coals and a second time expelled. But he remained in the vicinity, and continued his work of evangelization.

We find him then journeying in the province of Aemilia. A third time he returned to Ravenna. Again he was captured, hacked with knives, had scalding water poured over his wounds, was beaten in the mouth with stones because he persisted in preaching, and then, loaded with chains, was flung into a horrible dungeon to starve to death; but after four days he was put on board ship and sent to Greece. There the same course of preachings, and miracles, and sufferings continued; and when his very presence caused the oracles to be silent, he was, after a cruel beating, sent back to Italy. All this continued for three years, and a fourth time he returned to Ravenna.

By this time Vespasian was Emperor, and he, in answer to the complaints of the pagans, issued a decree of banishment against the Christians. Apollinaris was kept concealed for some time, but as he was passing out of the gates of the city, was set upon and savagely beaten, probably at Classis, a suburb, but he lived for seven days, foretelling meantime that the persecutions would increase, but that the Church would ultimately triumph. It is not certain what was his native place, though it was probably Antioch. He is believed to be one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ.

Prayer: 

O God, the Rewarder of faithful souls, who hast consecrated this day by the martyrdom of blessed Apollinaris, Thy priest; we beseech Thee: grant to us Thy servants, that the prayer of him whose holy festival we are keeping may obtain for us the forgiveness of our sins. Through... 

Source: Campbell, T. (1907). St. Apollinaris. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved July 23, 2013 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01616a.htm

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