{"id":914,"date":"2025-11-03T12:42:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T17:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/?page_id=914"},"modified":"2025-11-03T14:24:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:24:31","slug":"the-pantheon","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/2025-sabbatical-pics-vids\/sites-around-rome\/the-pantheon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pantheon"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s actually an active & functioning Catholic Church!<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

As I was standing in the line for 10:30 Mass on All Saints Day (I mean, where better to attend Mass on the Feast of All Saints than to go to the place where it all began in 609ad!) I heard some English speaking visitors bemoaning the fact that the Pantheon was being closed to visitors so Mass could be celebrated.\u00a0 “I didn’t even know this place was an active functioning church” the gentleman said.\u00a0 He then went on to lament that it was being closed until NOON \u2192 and he emphasized the word ‘noon’ rather dramatically.\u00a0 Inside\u00a0 I was thinking that 10:30 Mass would go until about 11:30, and we’d have about 30 minutes inside the Pantheon to take pictures before it reopened to the public.<\/p>\n

I never want to hear anyone complain about a Mass that goes 62 or 65 minutes (which is a rarity for me, even on Christmas or Easter); the Mass in the Pantheon took the full 90 allotted minutes!\u00a0 At 2 minutes to Noon, Mass ended and we were allowed to scurry through the Basilica as they prepared to let in guests.\u00a0 I took every opportunity to snap pictures while there were the 150 of us who went to Mass were the sole visitors to the place.<\/p>\n