Holy Monday

Monday in Holy Week.
Station formerly at the "Church of the bandage"
now called SS Nerus and Achilleo
(Titulus "de fasciola", SS. Nereo ed Achilleo.)

Titulus de fasciola

The basilica "de fasciola",
which very old tradition connects with St. Peter,
at the time when he sought, by leaving Rome,
to escape from persecution.
Near the first milestone on the Via Appia,
the Apostle stopped to replace the bandage (fasciola)
which covered the wound in his leg caused by the fetters
that he had worn in prison.
At that moment Christ Himself appeared to him
as He was going towards Rome.
Domine quo vadis?
Lord wither goest Thou?
Peter enquired of his Divine Master.
Eo Romam iterum crucifigi,
I go to Rome to be crucified again,
answered Our Lord.
The vision passed and Peter understood from these words
that it was in the person of His first Vicar
that Christ was to be put to death in Rome,
so, obedient to the implied command,
he returned in all haste to the city.

Domine quo vadis?
This account is of very great antiquity,
and it gathers support from the very name,
de fasciola - of the bandage,
given to the church
as far back as the beginning of the 4th century.
It now has the dedication to Saints Nereus and Achilleus,
officers in the service of the imperial family,
who had been converted to the faith by St. Peter himself.

St Praxedes

Holy Monday
Station at St Praxedes.
(S. Prassede.)

Our present missal assigns today's station
to the Church of St Praxedes,
an arrangement which dates from the end of the Middle Ages,
when the Church "de fasciola" was completely abandoned;
deserted,
as was the whole area of the Via Appia,
on account of malaria.

The titulus Praxedis, on the Esquiline,
appears for the first time in an inscription in the year A.D. 491.
Under the high altar lies the body of St. Praxedes.
In a crypt under the sanctuary are numerous bodies of martyrs
removed by Paschal I from the cemeteries outside Rome.
This basilica by reason of its antiquity,
its monuments
and the sacred relics which it contains,
may well be considered as
one of the most famous sancturies of Christian Rome.