A 17th-century cross with a surprising story will be at Pope Francis’s first U.S. Mass

[Thorolfr]

In today’s Washington Post:

He had to trip over it to find it. But when he lifted the ancient cross and read the inscription etched in acid in the worn black iron, the Rev. G. Ronald Murphy was overwhelmed.

There, on the floor of a cluttered basement room at Georgetown University, the longtime German professor had stumbled upon something remarkable: the cross believed to be used in the first Catholic Mass on English-speaking American soil, in the Maryland settlement formed to ensure religious freedom in the new land.

It had been lost, overlooked, forgotten. In 1862, someone had written on it, “This cross is said to have been brought by the first settlers from England to St. Mary’s.” On the crossbar there was a Latin inscription, “Ad perpetuam rei memoriam.” For the eternal memory of this event.

Murphy thought: We will remember.

This week, Pope Francis will preside over his first Mass in the United States. The cross will be there, on the altar of the Basilica at Catholic University, lent for the historic occasion.

“It’s a moment of firsts all tying into one,” said Spencer Crawford, a Georgetown senior from Ohio who helped deliver the cross to the Basilica: The first Jesuit pope, his first trip to the United States, the first cross used at the first Catholic grammar school in the country that now is housed at the first Catholic university in the nation.

washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/09/18/a-17th-century-cross-with-a-surprising-story-will-be-at-pope-franciss-first-u-s-mass/

 

[pianistclare]

Very cool. There are no accidents.

 

[graciew]

Neat ! Must have.been awsome to find it .

 

[GEddie]

Neat ! Must have.been awsome to find it .

+1

WOW

meow

ICXC NIKA.