Highlights from the cultural world of Rome
The Vatican Philatelic Office and the Luxembourg Philatelic Office have issued two almost identical stamps depicting Johann Peter Kirsch (1861-1941) in front of the building of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology.
The first member of the German priesthood at Campo Santo Teutonico since its foundation 150 years ago (1876) was Theodor Peters, who turned out to be a previously unknown saint (commemoration day: 24 April).
Since the Holy Year 2025, a beautiful leaflet has been circulating for Irish pilgrims, showing them the way to places of Irish remembrance, such as the Basilica of St. Clement near the Colosseum, which has been cared for by Irish Dominicans for centuries.
On the morning of 11 December, Pope Leo XIV received the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology in the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace and emphasised the importance of Christian archaeology in his short address.
The 100th anniversary celebration of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology will be broadcast on 11 December from 4:55 p.m. on the PIAC YouTube channel.
Prof. Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai from the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology appears on Italian television RAI TG2 during prime time with Umberto Broccoli and talks about the importance of Christian archaeology. You can watch the programme from minute 10.00 to 18.36:
Following the complete renovation of the church of Campo Santo Teutonico in the 1970s, Cardinal Degenhardt (Paderborn) blessed the new organ and Cardinal Döpfner (Munich), as chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, consecrated the new altar on 7 December 1975.
Dr Marco Aimone and Stefan Heid are holding a 10-hour special course on early medieval chalices, patens and other vessels and their use in Roman liturgy. The course will take place on 15–16 December and 13 January at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology..
Franz-Xaver Brandmayr (Vienna), former rector of the Pontifical College of the Anima, presented a lavish illustrated book on the occasion of the patron saint's day of the Confraternity of the Anima, which he designed together with Hans Haider and Stephan Kölliker.
The German Archaeological Institute is excavating in Ostia Antica. The very extensive ancient city area now lies beneath a meadow. Only the bishop's complex on the outskirts of the city is being excavated. Only this complex is worth excavating because the ancient city was abandoned and plundered, so that most traces have been lost.
Römisches Institut der Görres-Gesellschaft
