The Chapels of Santa Lucia del Gonfalone

While visiting the Chiesa di Santa Lucia del Gonfalone in Rome, I wandered through its interior and paused in the many small side chapels—each a quiet world of its own. The walls were lined with paintings whose authorship is unknown to me: tender Madonnas, stoic martyrs, and scenes of sorrow and redemption rendered in vibrant pigments. In one chapel stood a black crucifix; in another, a white statue of Santa Lucia, serene and luminous against the dim light. At the high altar, an extraordinary icon of the Madonna and Child seemed almost to glow from within. Though centuries old, all these works still breathe with devotion, their beauty softened but not diminished by age.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, November 3rd, Feasts of Sant’Uberto di Liègi and St. Winfred