A little backwater called Ravenna

 In a seminary class on Church history, a professor took one class to show us a slideshow about the ancient city of Ravenna.  It was this slide show that led me to decide to go to Italy for this sabbatical.

In most of Italy, the churches have been torn down and rebuilt many times their 1600 year life span.  This is not so in the small former seaport of Ravenna.  For a brief time in the 5th century Ravenna was the capital of Italy, but when the seaport silted over, it became a backwater instead.  Bad for Ravenna, good for history!  Ravenna contains a number of churches that have remained largely unchanged since the 5th century.  Like Pomeii, going there is like stepping back in time 1500 years.  

Unlike the churches of Florence, which are beautiful in many ways, the ancient churches of Ravenna seem to invite one into a holy space, a place set apart.  It seemed to me that this was due to the perfect melding of architecture and beautiful mosaics.  In Florence it seemed the churches (on the inside) were a setting for great art.  In the Ravenna the whole space was a work of art operating on whole different spiritual level.  

Though I didn't call it this at the beginning, I realize now that this trip has been a pilgrimage for me, a seeking of spiritual connection.  In Ravenna I can see how the young church created spaces where pilgrims would truly encounter the holy.  

It was serendipitous that as I entered the church of S. Vitale in Ravenna, there was a choir rehearsing on modern sacred piece.  It's hard to say how profound it was to contemplate that ancient place against the back drop of a 21st century piece of music. The music, the space, the mosaics, the spirit of hundreds of generations of Christians all coming together in that moment.  The best word I can use: Heveanly.

Thomas