Among the holy places venerated of old by the Christians, those were the most honoured and most frequented in which the bodies of the Saints were preserved, or some relic or memorial of the Martyrs. Chief among these holy places has ever been that part of the Vatican hill which was called the Confession of Saint Peter. Christians from all parts of the world flocked to there, as to the rock of the faith and the foundation of the Church, and honoured with the greatest reverence and piety the spot hallowed by the sepulchre of the prince of the Apostles.
To there on the octave day of his baptism, came the emperor Constantine the Great, and taking off his diadem, he prostrated on the ground with many tears. Then taking a hoe and mattock he broke up the earth, of which twelve baskets were taken away in honour of the twelve Apostles, and on the site thus marked out, he built the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles. Pope Saint Sylvester dedicated it on the fourteenth of the Calends of December, just as he had consecrated the Lateran church on the fifth of the Ides of November. He erected in it a stone altar which he anointed with chrism, and decreed that thenceforward all altars should be made of stone. The same blessed Sylvester dedicated the basilica of Saint Paul the Apostle on the Via Ostiensis, also magnificently built by the emperor Constantine, who enriched both basilicas with many estates and rich gifts and ornaments.
The Vatican basilica, however, began to decay through age and was rebuilt from its foundations on a more extensive and magnificent scale through the piety of several Pontiffs. It was solemnly dedicated by Pope Urban VIII on this day in 1626. In the year 1823 the Ostian basilica was burnt to the ground, but the ruins were repaired and it was rebuilt more splendidly than before, through the unwearied exertions of four Popes. Blessed Pius IX, seizing the auspicious occasion, when his Definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin Mary had drawn an immense number of Cardinals and Bishops from distant parts of the Catholic world to Rome, solemnly dedicated this basilica on the tenth of December 1854, assisted and surrounded by this noble gathering of prelates, and he decreed that the anniversary commemoration should be celebrated on this day.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
QUOD DUCE TE MUNDUS SURREXIT IN ASTRA TRIUMPHANS, HANC CONSTANTINUS VICTOR TIBI CONDIDIT AULAM. Because the world under your conduct has risen triumphant to the very heavens, Constantine the emperor has built this temple in your honour. This inscription stood in letters of gold over the triumphal arch in the ancient Vatican Basilica. Never did the Roman genius frame a more magnificent utterance in so few words. never did the greatness of Simon Bar-Jonah appear to such advantage on the seven hills. In 1506 the great arch that had looked down upon twelve centuries of prostrate pilgrims fell from old age and the beautiful inscription perished. But Michelangelo’s lofty dome points out to the city and the world the spot where sleeps the Galilean fisherman, the successor of the Caesars, the Vicar of Christ, the ruler of the destinies of Rome. The second glory of the eternal City is the tomb of Saint Paul on the Via Ostiensis. Unlike that of St. Peter, which lies deep down in the Vatican crypt, this tomb is raised to the level of the floor by massive masonry, on which rests the great sarcophagus. This circumstance was ascertained in 1841 when the papal altar was reconstructed. It was evidently to obviate the consequences of inundations from the Tiber that the sarcophagus had thus been raised above the place where Lucina had first laid it. The pilgrim certainly finds nothing to blame in this arrangement when, on looking through the small opening in the centre of the altar, his respectful glance falls upon the marble of the tomb, and he reads these imposing words traced in large characters of Constantine’s period: PAULO APOSTOLO ET MARTYRI. To Paul Apostle and Martyr. Thus Christian Rome is protected on the North and South by these two citadels. Let us enter into the sentiments of our fathers when they said of this privileged city: “Peter the door-keeper, sets his holy dwelling at the entrance: who can deny that this city is like Heaven? At the other extremity, Paul from his temple guards the walls. Rome lies between the two: here then God dwells.”
The present feast therefore deserves to be more than a local solemnity. Its extension to the universal Church is a subject for the world’s gratitude. Thanks to this feast we can all make together in spirit today the pilgrimage ad limina Apostolorum, which our ancestors performed with such fatigue and danger, yet never thought they purchased too dearly its holy joys and blessings. “Heavenly mountains, glittering heights of the new Sion! There are the gates of our true country, the two lights of the immense world. There Paul’s voice is heard like thunder. There Peter withholds or hurls the bolt. The former opens the hearts of men, the latter opens heaven. Peter is the foundation-stone, Paul the architect of the temple where stands the altar by which God is propitiated. Both together form a single fountain which pours out its healing and refreshing waters” (Venatius Fortunatus, Miscellania, iii. 7).Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Antioch, the birthday of St. Romanus, martyr, in the time of the emperor Galerius. When the prefect Asclepiades broke into the churches and strove to destroy them completely, Romanus exhorted the Christians to resist him, and after being subjected to dire torments and the cutting out of his tongue (without which, however, he spoke the praises of God), he was strangled in prison and crowned with a glorious martyrdom. Before him suffered a young boy named Barula, who being asked by him whether it was better to worship one God or several gods, and having answered that we must believe in the one God whom the Christians adore, was scourged and beheaded.
Also at Antioch, the holy martyr Hesychius, a soldier. Hearing the order that anyone refusing to sacrifice to idols should lay aside his military belt, he immediately took off his. For this reason, he was precipitated into the river with a large stone tied to his right hand.
The same day, the Saints Oriculus and his companions, who suffered for the Catholic faith in the persecution of the Vandals.
At Mayence, St. Maximus, bishop, who, after suffering much from the Arians, died a confessor in the time of Constantius.
At Tours, the departure from this life of blessed Odo, abbot of Cluny.
At Antioch, St. Thomas, a monk honoured with an annual solemnity by the people of Antioch for having obtained the cessation of a pestilence by his prayers.
At Lucca in Tuscany, the translation of St. Frigdian, bishop and confessor.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
