Day 13 - Rome Temple site and St. Paul's

It was Sunday, so we only did a couple of things.  First, we met a group of executive MBA students from BYU to view the Rome temple site.  No one can go on the site except the workers, but we met the group on the top of a nearby mall to see the construction.  The only reason we were involved was because we were staying with Tom and Kathy, but it was fun to see the temple site.  It was especially fun for Mark to meet with the MBA program students because his former favorite professor, Burke Jackson, was leading the group.  Mark had not seen him since he graduated 30+ years ago and was pleased that his professor remembered him.

 Rome Temple site

 Mark & Burke Jackson

After we went to church and had dinner, Tom and Kathy took us to Basilica San Paolo Fuori le Mura, sometimes referred to as "St. Paul's Outside the Walls."  As the title would suggest, it is not in the Old City portion of Rome.  It was built over the burial site of Paul who was decapitated about 2 miles away.  I heard somewhere that although he was a Roman citizen, he could not be buried inside the city walls because he was executed.  In 2006, archaeologists uncovered a sarcophagus with early inscriptions identifying it as Paul's.  Carbon dating places the remains in the 1st or 2nd century.

Exterior of St. Paul's (above) and the inner courtyard (below)

 St Paul

 Dome in the ceiling

 The upper frame has the chains that bound Paul and it has been dated from that time period.  Below that is a window that reveals the sarcophagus that is believed to be Paul's.  The people were praying in front of it, so I didn't want to disturb them to get a better picture.

 More beautiful ceilings

This wall had an interesting title:  Exaltation is the Celestial Kingdom.  Or something like that.  We also heard that there was another wall (that we couldn't find) that mentions baptism for the dead.  We later learned that it was in a side room which was the baptistry.

 Mark in front of the mission home