Certain things -- such as a bath
and getting dressed up -- are universal before a personal meeting with
the pope, and the rule holds even for lambs.
As he does every year, Pope Benedict XVI blessed two little lambs Jan. 21, the feast of St. Agnes.
Raised by Trappist monks on the outskirts of Rome, the lambs spent the
night before their papal audience in the center of Rome on the rooftop
terrace of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, interviewed Holy Family
Sister Hanna Pomnianowska about her convent's role in the ancient
tradition which makes a connection between the name of St. Agnes, an
early Christian martyr, and "agnus," the Latin word for lamb.
The wool of the lambs blessed on the feast day is woven by a different
community of nuns and becomes the fabric for the "pallium," a circular
stole, which the pope gives each June to new archbishops from around the
world.
Sister Pomnianowska said her order got involved in 1884 when a group of
elderly sisters living nearby could no longer handle the task of
preparing the lambs to attend a Mass and then be blessed by the pope.
She said that as soon as the Trappists arrive with the lambs, "we take
them to the top floor of our house, where we have a large terrace and
laundry room. As you can imagine, they are the joy of the entire
community, especially of the younger sisters."
"The first thing we do is wash them. We put them in a tub with baby soap
to delicately wash the dirt away. Then we dry them. We used to use
towels, but now we use a blowdryer. We are careful not to leave their
skin damp because they are young and could get sick," she said.
The baby lambs spend the night in the laundry room, in a covered pen filled with straw to keep them warm.
The morning of their big blessing day, she said, a decorative blanket is
placed on each lamb. One blanket is red to recall St. Agnes' martyrdom;
the other is white to recall her virginity.
"Then we weave two crowns of flowers -- one red and one white -- and
place them on their heads. And we tie bows around their ears," she said.
After they are adorned, the lambs are placed in baskets, the sister
said. "We are forced to bind them to prevent them from running away;
once, in fact, I saw a lamb jump up and run from the altar."
Once they are prepared, the lambs are taken to Rome's Basilica of St.
Agnes Outside the Walls, where they are placed on the altar over the
martyr's tomb and are blessed. Then Vatican workers arrive to take the
lambs to the pope, she said.
The lambs are blessed again by the pope, usually in the Chapel of Pope
Urban VIII in the apostolic palace, she said. The ceremony is attended
by two of the Holy Family Sisters -- usually two who are celebrating a
significant anniversary of religious profession, she said.
SIC: CNS/INT'L