St. Caesarius on Display: an Exposition in the Vatican Museum

Source: FSSPX News

Belt of St. Caesarius of Arles.

The Vatican Museum is offering an exposition until June 25 with the goal of making the figure and works of St. Caesarius of Arles (470-542), a learned bishop of the early 6th century, better known, thus underlining the privileged relationship that has existed between Rome and the city of Arles in Provence ever since Paleo-Christian times.

“The letter of Pope Symmachus” is the title of the exposition on Caesarius, the holy bishop of Arles, on display in the Vatican Museum until June 25. The prelate’s name is little known outside of the circle of researchers specializing in that period of the High Middle Ages, and yet it is to a few men like him that we “owe the fact that culture did not completely disappear in Gaul between the 6th and 8th centuries,” to quote the judgment of Manlio Simonetti, an expert in Patristics.

Caesarius’s literary activity was entirely bound up with his role as pastor; his homilies bring to life the daily realities of the Church in 6th-century Arles. There are frequent warnings and reminders concerning the most concrete aspects of daily life at that time.

The objects on display show the privileged bond between the city of Arles and the Urbs. They recall that the holy bishop of Arles was received in Ravenna by King Theodoric, and in Rome by Pope Symmachus. The exposition’s five different sections allow visitors to discover the saint’s relics and proofs of the devotion to him – all from Arles and Provence. Additionally, the exhibit includes some works from the Vatican collections and the National Roman Museum, including one of the masterpieces of the exhibit, a golden necklace that bears Christ’s monogram.

Lastly, the exposition’s grand finale, the precious Carolingian Codex (lent by the Vatican Library) contains the text of the letter that Symmachus wrote to Caesarius, and that serves as the title of this exposition that pilgrims passing through Rome during this month of the Sacred Heart should not be missed.

http://www.museivaticani.va/