Patrons’ 500th Anniversary Celebrations of the Vatican Museums May 28-31, 2006 > Evening Prayer Service in the Sistine Chapel with Archbishop Marini In May we welcomed over 400 Patrons of the Arts from all over the continental US, Canada and Europe for the 500th Anniversary Celebrations of the founding of the Vatican Museums. The Patrons enjoyed a week of celebrations beginning with a Mass and cocktail reception at the Abbey of Sant’Anselmo, a Benedictine Church on the Aventine Hill. The official celebration opened with a presentation on the Patrons and opening address by His Eminence Edmund Cardinal Szoka, President of Vatican City followed by a stroll through the Vatican Gardens. The evening Vespers in the Sistine Chapel celebrated by the Pope’s Master of Ceremonies, Archbishop Piero Marini was certainly one of the highlights of the events. The Patrons also visited the Papal Gardens at Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father’s summer residence followed by a luncheon overlooking the lake. The Patrons also enjoyed a classical concert at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran followed by a dinner in the Apostolic Palace. His Eminence Cardinal Szoka also celebrated a private Mass for the Patrons at the Altar of the Chair in Saint Peter’s Basilica accompanied by musical undertones of the Basilica’s magnificent organ. The final evening a phone call by the Pontifical Household confirmed the possibility of a private Audience with Pope Benedict XVI in the Sala Clementina in the Apostilic Palace in Vatican City, an unexpected highlight for our guests in which the Holy Father thanked the Patrons of the Arts for its continuing interest, which is motivated not only by a sense of stewardship for the incomparable cultural patrimony of the Vatican Museums, but also by a generous commitment to the Church's evangelizing mission. He continued: In every age Christians have sought to give expression to faith's vision of the beauty and order of God's creation, the nobility of our vocation as men and women made in His image and likeness, and the promise of a cosmos redeemed and transfigured by the grace of Christ. The artistic treasures which surround us are not simply impressive monuments of a distant past. Rather, for the hundreds of thousands of visitors who contemplate them year after year, they stand as a perennial witness to the Church's unchanging faith in the Triune God who, in the memorable phrase of St. Augustine, is Himself 'Beauty ever ancient, ever new'. > Patrons greeted by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI on June 1, 2006 in the Clementine Hall (Apostolic Palace) May your support of the Vatican Museums, he concluded, bear abundant spiritual fruits in your own lives and advance the Church's mission of bringing all people to the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ, 'the image of the invisible God,' in Whose Eternal Spirit all creation is reconciled, restored and renewed.