First was an early third-century sculpture, Statuette of the Good Shepherd. "Early Christians loved the Good Shepherd. They were an endangered people and protection mattered. Here you have this beautiful, strong, young Jesus caressing that sheep that he has lifted onto his shoulders, and all the other sheep are waiting for their turn to be lifted up.

"We forget that at the beginning people didn't have the certainties that we have," she said. The earliest Christians were groping to articulate their faith in a time when "there wasn't a church in the sense that we have it," she said. "The scriptures weren't settled yet. There was no creed. I found this more touching than I can find words to express."

Emotion welled up in her in front of a tiny Statuette of St. Paul, her second-favorite work in the show. "Oh, you darling man," she said softly. "He's so small and plain with a big nose. But all this is so unimportant. What is filling his heart is so moving."

Sister Wendy noted, too, the glittery Reliquary Cross of Justin II. It is in a gallery filled with light, while the sarcophagi are more dimly lit. "It begins with the semi-shadows of the catacombs and the scared little people, and the show ends with this sunburst, full of daylight. It is also suggests the power struggles and dangers of the days ahead."

Sister Wendy's voice quavered, and she recalled that her doctors did not want her to travel. She said she would not have made the trip overseas for any other art exhibit, but "this is the rare occasion to touch the living reality of the early faith, to see their expressions of desire and longing. And if this is the way I'm going to die, then it is well worth it."