Thursday, August 03, 2006







Gates of Dawn

So, even though I'm back, I'll start posting pictures and continue the adventures :)))

The Gates of Dawn, known in Lithuanian as Austro Vartu, is the only city gate from the original wall that still exists around Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. This Gate has been graced by the presence of an miraculous image of Our Lady.

The Holy Father was invited to visit here in 1986, but the Soviets refused to allow him. So, he sent his hat instead. When he visited in 1993, he left another hat. These are kept in the sacristy.

On my last day in Lithuania, I went there at 6am because I wanted to be among the first there to visit Our Lady. As I waited for the door to open, a delivery boy on a bicycle rode through the gate, stopped his bike, turned around and prayed for about 10 minutes before continuing on his paper route.

People going to work would walk through the gate, turn and bless themselves to show honor to Our Lady.

When the door to the chapel finally opened, there were about three elderly ladies who entered with me, but they walked up the stairs on their knees.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's nice. Glad to hear you made it back safely!

Anonymous said...

Whoa baby!! Sounds like a Catholic Disney World!!! I want to travel around with you sometime Whew!!

Petrus said...

Okay anonymous. I'll let you know where I'm going next. I see that you post on everyone's blog, so I'm sure that I'll be able to track you down when the time comes.

Are you rich? If you're rich, then why don't you tell me when you're going on a trip and buy me an extra plane ticket. Also, I want to bring a friend and I'll need spending money.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Seeing that I make about half the salary you must in irder to go on these trips and have twice as many friends as you I think we'll be doing some rearranging of the payment process. I'LL FIND YOU you won't have to look for me.

Petrus said...

uh... you already found me...

gheeezzz.