Vatican Museums

In this time of preparation for the Holy Year of 2025, the Vatican Museums are proposing for 21 November a cultural appointment as we approach the Jubilee as part of the now consolidated conference programme, Thursdays in the Museums.

The title of the meeting, “Sailing towards the Jubilee among stone inscriptions and graffiti. Eὔπλοια τῷ στόλῳ”, announces the focus of the two scheduled talks, by Rosanna Barbera, head of the Department of Epigraphic Collections of the Vatican Museums, and Giuseppe Falzone, professor of Classical and Christian Epigraphy at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology. To “break the moorings” to “navigate” among the words and images engraved on the ancient Vatican inscriptions, will be the Director Barbara Jatta, who will introduce the participants to the many stories on stone told over the centuries by the “foreigners” and the faithful who came to the Eternal City.

Taking a cue from the logo chosen by Pope Francis for the upcoming Jubilee - and the accompanying motto Peregrinantes in Spem - we will embark on a journey that, from antiquity to the early Middle Ages, will lead us to tombstones and devotional graffiti that bear witness to mobility in early and late antiquity that took place by land, but above all by sea, in the Mare Nostrum, towards the coasts of the Italic peninsula; then, as now, for work, religious reasons or serious difficulties.
The travellers included Christian pilgrims who, through graffiti and drawings, left both an indelible trace of their passage and a historical testimony of faith.
A real peregrination, but also a metaphorical navigatio through the often painful experiences of life, guided by hope in the Cross and comforted in a fraternal embrace.