San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-13
The Franciscan Monastery at
Brookland, Just Outside of
Washington, D. c.

big celebration at the Franciscan
Monastery on Mount Sepulcher,
in the outskirts of Washington 1t will
be highly picturesque religious cerc-
monial. conducted by the Order of Friars
Minor.
Underground, beneath the monastery.
is an exact reproduction of the cave
stable in which the Savior was born at
Bethlehem. There is a silver star set
in the floor, to mark the place of the
birth, and near by, in recess of the
rock, is the Manager wherein the child
was laid on the first Christmas.
After midnight mass on Christmas
Eve, the divine infant, represented by
a ,life-size doll, will be carried to the
subterranean cave by the friars in
solemn procession, and, when the Gospal
Of the Holy Night has been sung. the
image will be reverently placed on the
star-marked spot of the Nativity. At
the words, "and laid him in manger."
lit will be transferred to the recess in the
rocky wall.
\s, The ceremonies will be the same as
those performed on Christmas Eve at the
original Grotto of the Nativity in Beth
lehem and conducted with equal pomp
and splendor.
Like the original from which it is
copied, the Grotto at Washington is a
shrine, with an altar bearing a painted
picture of the Christ child, before which
burn candles that are never extinguished.
1t is, however, only tiny part of an
extensive subterranean labyrinth that
underlies the monastery on Mount
Sepulcher, near Washington.
When the monastery was in process
of building, few years ago, people who
viewed the preliminary excavation were
puzzled to imagine what it could signify.
They did not know that, in large part.
it was meant to reproduce an under
ground metropolis thousands of years
old-the catacombs of ancient Rome
II was in those catacombs that the
early Christians of Rome, prosecuted by
Nero and his successors, sought refuge,
celebrating there in secret the rites of
their forbidden religion. Hence the idea
of constructing beneath the monastery
copy of typical portion of them, to
serve as a pious memorial The repro
duction is so faithful in its details that
even the fractures of stones and the
stains made by seepage of water are
counterfeited.
American tourists travel far TO see
fba he
ranean passages extend with endless
rsmifications for a total distance of six
hundred and possibly eight hundred miles
narrow tunnels, in the sides of which
inches are cut to provide resting places
for the dead.
More than six million ancient Romans
we're buried in those underground gal
-leries, each occupied niche being closed
with a slab of stone or terra Gotta which
e bore an engraved epitaph-the latter
usually very brief. describing some virtue
or other attribute of the dead person.
Less than one-third of the Roman cata-
combs has been explored. They are a
veritable underground city of the dead.
The galleries, four or five feet wide,
are in places three, four and even five
stories deep. Now and again they expand
into "cubicula"-burial rooms or vaults
which were reserved for the use Of
wealthy and noble families
Not an attractive place Of resort for
the living. Hence the safety of the cata-
combs as a refuge and hiding place for
the early Christians They turn many
Of the ''cublcula" into chapels, with
affairs of worship, remains Of some of
which may be seen today.
The reproduction beneath tn monas-
terry, though representing d mere frag-
, ment of those catacOmbs, is descriptively
typical. A visitor, descending under
ground by convenient steps from the
main floor Of the building, finds him
self in a narrow passageway, along the
walls of which are excavated inches.
empty but suggestive of a mortuary pur-
pose. Some distance further en- the
tunnel expands TO a width of six feet
or more; it is the chapel" Of a saint.
The saint is St. Benignus, an early
martyr, whose bones we're fetched from
the Roman catacombs, where plous hands
had sealed them up in the days of Nero.
Now they lie beneath an altar, inside of
l.fe-size wax figure of the holy man,
whieh, clad IN expensive silken garments,
Is glorified by brilliant electric
ILLUMINATION.