The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-01
ALL SAINTS DAY
 HAD ITS ORIGIN
 IN 7TH CENTURY

It is festival which finds an echo in every human heart that remem- bers, November 1st, All Saints Day. Sang Longfellow,
 There is no fold however loved and
 tended,
 But one dead lamb is there"
 And Longfellow sang further, in tri- umphant strains,
 Not as a child shall we again behold
 her,
 But a fair maiden in her Fathers
 palace.''
 The festival of All Saints brings us in touch with the Unseen Land where our departed dwell. It brings us in touch with the mighty spirits of great men made perfect. It brings us in touch with every possibility that was theirs!-it brings across our path the torrent of their power that has rolled down the ages whose high current was poured out for a lofty ideal.
 The festival owes it's origin in the conversion, in the seventh century, of the Pantheon at Rome into Christian place of worship, and dedi- cated by Pope Boniface " to the Virgin and all the Martyrs. The solemn anniversary of this event was subsequently, celebrated on the 1st of November, instead of on the 1st of May. From that date it was called Festival of All Saints" and set apart in their honor. The festival is cele- brated in the Anglican, the Latin (Roman) and Greek Communions. One can imagine the beauty and solemnity of the service in the Roman Pantheon on that May-day in 500 A. D., when a Pope himself named the ancient temple "Sancta Maria ad | Martyres." In those days the Pope was not "a prisoner of the Vatican" Has the reader ever stood in the Pantheon at Rome? To reach it | quickly, take the route through the Piazza Colonna on which the Corso expands, one of the livelfest squares l in Rome. The Piazza Colonna is | named after the great Colonna fam i lily. We recalled the Princess Wit 1 toria Colonna, the ideal idol of | Michael Angelo, one of the finest and | purest women of the Renaissance, | and of its celebrated artists. In the 1 centre of the Piazza Colonna rises the column of Marcus Aurelius. The | side streets right and left lead to the
 Piazza di Monte Citorio. Bearing to 1 the left we soon reach the Piazza | of the Pantheon.
 The Pantheon was built by NJ. Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus, and l he designed 1t Gas is not generally l known) only as an entrance, or ves- | ttbule, to the superb Baths which he | erected-the Baths, or Thermae, of 1 Agrippa. Each of the Caesars sought to build monument to his name, and 1 to add to the delight and comfort | of the Romans. The Baths or hn nF %In Co l ponderous glories even in their ruin
 and testify to the lavish expenditures
 of monarchs. They were not only
 baths, but the majestic corrodors where poets, satrists and the great l among the Roman world met in dis | cussion, or to read their works, Or to l learn the newest news of the day. | Said a Roman Senator. "A day in a | Roman bath builds gulf between | me and yesterday!" So, the magnifi. ] cent Pantheon was designed as an entrance to the Thermae. Partially ! destroyed by lightning, this later 1 building was re-erected by Hadrian. | It Is of a circular form a rotunda,
 the dome being of concrete. The porch Is upborne by sixteen Corin-
 thian columns. The bronze doors are | of ancient days. The interior is
 lighted by only a single aperture in
 the centre of the come. Our own
 Hawthorne speaks of it as the Eye
 of Heaven beholding mortals The circular walls enclose seven large inches; in these, formerly, stood
 statues of the gods. Step softly in
 this holy place, called by the an- cients Pantheon" Every sacred), for
 the ashes of the great respose there
 The tomb of Rapheal, who died ip
 1920 is between the second and third
 niche on the left as you enter. Today, the Pantheon is known as
 the church Of Santa Maria Rotunda.