Fr. Eusebius Martis OSB
Professor, Pontifical Institute of Liturgy
Ateneo Sant’Anselmo
Monk of Marmion Abbey

On the afternoon of Ash Wednesday, 18 February 2026, the Primatial Abbey of Sant’Anselmo welcomed Pope Leo to the Aventine Hill to begin the Church’s “campaign of Christian service.” Received by Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröder OSB and the Prior of Sant’Anselmo, Brendan Coffey OSB, the Holy Father joined the two major religious communities residing in Rome for the commencement of the Statio prayers. In the late afternoon, the assembly began its penitential procession to the Basilica of Santa Sabina, accompanied by the schola cantorum of Sant’Anselmo, for the celebration of Holy Mass and the Imposition of Ashes.

This ancient Roman tradition, restored by Pope John XXIII in 1959, serves as more than an historical reenactment. It is a sacramental expression of the Christian life because such an assembly is a body called together and united in a singular purpose. A procession is an assembly on the move. Walking together, the Church symbolizes its pilgrimage from this world to our true homeland, the Heavenly Jerusalem. As citizens of heaven, Christians’ time on earth is temporary; we dwell here as foreigners. Liturgical ritual helps to remind us of our ultimate destiny; it expresses our faith in ritual action.

The presence of the Benedictine community at the heart of this Roman tradition underscores the monastic witness to hospitality, to liturgical prayer and to a heavenly future. As the pilgrim church on earth moves toward its final goal, the rites celebrated at Sant’Anselmo continue to nourish the Christian life and prepare the faithful for the paschal mystery. Such events are reminders to the wider Benedictine Confederation of the vital role the Aventine community plays in the life of the universal Church.