St. Paul's within the Walls Episcopal Church... in Rome!

Today I visited...

St. Paul's was the first non-Roman Catholic church to be built within the city walls after the Italian independence. Designed by Sir G.E. Street, the church was finished in 1876 and it is a great Victorian masterpiece, housing mosaics by Edward Burne-Jones - the great Pre-Raphaelite artist - and by George Breck the director of the American Academy in the first years of the XX century. The stained-glasses are by the English firm Clayton & Bell and the wall tiles were designed by... William Morris! This Anglican place of worship built for the great families of the Gilded Age such as the Astors and the Morgans (J.P. Morgan is in the apse mosaics) as spiritual home during their Grand Tour, now keeps (first rector) Robert J. Nevin's mission - celebrating the glory of God and spreading the Gospel, in Rome, through another form of Catholicism - now to a more diverse community united in the love of Christ. Today the parish houses the Joel Nafuma refugee center and a Latin American community. The rector is Fr. Austin K. Rios who in these two years had the joy of welcoming two different Archbishops of Canterbury in his church. Please enjoy the pictures!