15. It’s not easy being a saint

Rest day Bolsena

There is a lot going on in this picture. You have the altar of Santa Cristina with the four pillars. The grey stone facing you has two footprints which are said to be the Saint’s, imprinted in the stone which was tied to her neck when she was thrown in the river by her father when she professed her Christian faith at 11 years of age.( She survived this and many other torments before being beheaded). She has been venerated as a virgin martyr since the fourth century. It is disputed whether she is actually buried in the tomb found nearby, but that has not stopped it being a place of pilgrimage since that time, including a visit by Sigeric the Serious in 990. To add to the layers of difficult-to-get-your-head-around, the grotto or catacombs where she may be buried were also a place of worship of Apollo by the Romans.

The altar is found in the Chapel of the Corpus Christi which is found inside the much bigger Basilica and is the site of the miracle of the Corpus Christi. This occurred in 1263 when a priest, Peter of Prague, had a crisis of faith. He pilgrimaged to Rome and visited the tomb of St Peter. On his journey home he stopped at the then Chapel of Santa Cristina. During communion he asked for another sign from God and the consecrated host (bread or wafer) bled into the cloth below it. This altar is said to be the site of that miracle.

The art on the walls dates back to these times and the bloke on the back wall is uncannily like the symbol used to represent the via Francigena pilgrim on our walk. All fascinating stuff, and even more fascinatingly, still worshiped despite there being no evidence that any of this stuff happened. Such are the mysteries of faith and I am not going to be arrogant enough to criticise what other people chose to believe. Part of a pilgrimage is surely to keep one’s mind open and think on the human condition and the reasons faith has existed as long as mankind.

No answers for you yet, sorry :)

A rest day in Bolsena is highly recommended. We are tired so had a doing nothing morning and then explored the town. The lake is rich in fish so we found a cafe serving fresh Coregone. No disappointment there: a richly flavoured white flesh served with a salsa verde. We found ourselves talking philosophy as Grant is in the middle of a book on the history of philosophers. They, as a discipline, were ruined for me by Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but I do appreciate how important they have been in forming thought in so many areas such as theology, sociology and economics. He gently broke it to me that I am in fact a pragmatist and he is an empirical thinker. No surprises there. I delight in wonder and the unprovable and think it entirely reasonable to make decisions based on consequence and experience rather than fact. It made me an unusual science teacher I suspect. It also helps me understand why people have faith.

The town is very quiet as the tourist season only kicks off here in June. It’s nice in that it means you get a better sense of the local community. Now we are out of Tuscany the towns are much freer to develop their own character as they aren’t restrained as much by things like UNESCO heritage orders. The old town areas are still beautiful but grungier and quirkier.

We had a delightful night out last night in a cafe full of locals all talking across the room and over our heads at the top of their voices while putting away an astonishing amount of wine - them, not us. Dogs wandered around being fed scraps of prosciutto from most tables and the two young female bar tenders managed to keep everyone under control while also consuming an impressive amount of vino. My god we have become boring and correct and shushing in Australia in many ways.

Tomorrow we head to Montefiascone, another hill top Medieval town down the ridge line from Bolsena and overlooking the southern tip of the lake. Should be lovely. There is rain forecast but that comes with cooler weather so a happy compromise. We are in our last week now! Amazing thought. I have completely lost all sense of time. I will leave you with a street scene in Bolsena which highlights its quirkiness and quietness.

Love Marie