In view of the Holy Year pilgrimage of the Fraternity of St. Pius X that will take place in Rome on August 20, 2025, Nouvelles de Chrétienté magazine offers its readers a presentation of the major basilicas that will be visited during this pilgrimage.
In this issue, we begin with the basilica of St. John Lateran.
A bit of history: the birth of Christian Rome
Rome was anciently the capital of the pagan empire. A city of culture, pride and sensuality, Rome was also the city of slavery and polytheism. St. Peter chose it to make it the seat of the Church and the central point of Christ’s Kingdom.
The early Christians conquered this land with their blood. Catacombs were underground cemeteries comprising sometimes six or seven floors. Under Roman law, cemeteries were inviolable. This is why the clandestine life of the Church was able to develop there. The Holy Mysteries were celebrated there, and martyrs were interred there.
The Colosseum, whose ground was bathed in the blood of so many martyrs, could hold 80,000 spectators. This colossal building is largely still intact. During the Middle Ages, a cross was erected there and, every year, a moving via crucis was held there. There, the pilgrims, of different races and very different languages, confessed together “unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam, ” one and holy catholic and apostolic Church.
After the Edict of Milan (313) granted freedom to the Church, the first churches were built, and gradually Rome became a magnificent Christian center of art and civilization. How was this victory over pagan Rome, then at the apogee of its culture, strong with its thousands of slaves, its multiple gods, and after three centuries of persecution, possible?
This victory was only possible because of a virtue that Christ preached and the early Christians practiced: charity. Selfless love was unknown to the pagans, whose lives were governed by the pursuit of riches. And it was by their fraternal charity that Christians were recognized: “See how they love each other!” It was through charity that pagan Rome became Christian.
The Holy Years
Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) proclaimed the year 1300 as the Holy Year: at the beginning of each century, from that time it was possible to earn a plenary indulgence on condition of visiting the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul.
Shortly thereafter, Pope Clement VI (1342-1352), who resided in Avignon during what was called the “Babylonian captivity of the popes,” decreed that the Holy Years would take place every fifty years. This is how the second Holy Year took place in 1350.
Pope Urban VI (1378-1389) reduced the interval to 33 years, and Pope Paul II (1464-1471) to 25 years, a Holy Year rule still observed to this day.
Roman basilicas
With Constantine’s victory over the troops of Maxentius (312 A.D.), Christian worship was made legal by the new emperor who had embraced the Catholic faith. That is why the basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Peter in the Vatican, and Holy Cross in Jerusalem all date back to the time of Constantine.
Churches are distinguished as basilicas, cathedrals, abbeys, collegiate churches, parish churches and oratories. Basilicas are the churches of the highest rank because of their dignity or privileges and are distinguished into major basilicas and minor basilicas.
Major basilicas have a holy door that is opened at the beginning of the jubilee period and closed at the end. Rome’s four major basilicas – St. John Lateran, St. Peter’s in the Vatican, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major – are with the three minor basilicas – St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, St. Cross in Jerusalem and St. Sebastian -, the shrines one must visit to earn the indulgences of Rome’s seven basilicas.
St. John Lateran
The first church of Roman Christianity, the Lateran Basilica, is known as the “mother and head of all churches.” It is the pope’s cathedral. It was consecrated to the Most Holy Redeemer and later also to St. John the Baptist; it is “the ancient church-baptistery of Rome,” as Dom Guéranger wrote in The Liturgical Year. Although the popes have not lived in the Lateran Palace for centuries, the primacy of the basilica survives. It is at the Lateran that, even to this day, the official taking of possession of the Roman Pontiffs takes place.
There the cathedral functions of the blessing of the holy oils on Holy Thursday and, on the day after tomorrow, the blessing of the fonts, solemn baptism, confirmation, and general ordination are performed annually in their name as bishops of Rome.
History of the Basilica of St. John Lateran
The Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist is located near Mount Caelian in Rome.
A Latin inscription on either side of the entrance to the cathedral’s facade specifies: Holy Lateran Church, mother and head of all the churches of Rome and the world.
Its foundation in the 4th century
The basilica’s origin is linked to Constantine’s victory over the troops of the Roman emperor Maxentius through a vision of the sign of the Cross, and to the Edict of Milan in 313, by which freedom of worship was granted to Christians, who had been persecuted during previous centuries. Having invoked Christ the Savior while giving battle to his enemies at the Milvian Bridge, north of Rome, Constantine reported victory. He then placed the Empire under the protection of Christ and wanted to show his gratitude by building a basilica.
Constantine made a gift to Pope Saint Melchiades (311-314) of the necessary money and land that had belonged to the Lateran family before it was confiscated by Nero. The work lasted until the pontificate of his successor. A church, baptistery and palace, the residence of the bishops of Rome until the Avignon period, were built on these grounds.
On November 9, the Church celebrates its consecration. The building, dedicated to the Most Holy Savior, was consecrated in 324 by Pope Sylvester I (314-335), who convened the First Council of Nicaea (325). Then, in the 9th century, Pope Sergius III dedicated the basilica to St. John the Baptist, and in the 12th century, Lucius II added St. John the Evangelist.
The enthronement procession of the pope started from the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles and ended in the basilica of St. John Lateran with his taking possession of the cathedra as bishop of Rome. This route, which passed near the Colosseum, the site of early Christian martyrdom, and the Capitoline Hill, the site of the power of the Roman Empire and later the municipality of Rome, is first documented in 858, with Pope Nicholas I.
È nel 1350, durante il secondo Giubileo, che il papa Clemente VI aggiunse la basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano al percorso degli itinerari giubilari, dopo quelle di San Pietro e di San Paolo fuori le Mura. Santa Maria Maggiore è diventata in seguito la quarta basilica che i pellegrini dovevano visitare per ottenere l’indulgenza.
In 774, Charlemagne was baptized at St. John Lateran. Thirty-three councils including five ecumenical ones were held in the palace adjoining the basilica. When Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) saw in a dream St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi supporting the walls of a church on the verge of falling, this church was none other than St. John Lateran. The dream manifested to the pope the need for the Church to authorize the founding of their new religious orders.
A basilica embellished over the centuries
The current plan of the building follows that of Constantine and is divided into five aisles. Restored after earthquakes, fires and looting, the basilica has been rebuilt four times. Over time it has been adorned with valuable works of art, thanks to donations.
At the end of the 14th century, the papal court began to move to the Vatican, as the fortress of Castel Sant’Angelo provided formidable protection in case of danger.
In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII undertook new works for the first Jubilee. A fresco painted by Giotto is visible behind the first pillar of the right aisle.
Pope Innocent X commanded an internal reorganization for the Jubilee of 1650, designating Francesco Borromini as architect.
The nave was built with gigantic proportions, and the aisles with clear perspectives. Beginning in late 1702, the niches that Francesco Borromini placed in the pillars, in the form of tabernacles, housed statues of the twelve Apostles evoking their evangelizing mission.
The Church shines in all directions and over the whole world; it is the apostolic Church, founded on the Apostles. Closer to the transept, St. Peter and St. Paul frame the ascent to the altar.
Above the Apostles are the twelve Prophets of the Old Covenant, to signify that the Old Testament is illuminated by the New. These bas-reliefs picture the correspondence between the two Testaments. When you go up the aisle, the Old is on the left, the New on the right: Jonah comes out of the whale, Christ comes out of the tomb; Moses frees Israel, Christ preaches in the underworld; Joseph is sold by his brothers, Judas’ betrayal; Abraham’s sacrifice, Christ ascends Calvary; the Flood, Christ’s baptism; Adam and Eve cast out of Paradise, Christ on the Cross.
Pope Clement XII (1730-1740) had the white stone facade added in the Baroque style, designed by Alessandro Galilei and completed in 1734. It is crowned with fifteen statues seven meters high. The central group represents Christ surrounded by St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. The other statues represent the doctors of the Church.
The last major works took place with Pius IX, in the 19th century, who restored the tabernacle and confession, then with Leo XIII, who, between 1876 and 1886, commissioned architect Francesco Vespignani to demolish the apse and rebuild it further back. On this occasion, Jacopo Torriti’s mosaic was disassembled and reworked, before being reassembled.
The distinguished relics
The basilica’s most precious relics are the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, preserved in gold and silver reliquaries, placed at the top of the ciborium and visible through a gilded lattice above the lintel supporting the roof of the Gothic tabernacle, designed by Giovanni di Stefano in 1367.
These busts-reliquaries were made in the early 19th century, while the originals, dating back to 1370 under the pontificate of Urban V (1362-1370), were cast in the late 18th century to pay the war indemnity to Napoleonic France following the Treaty of Tolentino in 1797.
The papal altar incorporates a second wooden altar on which, according to tradition, the apostle St. Peter celebrated Mass. In fact, from St. Peter’s to St. Sylvester’s the altars were made of wood since the popes did not have a fixed residence due to persecution. With the peace of Constantine, St. Sylvester withdrew the altar of St. Peter from the catacombs and offered it to the basilica.
The Holy Staircase
They are the twenty-eight steps that Christ climbed in Pontius Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem on the day of his death sentence, and covered with wood by Pope Innocent III in 1723 to protect them from usury. Brought back from the Holy Land, according to tradition, by St. Helena (249-328), mother of Emperor Constantine, the Holy Staircase is attested in Rome from the 6th century. It is located in an old part of the papal palace at the Lateran, arranged by Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590).
Twenty-eight white marble steps that Jesus climbed after being scourged, covered with spit, mocked, crowned with thorns and clothed in the infamous cloak, as this staircase accessed the praetorium. The faithful climb them on their knees, meditating in silence.
It was at the top of this staircase that the dialogue between Jesus and the Roman governor took place. “You say it, I am king. I was born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth. Whoever is from the truth hears my voice1.” (Jn 18:37)
Source: Nouvelles de Chrétienté N° 212
