Milan

The day after St. Monica's liturgical feast, the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, her son... Since August 2005, when I visited Milan in Italy guided by Don Emilio, my friend and confrere from our ordination class of 1988 in Kraków, Poland, my perception of today's feast and my personal relation with St. Augustine deepened and strengthened in a special way...

This personal bond had been there already, as I wrote an essay once, in the beginning of my theological studies in the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Kraków, on St. Augustine as a student in God's and world's schools, drawing comparisons, differences and similarities. So his life, his 'Confessions' were quite familiar to me and made him my personal friend whom I admired and listened to... But I had no idea that visiting Milan with Don Emilio will be such a memorable and unique experience in my life, not only because of the spectacular architecture and the ambiance of the city...
 

La Scala in Milan

On that day when we (Don Emilio and myself) went to say Holy Mass underneath the main altar of the famous Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano) at the altar in the chapel of the relics of St. Charles Borromeo - praying for the repose of souls of his spiritual sons - Holy Father John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła) and of my first and only parish priest in Tanzania - Rev. Father Karol Szlachta - my relationship with St. Augustine changed dramatically. I owe the facilitation of this change to the then parish priest of the Duomo, who not only invited us for the Sunday Mass in Ambrosian rite at the main altar of the Duomo, but also volunteered to show us around Duomo di Milano and offer some explanations and snippets of its history and remarkable art. I listened to him with my jaw dropped on the floor...

Duomo di Milano as seen from our Casa del Clero where we stayed in Milan

Milan Cathedral called Duomo di Milano,  being a crown jewel of the largest Diocese in the world - Archdiocese of Milan ( with more than 5 million Catholics) is closely connected with the life of St. Augustine of Hippo. Underneath of this magnificent and breathtaking cathedral there is the Battistero where St. Ambrose most certainly baptised St. Augustine with his son on Easter Vigil of 387. It was amazing feeling to be able to touch stones which those two Doctors of the Church touched themselves...and walk upon the ancient pavement they walked on as well...

But the parish priest of the Duomo di Milano on that day volunteered to show us much more than just a Battistero... Probably we made a good impression on him, so he showed us another precious place, which no tourist is allowed to see yet. This was a presumed baptistery where St. Ambrose himself was baptised before he was made the bishop of Milan. It is an older baptistery than Battistero itself...

Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures... The parish priest led us through a closed door, down the stairs and showed us from above the excavated smaller baptistery... This was a magic moment... To be able to see with my own eyes and touch sacred places where St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, two great Doctors of the Church were introduced into the Holy Mother Church, was something astonishing. I remember that day vividly...It has instilled in my mind and heart a truly lasting impression....forever...

So, when I will celebrate the Holy Mass this morning and will kneel in front of Jesus in Eucharist during an adoration that will follow the Mass, my heart and mind will venture back in time and space to Milan, to Duomo di Milano, to Battistero, to both Doctors of the Church and to the baptistery in an old chapel in Kraków-Nowa Huta where I was baptised in May 1963... This is where I entered the Church through the gate of Holy Baptism. A sacred gate to the other dimension of reality...

That white parcel is me, right after the Baptism Mass, with my Godparents