"My day in Bonn" Bonn by bliss7

Bonn is a wonderful city! We visited St. Martin's Church and a little downtown promenade-like area, where you can find the childhood home of Beethoven.

In the picture above, you can see the massive crowd of young pilgrims that Weltjugendtag 2005 brought, in August 2005. This picture was taken outside of St. Martin's, and the crowd extended around the entire building, as well as into the neighboring streets.

Stone head in remembrance of the martyrs

St. Martin's church, built in 1166, houses the relics of two ancient martyrs, Ss. Cassius and Florentius. There are two giant stone heads outside the church, laying on their side as if beheaded.

Ss. Cassius and Florentius were two of nine martyrs who were murdered at the command of Emperor Maximian Herculeus in Bonn in 303 A.D. The stone sculptures outside the church tell us how they were martyred, they were beheaded.

Their relics are housed in a crypt underneath the adoration chapel. The were originally stored in a different 4th century church, but then moved to St. Martins when it was built in 1166.

This church, built in 1166, is really beautiful inside and out. While it does not compare to the Cathedrals at Cologne or Aachen, it is still really beautiful.

Behind the altar is a beautiful mosaic of Jesus, sitting on a rainbow. The spectrum of the rainbow add some beautiful color to this work of art.

The relics of the two martyrs are kept in a crypt underneath the adoration chapel in the church. The adoration chapel is a beautiful one, of course the true beauty of the room is supplied by the radiance of grace coming forth from the Blessed Sacrament.

We spent about a half hour here, in which I prayed my rosary while reading the psalms, basking in the Lord's grace the entire time. It was one of those deep, personal experiences which words cannot come close to describing, but suffice it to say I've never before felt anything quite like it, and it makes me want to go to adoration more and more.