Dedication of the Lateran – Seventeen Hundred Years of Prayer

Basilica of Saint John Lateran
4th - 19th Centuries
Rome

 

The Catholic Church commemorates the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome each year on November 9, remembering the day of its consecration as a church on November 9, 324.  November 9, 2024 is the 1,700th anniversary of that consecration.  Since the days of Constantine, the Lateran has served the city of Rome and the universal Church.  In honor of this remarkable anniversary, I am reissuing this post about that ancient and highly significant building.

 

Because of its immense size and prominence in the life of the Catholic Church most people probably think that Saint Peter’s Basilica is the principal church of Rome. But they are wrong. If you look around Saint Peter’s you might notice that one important feature is missing. There is no permanent chair for the bishop, no cathedra. Where the bishop’s chair would normally be is a feature called the “Cathedra Petri” or Throne of Peter by Gianlorenzo Bernini, but this is not a chair for living human habitation.

The chair for the currently living human who is the bishop of Rome is not in Saint Peter’s. It is across the river Tiber in the church of Saint John Lateran (San Giovanni in Laterano), the church that is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. It is Saint John Lateran that is described as Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput (Most holy church of the Lateran, mother and head of all churches in the city and the world – my translation). 

Inscription on the facade of the Lateran Basilica

This is the first large building set aside for Christian worship, the first official “church” of Rome. It is located on property once belonging to the noble Roman family of the Laterani, which came into the possession of the Emperor Constantine through his second marriage to Flavia Maxima Fausta, the sister of his rival, Maxentius. In 312, shortly after his famous victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge (north of Rome) he gave this property to the pope. It was, in effect, Constantine’s first gift to his newly acquired faith.

By November 9, 324, still well within Constantine’s lifetime (he died in 337), the church had been built and was dedicated. This is the dedication of its “mother and head” to Christ the Savior that the universal Church celebrates on November 9 every year. (However, it is more commonly known from the later, additional, dedications to Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist as Saint John Lateran.)  Nearby, the palace of the Lateran family became the palace of the popes, where they lived for 1,000 years. 

Interior of the nave of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano
Rome

Over the passage of the 1,700 years since the Lateran became the mother church of Christianity the building has passed through much wear and tear. It was nearly 100 years old when Alaric brought his Goths to sack Rome in 410. It was plundered by the Vandals in 455. It has suffered damage from earthquakes (896) and fires (1307 and 1361) and been reconstructed many times, but still retains its original form as a Roman basilica. Some of the most "recent" reconstructions were the work of famous architects of the late Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo: Domenico Fontana, Francesco Borromini and Alessandro Galilei respectively. The last architectural interference was the extension of the apse in 1880.

 

Apse Mosaic, 4th, 9th and 13th Centuries
Rome, Basilica of Saint John Lateran

Little of its original interior has survived, although there are notable exceptions. When the apse was extended in the late 19th century the original 4th century mosaics were removed, stored and replaced in the new work, along with some of the later additions, which date from the 9th and the 13th centuries. So, parts of what we see today were seen by those who were present at the dedication, in the 4th Century, exactly 1,700 years ago.

The floor, decorated in what is known as cosmati work (from the name of the Roman family of artisans who did it) dates from the 14th century.

 

Cosmati work floor
Rome, Basilica of Saint John Lateran

The adjoining palace was the home of all the popes from Sylvester I (314-335) to Clement V (1305-1314). Clement V, a Frenchman, found himself in a problematical political position when he was elected as pope. In the early 14th century, political conflict between the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of France and between the King of France and the King of England had serious repercussions for the Church which, while it models the Kingdom of God in this world, is not immune to the troubles of that world. Not long before Clement's election, the French King, Philip IV, had attacked and imprisoned the previous Pope, Boniface VIII.

Clement remained in France, establishing a court at Avignon. He was followed by six other French popes, all of whom remained in Avignon. During this time, the Lateran suffered two devastating fires, and although the church was repaired, the papal palace was not.

When Pope Martin V returned the seat of the papacy to Rome in 1420 the old palace was uninhabitable, so the seat of papal administration was moved to the smaller residence next to Saint Peter’s Basilica and there it has remained ever since. But the cathedral of Rome remains in its original location --- at the Lateran.

You can take a virtual tour of the Lateran basilica and its surroundings here: 

http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_giovanni/vr_tour/index-en.html

© M. Duffy, 2011.  2024 Updated slightly to commemorate the 1,700 anniversary of the its dedication on November 9, 324.

Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul – November 18

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

During this month of November the Church commemorates the construction and dedication to Christian worship of some of the earliest structures specifically built for that purpose. In her first three centuries Christians had been meeting in whatever location they could find that was suitable for the purpose of performing the developing liturgy. This might be in a private house, in a meeting hall or in buildings such as apartment houses, owned by members and renovated to provide space for the congregation and the priest. (In Rome, these were the tituli, some of which still survive through the churches constructed later on top of them.)  There were also gathering places in association with the graves of the deceased, especially of the highly venerated martyrs, in locations such as the catacombs of Rome or in other, open air cemeteries in Rome and elsewhere. But none of these were on anything like a par with the temples of the Greek, Roman or other religious cults of the time.

It was not until Constantine, the Augustus of the West, and his co-Augustus, Licinius, issued the Edict of Milan in October of 312 that the Christian Church could contemplate creating large, purpose built structures for the liturgy. As we have seen, one of the earliest of these structures, the Church of St. John Lateran, was begun almost immediately after the issue of the Edict, with the active involvement of Constantine himself. Similarly, at about the same time (319-324), another huge basilica was under construction across the Tiber River. In this location there was an open air cemetery on a hill a short distance from the banks of the river. It overlooked a road and a circus (racecourse) built by Caligula, but then known as the Circus of Nero. Nearby was the large circular tomb of the Emperor Hadrian.

Model of the "Trophy of Gaius" over the burial place of St. Peter in the necropolis 

underneath the basilica.

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican

This cemetery was not very different from our own contemporary American cemeteries. There were numerous mausoleums, owned by rich families, and there were humble graves, set directly into the earth.

One of these simple graves was special to the Christians of Rome and to Christian visitors, as indicated by the inscriptions found all around it. In it was buried Peter, leader of the first Apostles, and first bishop of Rome, who had died in the persecution of Nero.

He had been crucified (upside down according to tradition) in the circus just across the road, and his body had been carried into the cemetery where he was buried. Within a short time after his death a small marble monument, resembling a miniature temple façade, was erected over the grave (see model at right).

As Richard Krautheimer, the great historian of early Christian architecture, points out, it was only the graffiti that surrounded the location that makes this resting place different from hundreds of others in the cemeteries surrounding Rome.1  For, the inscriptions indicate that the man buried in this commonplace grave was Peter, leader of the Apostles and first bishop of Rome, the “Rock” on whom Jesus said that He would build the Church.2


The importance of the grave to Christians can be clearly seen in the way in which Constantine’s architects planned the new building. With Imperial power behind them, they leveled the hill, removing the roofs of the private mausoleums and filling the shells with the dirt and debris of their excavation. Above the grave of Peter they constructed the altar, the focal point of the huge new basilica.

This basilica stood for over a thousand years, until in the late 15th century the decision was made to replace it with a new church. 

While Constantine’s building rose in less than 10 years, it took nearly a century to build the new one, which we see today.

The “new” St. Peter’s was built over the Constantinian basilica and there is one constant point of reference. The altar of today still stands directly over the grave in the Roman cemetery. The “Rock” still lies in the deepest layer. 3

This cross section of St. Peter's shows the three layers we see today:  at the top in brown ink is the current basilica, below that in black ink are the remains of the Constantinian basilica (now called the grottoes and open to the public), at the lowest layer in purple ink is the necropolis, where the tomb of the Apostle lies.  It may be visited by appointment.  Below the cross-section is the plan of the excavated parts of the necropolis.

Another look at the relation of the layers of St. Peter's through a comparison of floor plans.  In red we can see the layout of the necropolis, on top of this is the straight lines of the basilica of Constantine in purple, with radiating chapels built out of it that are shown in green, and finally we can see the huge outline of the current church.

The original St. Peter’s was destroyed in the process of building the current structure, but we can get some idea of how it looked from old drawings. 

Cross section of old St. Peter's

Maerten van Heemskerck, St. Peter's Basilica
Dutch, c.1535
Berlin, Staatliche Museen

In addition we can gain an idea of what it was like by looking at the second building that the Church commemorates today – the Basilica of St. Paul-outside-the –walls.

Basilica of St. Paul-outside-the-walls
Rome

This basilica was constructed about 70 years after St. Peter’s and appears to have been based on it. 4 Built over the resting place of St. Paul, the great missionary to the Gentiles, it stood for 1,500 years before partially succumbing to a fire in 1823.   The nave was badly damaged, but the apse was barely touched.

Engraving of the aftermath of the 1823 fire

It is fortunate that its destruction came so late in time. Had it occurred in an earlier era the building would doubtless have been rebuilt in a contemporary style, just as had happened to the other great early Christian churches of Rome. But, the damage came after a full century of archaeological exploration had placed a high value on the style of past ages. Hence, it was reconstructed to look exactly as it had before the fire and reconsecrated in 1854.

The bones of Saint Paul lie underneath the main altar. In 2006 the sarcophagus containing them was uncovered for the first time in centuries and can be seen through an opening below the altar.5

St. Paul-outside-the-walls, Interior
Rome

In St. Paul’s we can gain a good idea of what the Constantinian churches looked like. These were simple structures with long naves (central part of the church), side aisles and a semi-circular apse at the end opposite the entrance. The interior space is vast and clear, obviously intended to handle large crowds of worshippers. It was also richly decorated. In front of the building there is an open space called the atrium, surrounded by colonnades.

These were significant structures, intended by their Imperial sponsors to make a statement about the importance of Christianity and of the persons buried underneath them. 6
_______________________________________
1. Krautheimer, Richard. Rome, Profile of a City, 312-1308, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 20.

2. Some relevant texts: Matthew 16:18-19, John 20:1-10, Acts 1:15-22, 2:14-40, 3:12-26, 4:8-12, Chapters 10 and 11.

3. It is possible to visit this subterranean world by applying to join a tour group through the Vatican Office of Excavations (the Ufficio di Scavi). Information at http://www.vaticanstate.va/EN/Monuments/Saint_Peters_Basilica/Pre_Constantinian_Necropolis.htm.

4. Krautheimer, op cit., pp. 42-45.

5. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061211-saint-paul.html

6. You can participate in virtual visits to these two churches, plus other papal basilicas and chapels at http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/index_en.html The speed of the servers seem to vary greatly by location.

© M. Duffy, 2011