St. Peter's Basilica and Square
Outside the ancient city of Rome lies Christendom’s grandest Church: the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican — resting place of the Prince of the Apostles and the First Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
This magnificent edifice — and the piazza directly in front of it — however, were not always places of veneration and worship. During the rule of the pagan emperors, Vatican Hill was no more than a suburb with a cemetery, its only attracting feature was a circus oh which stood an obelisk from Egypt. In the outskirts of this circus, as Catholic Tradition maintains, the apostle Peter was crucified and subsequently buried.
Peter was just one of the thousands of Christian martyrs that Rome produced, indeed, as the centre of the pagan empire, the lives of many Christians perished within its walls. Despite centuries of persecution, however, the Christian religion grew and gained temporal influence and power. After the legalisation of Christianity by the emperor Constantine, the faithful in the city began openly practicing their monotheistic faith, coming out of the catacombs and erecting conspicuous places of worship to venerate their departed brethren and offer sacrifice to their God, Saint Peter’s was among these first martyr tombs to be built into magnificent edifices — by the emperor himself!
Since the building housed the remains of the first pope, it would come as no surprise that it became a focal point of pilgrimage and influence in the Christian World, Popes would conduct their ceremonies and liturgies within its walls. Saint Peter’s Basilica provided stability and continuity for the pontiffs that claim succession from the first pope — a person who is hailed not only as God’s physical representative on earth, but also as the head of the Papal States and of the faithful throughout the world.
Inside the basilica, and indeed, in most of the churches throughout Rome, burials and monuments have been erected to commemorate the saints, their relics are prized and esteemed as holy, believing that the holiness of their souls are apparent and intact in their remains; for if the soul is holy, so also the body which housed it is as well sacrosanct. Relics are a feature of the Catholic Church that has continued throughout the centuries, baffling some and scandalising others, while still capturing the attention and awe of many. These relics, factual or not, are after all, a reminder of the people and places which they venerate and attempt to imitate. Relics and edifices are attempts to remind the beholder of the physicality of their belief — that these were real people who walked the same roads they trod, and in so doing they remind the faithful of what matters; they remind the faithful of their goal: Heaven.
Saint Peter’s Basilica and Piazza are the aftereffect of the death of, at least in the eyes of the Romans, an insignificant and old man. From the tomb of the apostle rose the sprig of the faith, which, nourished by the blood of more and more martyrs, came to overcome adversity and assert its supremacy over the powers who willed her destruction. All this goes to show that we should never underestimate the life and death of even one person, as that one person could be the spark that would lead to the spreading of a flame still bright up to this day.
