Pope marks Ash Wednesday with ceremony on Rome s Aventine Hill

Rome March 1 (IANS/AKI) Pope Francis presided over a ceremony on Rome s Aventine Hill Wednesday to mark the start of the 40-day Christian fasting period of Lent.

The traditional Ash Wednesday celebration began in the nineteenth-century Basilica of St Anselmo at 4.30 p.m. with a brief prayer.

The celebration was due to end with a mass the ancient Basilica of St. Sabina and a reflection on the spirit of Lent a time of conversion and penance which leads up to Easter.

Catholic cardinals bishops Benedictine monks and Dominican friars attended the ceremony.

Lent is a new beginning a path leading to the certain goal of Easter Christ s victory over death Francis tweeted earlier on Wednesday from his nine-language @pontifex account.

Traditionally the pope walks on foot up a steep slope to get from one basilica to another.

The fifth-century Basilica of St. Sabina is the headquarters of the Dominicans the order founded by Saint Dominic of Guzman in the 13th century.

--IANS/AKI
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