Palms in hands blowing in the wind, the faithful in procession around the Obelisk and St. Peter’s Square filled with thousands of faces from all over the world. 

Holy Week has begun. And these are the most spectacular days of the year here at the Vatican. 

Former Director of the “Osservatore Romano,” Gian Maria Vian tells us: 

“The Pope and the Vatican, all ceremonies of Holy Week attract many. And this has been so for centuries. In the nineteenth century, many non-Catholics participated in the rites of Holy Week because of their magnificent beauty and the impression they make.” 

Touching moments of prayer starting with the solemnity of Palm Sunday require days of preparations, for which a special entity of the Holy See is responsible: the Apostolic Floreria, the Florist of the Vatican. Its main task consists in the logistical preparation of the ceremonies inside the Vatican basilica and in St. Peter’s Square. 

The workshops of the Floreria are located in the hidden courtyards of the Apostolic Palace. The director of the office, engineer Paolo Sagretti, knows very well that Holy Week is the busiest period of the year. And now, with the ongoing Jubilee of Hope, the situation is even more challenging. 

Chief of the Vatican Apostolic Floristry Paolo Sagretti notes, “The atmosphere during these days is always that of expectation, it’s very special. We know that for us who as a service have to accomplish the preparation of all the ceremonies, it is a very busy year. There are 54 jubilee ceremonies in addition to the ordinary ones (like Easter), so we have to prepare everything very well.” 

Together with the Vatican gardeners the staff of the Floreria is called upon to prepare the decorations in Saint Peter’s Square, set up olive trees and thousands of flowers donated to the Pope traditionally by Holland, along with rows of seats for the pilgrims due to arrive. 

Sagretti adds, “We have additional difficulties as we have to complete the preparations with all the people coming in and out. You don’t close the basilica or the Square, you try not to close, as you should give the people a chance to visit these places. They come to see St. Peter’s, and it is right that after they have made a long trip, you give them such an opportunity, however, it is complicated for us to work efficiently in this way.” 

The preparation for the Holy Triduum, a crucial moment of the entire Holy Week, begins in the Vatican a week before Palm Sunday, on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, traditionally known as Passion Sunday when the relic of the Veil of Veronica takes center stage in an ancient rite in St. Peter’s Basilica. 

Jacob Stein of the EWTN Vatican Bureau explains: “On this day in Rome, in Saint Peters Basilica, the Romans have this jealous opportunity to look once more on the face of Christ. Before we don’t look on the crucifix, we don’t look on the face of Christ for another two weeks until Good Friday, when the crosses are unveiled for us to venerate.” 

The relic is referenced in the sixth station of the Way of the Cross, where a woman named Veronica wipes the face of Jesus with a cloth as he carries the cross to Calvary. The Vatican tradition to venerate the relic goes back to the Middle Ages. 

“Innocent III established the procession in the Vatican neighborhood with the veil of Veronica, with which already drew so many pilgrims to Rome. Pope Boniface VIII was participating in this procession in January of the year 1300. He wanted pilgrims to experience looking upon the face of Christ in the Veronica’s veil. And so he called the first Jubilee year of 1300,” Stein notes. 

Now, 725 years later, another Holy Year called by Pope Francis the Jubilee of Hope, is being celebrated, this time even more special as the Resurrection, falling on April 20, will be commemorated in common by all Christian rites. And Saint Peter’s Square is already attracting crowds of faithful. 

“Already with pope Paul VI St. Peter’s Square became a beautiful liturgical setting. And on Holy Thursday in the morning the Chrism Mass inside of St. Peter’s is celebrated. While the afternoon Mass in Cena Domini, uses to be done not at St. Peter’s, but in Rome’s cathedral, which is St. John Lateran,” explains Vian. 

The Mother of all churches houses the precious relic of the wooden table of the Last Supper brought by tradition to Rome from Jerusalem (as spoils of the First Jewish War) by Emperor Titus in the year 70. 

“With Pope Francis that tradition has changed,” notes Vian. “And the rite of washing of the feet, as he would do in Buenos Aires, has been taken to prisons or other places where you touch suffering most palpably.” 

Good Friday is the only day of the Year when no Mass is celebrated in the Church’s tradition, still Saint Peter’s Basilica is filled with faithful reaching from all corners of the earth to commemorate Christ in His Passion and … to see the Holy Father. Though Pope Francis, still recuperating after a 40-day hospitalization at the Gemelli Polyclinic, will not preside over the Triduum celebrations for the first time in his 12-year long Pontificate. 

“Anyway, the Pope is just a representative of the Lord, a Pope who resembled very much Pope Francis, Pius X in the early 1900s used to get angry when people applauded him and he used to tell them, ‘No, you should applaud Our Lord, you should  applaud Jesus Christ,’” recalls Vian. 

Though, thousands of pilgrims coming to Rome for Easter are filled with desire to see the Holy Father. Even for a moment, as it was on Palm Sunday when Pope Francis appeared unexpectedly at the end of the Mass, greeting those present: 

“Happy Sunday! [Have] a blessed Holy Week!” 

And the crowd filled the Square with their cheers! 

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Adapted by Jacob Stein 

Camera by Sergio Natoli, Fabio Gonnella, Alberto Basile. Edited by Ilaria Chimenti