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PILGRIM-WALKS IN ROME
 ROBHAMPTON :
PRINTED BY JOHN GRIFFIN.
His Holiness, Pope Pius X.
(From a Photograph ly Felki.)
PILGRIM-WALKS

IN ROME

A GUIDE TO THE HOLY PLACES

IN THE CITY AND ITS VICINITY

BY
P. J. CHANDLERY, S.J.
Author of
" Rooms and Shrines of the Saints" " Le Ges1i de Rome" &c.

GWr& E&ltfon enlarges

WITH A PREFACE BY
REV. JOHN GERARD, S.J.

" Oh ! how beautiful must be the heavenly

Jerusalem if earthly Rome is so glorious ! "
—St. Fvlgentius. (d. 533.)

LONDON :
MANRESA PRESS, ROEHAMPTON, S.W.

1908
(The right of Reproduction reserved.)
 "O Rome, exceedingly glorified by the triumphs of
the Apostles, crowned with the roses of martyrs, all white
with the lilies of confessors, adorned with the palms of
virgins, strengthened by the merits of all the Saints. O city
that enshrinest so many of their holy bodies, all hail to
thee ! May thy authority hitherto supported by the dignity
and wisdom of the holy Fathers never fail, that authority
whereby the mystic body of Christ, our holy mother the
-Church, flourishes and is sustained."
—St. Fursey of Ireland, (d. 650.)

The book may be purchased in Rome at the following booksellers :

MM. Pustet, Piazza S. Luigi de' Francesi ; Signor P1ale, 1, Piazza
di Spagna ; MM. Sp1toever, Piazza di Spagna ; MM. Descl£e,
Piazza Grazioli ; MM. Mame, Piazza Capranica ; MM. Calabres1,
Piazza della Minerva ; Miss W1lson, 22A, Piazza di Spagna, etc.
 Copyr1ght.
London, 1903.
New York, 1903.
Rome, 1903.

j££7G853
 PREFACE.
All roads—as we know—lead to Rome, and there are
attractions there for every diversity of taste. The
historian who would philosophize on the rise and fall
of empires, or trace the evolution of modern Christen
dom in the ferment of mediaeval politics, the antiquarian,
the artist, the man of letters—each here finds himself on
sacred ground, where the very stones have tongues, where
every spot is haunted, and where the ruins of a bygone
world eclipse the majesty of other cities in the heyday of
their prosperity.
But to no others can Rome be what she is to those
who come as pilgrims in the strict sense of the term,
who follow in the footsteps of those who for nigh two
thousand years have been drawn there by an attraction,
which was in all its vigour when others now potent were
unknown, and for whom the hallowed memories of the
past serve but to enhance the glories of the living present.
For Catholics, Rome is the citadel of God's Kingdom
upon earth. They come to do homage to the Vicar of
Christ, to the heir of the Fisherman, whose dynasty
began when imperial Rome was in the zenith of her
splendour, and which numbers to-day amongst its
subjects the denizens of continents, which were still
undiscovered, when States that rose upon Rome's ruins
had passed into the mists of ancient history.
They come likewise for the sake of the hallowed
associations which cluster around a spot of earth chosen
by God in so singular a manner for His own ; and very
specially—starting with the tombs of the two Apostles,
from whom the Church in Rome derives her origin—tc
venerate the memory of the Saints, in whom her divine
viii PREFACE
life shone forth, and whose footsteps, as is but natural,
are nowhere else so thick as in what is fitly called the
Eternal City.
It is this more than any other feature that has during
so many centuries attracted to Rome crowds, who were
not merely students or sightseers, and who came not
merely to gaze and wonder, but in the hope of earning
for themselves some portion of the saintly spirit through
the example and intercession of those whose history is
the supreme monument of God's grace and power.
And as it has been from the first days of Christianity,
so is it still in this twentieth century, when facilities of
travel make it easy for multitudes of Catholics to come
from the ends of the earth, for whom in no former age
could such a visit have been thought of as a possibility.
It is in the hope of helping those animated with
this pilgrim spirit, that these Pilgrim-Walks have been
prepared. They are just what their title indicates, a
handbook for such as desire to know about the spots
which history, or even legend, marks as holy. During
a prolonged residence in Rome, it has been the author's
object to collect all the information he could for the
benefit of others having no such opportunities, and while
he has endeavoured to guard the truth of history by
consulting the best authorities, he has thought it well
not to disregard traditions long and widely current,
merely because they are unconfirmed by such positive
evidence as will satisfy the demands of the higher critics.
It occurred to him that the best thing he could do for
his readers was—so far as possible—to place them in
his own position, by enabling them to see and hear for
themselves what he has seen and heard: and this he
has tried to do in the following pages.
John Gerard, S.J.
London, 1905.
 CONTENTS.
pagt
Preface , . . vii
Introduct1on xiii
CHAPTER L
To St. Peter's on the Vat1can ....... 1
CHAPTER II.
The Holy Father—The Vat1can Palace—Ne1ghbour
hood of St. Peter's 35
CHAPTER III.
To St. John Lateran and the Holy Places on the
Ccel1an 60
CHAPTER IV.
To St. Mary Major and the Holy Places on the
Esqu1l1ne 96
CHAPTER V.
To St. Paul's and Tre Fontane ... .129
CHAPTER VI.
To S. Lorenzo Outs1de the Walls, and to Santa
Croce 1n [Link] 148
CHAPTER VII.
To the Cap1tol and Forum 172
CHAPTER VIII.
To the Colosseum and Palat1ne 197
CHAPTER IX.
To S. S1sto and the Catacombs of St. Call1xtus on
the App1an Way 219
x CONTENTS

CHAPTER X.
From the Qu1r1na1. to Porta P1a, and S. Agnes* Out
s1de the Walls 245
CHAPTER XI.
TO THE AVENTINE 270
CHAPTER XII.
To the Island 1n the T1ber and to S. Cec1l1a 1n
Trastevere 291
CHAPTER XIII.
To S.Mar1a 1n Trastevere and to theJan1culan H1ll 314
CHAPTER XIV.
From the Gesu to S. Agnese 1n P1azza Navona . 334
CHAPTER XV.
From P1azza Navona to S. G1rolamo della Car1ta and
S. Mar1a 1n Vall1ce1.1.a 357
CHAPTER XVI.
From the Forum of Trajan to the Corso and the
P1nc1an H1ll 375
CHAPTER XVII.
From the P1azza d1 Spagna to Porta Salar1a and
the Cemetery of Pr1sc1lla 401
CHAPTER XVIII.
To Prat1 d1 Castello and V1a R1petta .... 413
CHAPTER XIX.
To the Rooms and Homes of the Sa1nts . . . 422
CHAPTER XX.
The Lenten Stat1ons—V1s1t to the Seven Churches . 427
CHAPTER XXI.
Facts, Trad1t1ons, Legends, Rel1cs : the1r authent1c1ty 435
Part II. Interest1ng Places and Shr1nes near Rome 441
Index to Part I 505
Index to Part II 521
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Paragraph Facing
No. page
His Holiness Pope Pius X. Frontispiece.
Map of the City of Rome.
Plan of Old St. Peter's h
Plan of present Basilica : St. Peter's 22
8 St. Peter's Basilica 9
10 Interior of St. Peter's 16
16 St. Peter's Chair 17
24 St. Peter receives the Keys 34
28 The Vatican Library 35
28 The Scala Reale 40
28 Cappella Sistina 41
35 Ponte S. Angelo 54
45 The Lateran Basilica 55
46 Apse of the Lateran Basilica 66
46 Interior of the Lateran 67
56 The Lateran Piazza ........ 76
69 Clivus Scauri 77
73 S. Gregorio 92
81 S. Pudenziana 93
86 St. Mary Major 108
86 Interior of St. Mary Major's 109
92 S. Prassede 114
94 S. Martino ai Monti 115
98 Michael Angelo's Statue of Moses 122
108 S. Maria in Cosmedin . . . . . . 123
121 The Cloister, St. Paul's 130
122 St. Paul's Basilica 131
122 Interior of St. Paul's . . . . . . . .142
123 High Altar, St. Paul's 143
125 Tre Fontane 146
132 S. Lorenzo outside the Walls 147
133 Interior of S. Lorenzo 154
133 The Sanctuary, S. Lorenzo , . . . . .153
143 Santa Croce in Gerusalemme . . . ■ . .162
154 The Capitol. II Campidoglio . . . . . .163
156 Ara Cceli 182
164 The Roman Forum ........ 183
170 Tomb of St. Frances of Rome 192
176 The Colosseum 193
181 The Arch of Constantine . 20S
Kii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Paragraph Facing
No. page
1 82 The Arch of Titus 209
182 The Palatine Hill 230
201 The Crypt of the Popes, ;Catacombs) 231
202 The Crypt of St. Cecilia (Catacombs) .... 236
202 Tomb of St. Cornelius, P.M. (Catacombs). . . .237
206 Appian Way ......... 244
208 Piazza del Quirinale 245
218 Porta Pia 260
223 St. Agnes' Basilica 261
224 St. Agnes, V.M 264
233 S. Giorgio in Velabro ....... 265
238 S. Sabina 276
244 S. Alessio 277
246 S. Anselmo 282
261 The Tiber Island 283
265 S. Cecilia 304
265 Tomb of St. Cecilia 305
265 St. Cecilia and St. Valerian ...... 310
275 S. Maria in Trastevere . . . . . . . 311
275 S. Maria in Trastevere (Interior) 320
279 Tempietto di Bramante (S. Pietro in Montorio) . . .321
288 S. Onofrio. The Cloister 332
289 The Gesù (Exterior) 333
289 The Gesù (Interior) 342
295 The Pantheon 343
306 Piazza Navona 354
314 The Cancelleria 355
318 St. Philip Neri 368
320 St. Ignatius teaching Catechism 369
323 S. Maria in Vallicella 374
325 The Forum of Trajan 375
331 Fontana di Trevi 384
332 Piazza Colonna 385
338 Piazza del Popolo 394
342 The Pincio, seen from Piazza del Popolo .... 395
344 Trinità dei Monti 40O
349 Piazza della Propaganda 401
353 Collegio Germanico 406
374 The Room of St. Ignatius 407
374 The Room of St. Aloysius 424
374 The Room of St. Stanislaus 425
The three Patrons of Youth 432
 INTRODUCTION.
Petrarch speaks, in one of his letters, of the fervour
with which he visited Rome during the Jubilee of 1350;
of the deep religious impression produced upon him by
its sanctuaries ; an impression which did not stop short
at barren emotion, but bore fruit in the amendment of
his life.1 He speaks also of the necessity of visiting
these sanctuaries devotione Catholica^m a Catholic spirit
of devotiony and not curiositate poetica, with the curiosity
of poets or artists, and adds : " However delightful
intellectual pursuits may be, they are as nothing unless
they tend to the one great end."a
In another beautiful passage he says : " How well it
is for the Christian soul to behold the city which is
like a heaven on earth, full of the sacred bones and
relics of the martyrs, and bedewed with the precious
blood of those witnesses for truth ; to look upon the
image of our Saviour, venerable to all the world ; 3 to
mark the footprints in the solid stone, for ever worthy
of the worship of the nations ; * to roam at will from
tomb to tomb rich with the memories of the Saints ; to
wander at random through the basilicas of the Apostles,
with no other company than good thoughts."5
Blessed Peter Canisius, S.J., writing in 1575, on the
1 Thurston, S.J., Holy Year of Jubilee, p. 139.
2 Epist. de Rebus Famil. XII. 7.
3 The Volto Santo, or Veil of Veronica, preserved at St. Peter's.
4 He probably refers to the impression of our Lord's feet left in
the stone, when He appeared to St. Peter near the little oratory
known as Domine, quo vadis ? (Thurston, Ibid.).
6 Epist. de Rebus Famil. II. 9.
xiv INTRODUCTION
spiritual excellence of Rome, says : " There is the multi
tude of relics of martyrs of every condition, who have
sanctified Rome with their blood. There is the Apostolic
Seat, which Christ exalted above the chair of Moses, and
to which he subjected all Christian kings and princes.
Rome is the head of the world, the queen of the nations,
the place chosen by God above every place for the
supreme rule, first in the secular, now in the spiritual
dominion." ..." There, at Rome, the pilgrim can
strengthen his faith and excite his devotion more than
elsewhere. He sees there before his eyes the city in
which the first and principal Apostles preached with
their lips the Gospel of Christ. He sees the city, the
streets of which all the holy martyrs trod and consecrated
with their blood, and adorn and protect with their relics.
Who would not be moved at seeing the place where
Peter was fastened to the cross, Paul beheaded with the
sword, John cast into a vessel of boiling oil ; where
Peter said to Christ, ' Lord, whither goest Thou ? '.—the
place where Laurence was roasted on the gridiron,
Sebastian was shot with arrows ; the house of St. Agnes,
of St. Cecilia, the staircase of St. Alexis ?—yes, the holy
steps which were in Pilate's house, up which staircase
Christ went at the time of His bitter Passion, and which
He sprinkled with His Blood ; the title of the Cross ; the
column to which He was bound ? I pass over the seven
principal churches known to all the world, and enriched
by many privileges and precious relics of the Saints."1
Pilgrims who visit the Eternal City in this Catholic
spirit of devotion, who wish to see it as Blessed Peter
Canisius and Petrarch saw it, will take but a secondary
interest in the monuments of antiquity, the colossal works
of architecture, the records of imperial greatness, the
1 Blessed P. Canisius, Tractate on the Jubilee, 1575. (Thurston, S.J. ,
Holy Year 0/ Jubilee, pp. 400, 401.)
 INTRODUCTION XV
treasures of art, literature, archaeology, stored in its
galleries, libraries, and museums ; they know that Rome
has something far grander to show than these evidences
of material prosperity and intellectual power ; and they
will long rather with St. Francis Borgia and St. Francis
de Sales, to visit the venerable churches of the city, to
kneel at the altars where the Saints have prayed, to press
their lips to the shrines of the martyrs, to see the places
associated with the memories of God's holy ones, to visit
their homes, their tombs, the scenes of their labours and
conflicts, the spots hallowed by their virtues or bedewed
with their blood.
For such pilgrims the following notes have been
gathered, in the hope that they may derive from them
some additional religious consolation during their visit to
the Eternal City. Not being intended for scholars or
students of sacred archaeology, who have plenty of
learned works to refer to, the notes are very condensed
and lay no claim to deep research ; they mention but
briefly monuments or objects of purely secular interest,
and deal almost wholly with "the religious treasures and
traditions of Rome. Where the authenticity of some of
these religious treasures has been questioned by recent
writers, the fact is noted.
A few legendary stories, sanctioned by the tradition of
ages, like that of the apparition of the angel on Hadrian's
mole (Castel S. Angelo), have been introduced, but in
each case the reader is made aware that the story rests
only on popular tradition.
References are given throughout to works where
fuller information may be sought on points of interest.
In such an array of facts, names and dates, some
errors will have escaped the writer, and he will be
grateful if the reader will kindly draw his attention to
any mistake that is detected.
 INTRODUCTION
The work of compilation has not been slight, but it
will be well repaid if even one pilgrim feels that the book
has added something to the joy and consolation of his
visit to the city of the Saints.
Others, who have no opportunity of visiting Rome,
may also wish to read about its holy places, and to visit,
at least in spirit, the spots consecrated by the faith, the
piety, the heroic endurance of the Saints.
It should be added that all the profits of the sale of
the Volume will be applied to the Zambesi Mission.

SECOND EDITION.
The first edition of 2,400 copies, published in 1903 in
New York at the office of The Messenger, was nearly
exhausted in a twelvemonth. The second edition, pre
pared at the request of many prelates, priests, and lay
persons of distinction, was printed at the Manresa Press,
Roehampton, London, S.W., in 1905. Though smaller
in size than its predecessor, it contains considerably more
matter, over two hundred additions having been made
to the text.

THIRD EDITION.
The favour with which the two previous editions
were received has led to the issue of a third, greatly
enlarged edition, with 55 pages of additional matter
describing Pilgrim-Walks to Tivoli, Frascati, Grotta
Ferrata, Albano, Subiaco, Genezzano, Palestrina, &c,
places full of Catholic and historical interest, which no
visitor to Rome should leave without seeing, if possible.
The book is thus more complete, supplying information
not to be found in any other guide-book.
 PILGRIM-WALKS IN ROME.

CHAPTER I.
To St. Peter's on the Vat1can.
I. ST. PETER IN ROME.
St. Leo the Great, preaching at St. Peter's tomb on the
Saint's feast about a.d. 440, speaks as follows :
"The spot which has been glorified by the death of the
chiefs of the Apostles, should have the chief place of joy on the
(anniversary) day of their martyrdom. For these, O Rome, are
the men through whom the light of Christ's gospel shone upon
thee, when she, who was the mistress of error, became the
disciple of truth. They are thy holy Fathers and true Pastors,
having with better and happier omens founded thee for a place
in the heavenly kingdom, than those who laid the first stones
of thy walls, of whom the one, who gave thee thy name, stained
thee with his brother's blood. They it is who have raised thee
to this height of glory, that being made by the sacred See of
Peter, the head of the world, as a holy people, a chosen nation,
a priestly and royal city, thy rule might be wider spread through
a divine religion than an earthly domination. Because far as,
crowned with many victories, thou hast stretched thy empire
by land and sea, the strife of war has gained thee a smaller
realm than has the peace of Christ."1
That St. Peter came to Rome and there established his
Apostolic See, sealing his faith with the shedding of his blood,
is an historical fact handed down in the tradition2 of the
Church, and fully treated under the question of his primacy in
works on dogmatic theology. The Vatican Council,3 a.d. 1870,
declares that the Roman See was founded by St. Peter and
1 Serm. I de SS. Apost. Petro et Paulo,
2 Tradition, that is, in its wider sense, not the Sacred Tradition
which is part of the Deposit of Faith.
3 Constit. 2 Cap. ii.
B
2 THE VATICAN HILL
consecrated with his blood. No Catholic is free to question
this truth.
It will be sufficient here to refer briefly to the chief authorities
quoted by theologians in support of this tradition.
1. The Councils of Aries (314), of Nice (325), of Ephesus
(431), of Chalcedon (451), of the Vatican (1870).
2. The Fathers of the Church, v.g., St. Clement (96), St.
Ignatius of Antioch (107), Papias (120), Clement of Alexandria
(217), St. Irenaeus (202), Tertullian (245), Origen (254), Firmilian
(256), Eusebius (315), St. Optatus (375), St. Jerome (390), St.
Augustine (429).r
Even Protestant writers of note admit the fact as incon
testable, v.g., Dr. Cave, Dr. Nathaniel Lardner, Dr. Pearson,
Whiston, Dean Milman, and Archbishop Bramhall.2
To these may be added the testimony of Lanciani, the
eminent archaeologist, who writes as follows : " For the archaeo
logist, the presence and execution of SS. Peter and Paul in
Rome are facts established beyond a shadow of doubt by purely
monumental evidence."3 He adds that those who have followed
the progress of recent discoveries can no longer question the
fact.
Who have denied that St. Peter was Bishop of Rome i
1. No single writer, pagan or Christian, heretic or Catholic,
can be quoted as denying it until the thirteenth century. It
was a fact accepted as unimpeachable by the whole world, by
friend and foe, without the slightest doubt, as far as we know,
for twelve hundred years.
2. It was denied for the first time in history by the Waldenses,
and after them by Wickliff and Marsilius of Padua, on the
frivolous and insufficient ground that the fact was not mentioned
in the New Testament.
3. Since Luther's day it has been denied by the German
rationalists, v.g., Bauer, Wiener and others, men who have
dissolved St. Peter himself and all the facts of the Gospel and
of early Christianity into fables and myths.

2. THE VATICAN HILL.

The considerable stretch of country that lies between the
Janiculum and the Milvian bridge (Ponte Molle) on the west
bank of the Tiber, was known to the ancients as Colles and
1 Tepe, S.J. Instit. Theol., vol. i. de Eccl. n. 366, seq., pp. 294, seq.
2 Rt. Rev. J. Bilsborrow, Four Lectures on the Primacy, &c,
PP- 24, 25.
3 Pagan and Christ1an Rome.
 FIRST GREAT PERSECUTION 3
Campi Vaticani. The district was crossed by the important
roads Via Cornelia, Via Vaticana, Via Aurelia, and was a sort
of pleasure ground of the Romans, covered with gardens and
adorned with many noble monuments1 that towered above the
surrounding trees. Here was the little farm of L. Quintius
Cincinnatus, who was summoned from the plough to assume
the office of Dictator at a crisis of the affairs of the republic.
Here likewise were the farm of Mutius Sctevola, the villas of
Geta and of Galba, of Regulus Cattsidicus and a host of other
well-known families. The place had its temples too, of Apollo,
Mars, Cybele, Faunus, and it was in the temple of Apollo that
the pagan priests deluded the people by lying oracles known
as vaticinia, whence the name Vatican is thought to be derived.
The traditions of the locality were all pagan, yet this was the
spot in which St. Peter was to consummate his martyrdom, and
to which a long stream of Christian worshippers was to flow to
the end of time.
On the slopes of the Vatican hill, as it rises gently from the
river (near the spot where St. Peter's now stands) were the
famous gardens of Agrippina, mother of Caligula, which in
course of time became crown property, and were a favourite
resort of the profligate young Emperors Caligula, Nero, Helio-
gabalus. The gardens enclosed a portico on the riverside and
a circus, begun by Caligula and finished by Nero. In the
centre of the spina, or middle line of the circus, between the two
meta (goals), stood the famous obelisk brought from Egypt by
Caligula, which now stands in front of St. Peter's. Outside the j
sacristy of the basilica a stone with an inscription let into the |
pavement marks the original site of the obelisk, whence it was
removed by Sixtus V. I
These gardens were the scene of the fearful agony and
death of a great multitude2 of Christians in the First great
Persecution of the Church.
In the year 64, Nero set fire to Rome, partly out of a spirit
of fiendish mischief, partly from a wish to rebuild it on a scale
of greater magnificence ; being alarmed at the storm of popular
excitement, in his wish to screen himself from suspicion, he
charged the Christians3 with the crime. Such was the origin
of the persecution. The poor Christians were arrested in great
1 The chief monuments were those erected to Romulus, Numa, Scipio,
and Valerian, also the tombs of Numidicus, and Marcus Aurelius.
2 Tacitus, Annates, lib. xv. n. 44.
3 As the purity of their lives was a censure on the corruption of
the age, and their total separation from pagan festivities an occasion
of hatred and contempt, Nero thought them fit subjects for public
vengeance.
4 ST. PETER'S MARTYRDOM
numbers, and suffered by terrible and hitherto unheard of
forms of death. They were sewn up in the skins of beasts and
exposed to wild dogs to be torn to pieces; they were wrapped
in garments saturated with pitch, and then hung up on lofty
gallows and set fire to in the dusk of the evening.1 Their
remains, buried in the grottoes of the Vatican hill, lie some
where near St. Peter's tomb, and their triumph is com
memorated in the Roman martyrology on June 24.
SS. Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom in this same per
secution on the same day, June the 29th, and in the same year,
either a.d. 66 or 67. There is some controversy as to the
precise year, but the latter seems to be the one generally
accepted.
Baronius, Panciroli, and others held that St. Peter was
martyred on the Janiculum, where the church of S. Pietro
in Montorio now stands. Anastasius Bibliothecarius, Mallius,
Comestor, Bosio, Arringhi and most modern writers say that
he was put to death in Nero's circus on the Vatican, and this
opinion is now generally accepted. The reasons urged in
favour of the Vatican as the site of martyrdom are :
1. The tradition on which Baronius, &c., rely, goes back
no further than the eleventh century, whereas the tradition in
favour of Nero's circus on the Vatican can be traced to the
fourth century.2
2. A writer of the fourth century says the Apostle was
crucified "juxta palatium Neronianum — juxta obeliscum
Neronis." But there was no such obelisk on the Janiculum.
3. A very early tradition says that he was martyred " inter
duas metas," " between the two goals " (of the circus). In the
middle ages the two meta were supposed to refer to two
pyramidal monuments known as the tombs of Romulus and
Remus, situated the one at the Ostian gate (Porta di S. Paolo)
which still exists, viz., the tomb of C. Cestius; the other near
S. Maria Traspontina, which was destroyed by Alexander VI I.
S. Pietro in Montorio being in the line between these two
land-marks, is supposed to be referred to as inter duas metas;
1 Tacitus (Annales) relates that the atrocious cruelties inflicted on
these innocent victims ended by winning for them a certain degree of
pity, and by swelling the torrent of popular indignation which was soon to
overwhelm the crowned monster. Seneca was one whom these horrible
spectacles struck with admiring compassion, as may be gathered from
his letters. ( Epist. xiv. et lxxviii.). Seneca, of whom Tertullian, in
his treatise De Anima, says that he is soepc noster, was an eye-witness
of the final struggles of many of these martyrs of Christ.
2 Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome, p. 462. Grisar, S.J., / Papi del
medio Evo, vol. i. pp. 367, 368, 408.
 ST. PETER'S TOMB 5
but this is a very forced interpretation, and would have been
a most vague topographical indication.
The Apostle, at his own request, was crucified with his
head downwards, for he accounted himself unworthy of dying
in the same manner as his Divine Master. This fact is
mentioned by St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and
Prudentius.1 We are told that St. Clement, his third successor
in the Pontificate, St. Marcellus, a priest, St. Apuleius, one of
his disciples, together with SS. Anastasia and Basilissa,
afterwards martyred under Nero, came and took down the
body of the Apostle2 and having washed it in wine mingled
with myrrh, aloes and spikenard, and having carefully
embalmed it, wrapped it in fine linen and placed it in a
marble urn which they had before strewn with leaves of laurel
and ivy as a symbol of their faith in the future life.3 With
many fervent prayers they deposited the remains in a tomb on
the Via Cornelia, close to the circus of Nero, and they placed
at the same time the foot of the sarcophagus toward the east,
and marked by an inscription the place where remains so
precious were buried.4
The tomb still remains in the original spot. The temporary
removal of the body for a short period to the cemetery on the
Appia Via, will be referred to later, when we visit S. Sebastiano.
3.—THE MEMORIA OR ORATORY OVER ST. PETER'S TOMB
ERECTED BV POPE ST. ANACLETUS.
St. Anacletus, who had been ordained by St. Peter, and who
succeeded St. Linus in the Papal See, constmxit memoriam,
i.e., built a memorial chamber or oratory over the Apostle's
tomb,5 which remained undisturbed till Constantine replaced it
by a rich, vaulted chamber (Confession of St. Peter), when he
erected his splendid basilica. Allard6 shows that such a
1 Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, June 29.
a The law allowed in certain cases the bodies of those put to death
to be given to their friends for burial. Allard, Hisloire des Persecutions,
vol. i. p. 315.
3 Aless. d'Achille, / sepolcri dei Rom. Pontifici, vol. i. p. 3.
Filippo Mignanti, lstoria della Basilica Vaticana, c. ii. p. II. Cav.
de Rossi, Roma Sotteranea Cristiana, vol. i. p. 135. Eusebius, Hist.
Eccl. [Link]. c. xxiv. &c.
4 MacLeod, S.J., The Month, November, 1869, p. 499.
5 This Memoria was to distinguish it from the resting-places of other
martyrs and early Christians in the same locality, and to secure the
erection of an altar, that a place already so consecrated might be
rendered still more sacred by the presence of the Holy Mysteries.
8 Histoire des Persecutions, vol. i. p. 315.
6 OLD ST. PETER'S
memoria or sepulchral chamber would have been respected by
the pagans, and would not be likely to be disturbed at any
time during the first and second centuries.
In the beginning of the third century, the Emperor
Heliogabalus enlarged the circus of Nero, and for this purpose
destroyed many of the tombs along the Via Cornelia, but, by a
special interposition of Divine Providence, as Tertullian observes,
the Memoria or tomb-oratory of St. Peter was left undisturbed.
That simple oratory was, to the early Christians, the most
sacred spot in Rome and even in the world outside Palestine.
Thither they came by stealth through the dark days of
persecution to kneel at the Apostle's tomb, and implore his
help while girding themselves for the conflict, or to pray for
those who were actually bleeding in the arena. Thither
pilgrims flocked from all parts of Italy, and even from the
distant provinces of the Roman Empire; and, if we may credit
the Acts of different Martyrs, they came also from Egypt,
from parts of Africa, and from Persia, even as early as the
year 270. It was known from remote times as the Confessio
Beati Petri, " St. Peter's Confession," 1 and was regarded as
the very heart of the Church.
For two centuries the successors of St. Peter in the Papacy
were buried near his tomb, with the exception of St. Clement,
who was martyred in Chersonesus (Crimea). The Catacomb
of St. Callixtus began to be the place of Papal sepulture in the
third century.

4. —THE BASILICA OF CONSTANTINE. " OLD ST. PETER'S."

It is stated in the Liber Pontificalis, written by Anastasius
Bibliothecarius 2 in the eighth century, that the Emperor
Constantine after his miraculous conversion :t caused the body
of St. Peter to be exhumed in presence of Pope St. Sylvester,
and enshrined in a case of silver enclosed within a sarcophagus
of Cyprian brass.4 Over this he placed a large cross ofgold weigh-
1 Confession, i.e., the tomb of a Martyr or Confessor of the Faith.
If an altar was erected over the grave, the name was extended also to
the altar and to the subterranean chapel in which it stood. When a
basilica was built, the high altar, placed over the altar of the tomb
below, was also called Confession.
8 Anastasius compiled only part of the Liber Pontificalis, or
" Chronicle of the Popes," probably the part beginning with St. Leo
the Great. The rest is supposed to have been written by clerics at the
Lateran. See Grisar, S.J., I Pafi del medio Evo, vol. ii. p. 605.
3 See No. 41.
4 Anastas. Biblioth. 5. Sylvester, n. 38.
 OLD ST. PETER'S 7
ing one hundred and fifty pounds, and bearing the inscription :
" Constantinus Aug. et Helena aug. hanc domum regalem
[auro decorant quam]1 simili fulgore coruscans aula circumdat."
The body was then restored to its original tomb, over which
he erected an altar and a vaulted chamber (in place of
St. Anacletus' memoria) faced interiorly with plates of gold.
This chamber was, and still is, right under the high-altar of
St. Peter's basilica, and on the Apostle's tomb still lies the cross
of gold, as will be shown later.
In front of the tomb the Emperor placed four immense
candelabra of brass, each weighing three hundred pounds,
with silver lamps, where lights were kept constantly burning;
and right over the tomb he hung a golden lamp weighing
thirty-five pounds.2 The altar over the tomb he covered with
plates of gold and silver studded with jewels.3
The temple of Apollo mentioned above was destroyed,
and the Emperor began the erection of his great basilica
in the year 323, labouring at the work with his own hands,
himself carrying away twelve basket-loads of earth in honour
of the twelve Apostles.4 It measured 395 feet in length by
212 in width, and was in the form of a cross. Eighty-eight
marble columns separated the nave from the aisles and
supported an open roof, the trusses of which were of the king
post pattern and bore the name of Constantine. The horizontal
beams, lowered by Carlo Maderna in 1606, measured 77 feet
long and three feet thick.5
A short description of "Old St. Peter's" is here inserted
borrowed from Ciampini's " De Sacris jEdificiis."6
1. The Portico. A long covered colonnade consisting of
two rows of marble columns bound together by an architrave
and supporting a leaden roof conducted to the basilica from
the other side of the Tiber. Its starting point was the Arch
of Gratian, where the church of SS. Celso e Giuliano now
stands.7
This portico crossed the river by the Aelian Bridge (Ponte
S. Angelo), and then branched in two directions, one limb
following the course of the present Via di Borgo vecchio, the
other stretching itself along the banks of the Tiber. As the
1 The words in brackets are not found in Anastasius. They were
supplied by De Rossi. Inscript. Christ, t. ii. p. la, p. 200.
2 Grisar, S.J., I Papi del medio Evo, vol. i. p. 402.
3 Anastas. Biblioth. S. Sylvester, n. 38.
* Roman Breviary, November 18. Mirabilia Roma (XII. cent.)
5 Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 138.
6 The Month, November, 1869.
7 See No. 37.
3 OLD ST. PETER'S
portico was insufficient for the numbers that thronged it, two
new rows of pillars were added along its whole length, thus
forming a triple passage, and we are told that an incessant
stream of pilgrims poured through these covered ways, along
which vendors of religious objects, formerly called in Rome
baternostrari, sold their wares.'
2. The Great Steps. A flight of steps in five divisions that
contained five steps in each, some of marble and others of
porphyry, led up to the outer vestibule of the basilica.
The humility and devotion of pilgrims prompted them to
ascend these steps on their knees, holding lighted tapers in
their hands. To shelter them from the burning sun Pope
St. Symmachus had placed walls with projecting roofs at the
two extremities of the steps, beside which stood two statues of
St. Peter and St. Paul.
At the head of these steps was a large open terrace, 200
palms long, and paved with rare marbles, where many an
ancient Pope was crowned, where Emperors, surrounded by
their Court, did not disdain to receive from the hands of the
Pope the insignia of their rule, where Kings were met by the
Sovereign Pontiff, and from which, on certain occasions, the
Papal Benediction was given to the people.8
3. The Vestibule. Three large doors framed in by four
lofty marble columns, that now grace Paul V's fountain of
Acqua Paolina, admitted to a vestibule, where stood the
penitents of the first degree, begging with tears in their eyes
the prayers of those who entered. Three corresponding doors
opened from the vestibule into the Atrium or large square
portico, and over the middle door (on the atrium side) was the
famed Navicella of Giotto, which will be referred to later. It
represented the bark of St. Peter tossed amongst the waves,
and cost 2,200 gold florins.
The view of the basilica from this door must have been
very striking. The facade, lit by the noonday sun, must have
dazzled the eye by the brilliance of its mosaics and its many
gilt ornaments.
4. The Atrium or Paradisus. This was a large court 235
palms long by 200 in breadth with an arcaded corridor round
its four sides. It was named II Paradiso, as being typical of
the earthly Eden, while the basilica itself was the type of
1 MacLeod, S.J., The Month, November, 1869, p. 501 ; Thurston, S.J. ,
Holy Year ofJubilee, p. 149.
2 For information on the churches of S. Apollinaris in Palmata
and S. Maria in Turri, at the entrance to Old St. Peter's, see The
Month, November, 1869, p. 503.
 1

Plan of Old St. Peter's, with Nero's Circus on the left.

(See pages 8, 9. )
 OLD ST. PETER'S 9
Heaven. In early times it was planted with trees, palms,
olives, and cypresses ; at a later period it was paved with
marble, and the trees disappeared. At the left-hand corner, as
you entered, stood a rich mausoleum roofed in with rarest
porphyry, in which Valentinian III and the English Kings
Cadwalla and Offa are said to have been buried. Each side
of the area or Paradiso was enclosed by a portico supported
by thirteen columns with Corinthian capitals.
5. The Fountain of St. Damasus. The most prominent
object within the Paradiso was a grand fountain placed in the
centre by St. Damasus for the refreshment of pilgrims. It
consisted of a large pine-cone made of bronze planted on a
solid base. From its leaves and summit poured forth a
plentiful supply of water, rising to a considerable height and
then splashing down into a shell of porphyry beneath. The
whole was surmounted by a canopy of bronze of convex form,
having a cross in its centre and supported by eight Corinthian
pillars. At a later period a second fountain of plainer form
was erected between the first one and the basilica.
6. The five great doors. Old St. Peter's was of the true
basilica shape, and would have reminded us of St. Paul's on the
Ostian Way. On the facade, which rose to a height of 220
palms from the ground, were rich designs of mosaic work and
other ornamentation.
The basilica had five naves entered by five large doors.
The first door, counting from left to right, was the Porta
Judicii, through which funerals entered or passed out. The
second was the Porta Ravenniana, or Ravenna entrance, for
the inhabitants of Trastevere, known as " Ravennati " in the
middle ages. The centre door was the Porta Argentea,
opened only on grand occasions. It derived its name from
the silver plates or ornaments affixed to it by Honorius I
(626—656). The Liber Pontificalis informs us that 975 pounds
of silver were used in the work. It fell a prey to the Saracens
in 845, after which bronze plates were substituted. On its
right was the Porta Romana, reserved for women, and next
it the Porta Guidonea for pilgrims, which opened into the
oratory of John VII, where was kept the relic of the Volto
Santo. The name Guidonea refers to the Guidones or guides
stationed within the door, who accompanied the pilgrims.1
7. The Interior. On entering the building, the pilgrim
must have been greatly struck by the noble proportions of the
interior, the long lines of pillars, the profusion of sculptured
ornaments, the glitter of the high altar in the distance, the
1 Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 137 ; Thurston, S.J.,
Holy Year ofJubilee, p. 151.
10 OLD ST. PETER'S
height of the heavy-beamed roof, the beauty of the mosaic
pavement underfoot. Four rows of columns, 22 in each row,
divided the building into five naves, each of the 88 pillars
being of the Corinthian order. Over the capitals of the columns
of the central nave ran the massive architrave, sculptured in
Parian marble, which Nicholas I I I covered with mosaics and
adorned with medallions of the Popes. The divisions of the
wall above, between the windows, contained histories from the
Old and New Testament richly frescoed. In this middle nave,
slightly in advance of the entrance, was the place for the order
of penitents, called Stantes.1 Along the length of the basilica
and in its side chapels were rich altars, covered with mosaics
and emblematic paintings, also sculptured monuments of great
beauty, the chief artistic treasures being in the transept.
8. The High Altar. In front of the high altar was the choir,
formed by a boundary of low arches adorned with bas-reliefs
and rich curtains, and flanked on either side by a marble
ambone or pulpit. On the further side of the choir and beyond
the twelve lofty pillars over the Confession, stood the sanctuary,
having the high altar in its centre, and approached by two
flights of seven porphyry steps, one on each side of the Con
fession.2 This high altar was originally the only one in the
basilica,3 and was (along with the columns of the sanctuary)
the work, not of Popes, but of Constantine himself. It was the
first stone altar ever raised for Christian worship. Till Pope
St. Sylvester otherwise appointed it, altars had been always
made of wood, and were portable, in order that they might be
saved from desecration at the hands of unbelievers.
" Round this altar millions have bent the knee ; round it
circled the teaching and graces of the Church ; and near it lay
the relics of hundreds of the Church's Saints, witnesses alike
of her Sanctity, her Catholicity, her Unity, and her Apostolicity."
(J. MacLeod, SJ.)
9. The Triumphal Arch. The Baptistery of St. Damasus.
The Triumphal Arch between the central nave and the
transept glistened with golden mosaics representing the
Emperor being presented by St. Peter to our Saviour, to whom
he was offering a model of the basilica.4 This mosaic with the
dedicatory inscription was unfortunately destroyed in 1525.
1 Further up the nave were the penitents of the degree Prostrati,
and near the choir were the Consistentes.
2 These steps are still preserved, being those by which we ascend
to the present apse or tribuna.
3 In course of time the nave and aisles were filled with as many
as sixty-eight altars.
4 Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 139.
 DESTRUCTION OF THE OLD BASILICA tl
The Baptistery of St. Damasus was at the end of the right
transept, the font being surrounded by columns, probably like
that of the Lateran baptistery, which is still preserved. As the
streams from the Vatican hill filtered through the foundations
into the tombs, St. Damasus drained the hillside and used the
water to supply the baptismal font, according to an inscription
composed by him and still preserved in the Lateran museum.1
In this baptrstery stood the famous Chair of St. Peter ; and
Ennodius of Pavia, who lived at the end of the fifth century,
speaking of the newly-baptized, who went from the font to be
confirmed, says the Bishop was seated in the sella gestatoria
apostolica confessionis.2
A painting of the interior of" Old St. Peter's," by N. Poussin,
will be found in the left aisle of <9. Martino ai monti. Though
only half the size of the present basilica, the edifice covered a
greater space than any mediaeval cathedral, except those of
Milan and Seville. A long list of costly presents made by
Constantine to the basilica is given by Anastasius Bibliothe-
carius,3 and the immense yearly revenues he assigned to it, and
the other basilicas he built in Rome (viz., those of St. Paul, the
Lateran, St. Laurence, St. Agnes, SS. Peter and Marcellinus),
will be found in De Bussierre and Alban Butler.4 The basilica
was solemnly consecrated by Pope St. Sylvester in presence of
the Emperor and Court on November 18, 324.

5. THE DESTRUCTION OF OLD ST. PETER'S.

Old St. Peter's had lasted some 1 126 years (i.e., from A.D.324
to 1450), when the walls began to settle down on the side where
the masonry of Nero's circus had been retained.
Lanciani says the destruction of this venerable basilica is
"one of the saddest events in the history of the ruin of Rome,"5
yet it was considered a necessity, for in Nicholas V's time (1447
— 1455) the structure was found to be in a damaged state, and
the roof threatened to fall. He conceived the idea of entirely
rebuilding it, but did little or nothing because of the enormous
sums required. Pope Benedict XII (1334—1342) had spent
80,000 gold florins (i.e., some ,£480,000 of our money) in repair
ing the roof ; but a century later it was found to be again unsafe,
1 Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome, p. 1 18.
5 Thurston, S.J., Holy Year ofJubilee, p. 155.
8 XXXIV. S. Sylvester, n. 38.
4 Les sept Basiliques, rol. i. c. ii. pp. 226, seq. ; Lives of the Saints,
November 18.
8 Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 143.
 DESTRUCTION OF THE OLD BASILICA
thousands of rats having made holes in the beams,1 and the
southern wall was leaning three feet seven inches to the side,
so that the pilgrims, who came to the Jubilee of 1450, were
naturally alarmed.
The work of destruction and of reconstruction planned by
Nicholas V had to be postponed for half a century on account
of the difficulties of the times.
Julius II (1503— 1513), elected Pope in 1503 at the age of 60,
at once resolved to carry out Nicholas' design. He summoned
to his counsel the greatest architects of the day. The Cardinals,
when consulted, were opposed to the project on the grounds of
the difficulties of the times, of the tremendous cost of such an
undertaking, and of the danger to the faith and devotion of
thousands incurred by the removal, and, in some cases, probable
loss of so many precious memorials and sacred relics of past
ages. But Julius was resolute, and in February, 1506,2 the
operations commenced.
A partition wall was built across the basilica and the western
portion was first destroyed.3 It took nearly a century to rebuild
this western section from the partition wall to the apse. " The
demolition of the western section began on February 21, 1506,
and ninety years later the partition wall was taken down, and
the new temple was seen in all its glory." (Lanciani.)
It is a matter of the deepest regret that the work of demo
lition was carried out by Bramante hurriedly, with wanton
destruction of the mosaics of Constantine, of countless mediaeval
monuments, and of priceless treasures of art.
The modern basilica, with all its splendour, can never
adequately supply the place which the original sanctuary held
in Catholic hearts, for it had been the central point of the
Church's history for nearly twelve hundred years, and was a
connecting link with the Church of the Catacombs.
It was intended at first to save the splendid atrium or
quadrangular portico in front of the basilica, and Michael
Angelo's plan would have secured its preservation ; but,
unfortunately, Paul V decided, in 1605, to prolong the nave, and
so all that remained of the older edifice was sacrificed.
1 Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 143.
2 In the same year the foundation stone of New St. Peter's was
laid by Julius II.
s The western portion included the transepts and apse.
 THE BUILDING OF NEW ST. PETER'S 13

6.—THE BUILDING OF NEW ST. PETER'S.

The following outline of the more important events con
nected with the rebuilding of St. Peter's (a work which lasted
108 years) may interest the reader.
1506. April 11. The laying of the foundation stone under
the present large pier of St. Veronica by Julius II, in presence
of thirty-five Cardinals. The architect selected by the Pope
was Bramante d'Urbino (Lazzaro), whose design presented the
form of a Greek cross surmounted by a magnificent dome or
cupola, and flanked by small towers or turrets. So rapidly did
the building, not only of the four massive pilasters, but of the
northern and western tribunes, proceed, that Bramante before
his own and the Pope's death, or within eight years, raised
them to the height of the great cornice whence the arches wtre
to spring. He also finished the vaulted roof of the west
tribune.
1 5 1 3. Febr. 13. Death of Julius II, who was succeeded by
Pope Leo X (Julian de Medici). .
1 514. Death of Bramante. Leo X entrusted the work to a
commission of three architects, Raphael,1 Julian da Sangallo,2
Giacondo da Verona, O.P., who soon discovered that Bramante's
work had been too hastily done, that the foundations were
insecure and required strengthening. They also decided that
Bramante's plan should assume the form of a Latin cross.
1 5 17. Death of Giuliano da Sangallo.
1520. Death of Raphael. Leo X entrusted the continuation
of the work to Baldassare Peruzzi and Antonio da Sangallo,
nephew of Giuliano. Peruzzi reverted to Bramante's design,
that of the Greek cross, making each of the four sides terminate
in an apse.
1 52 1. Death of Leo X who was succeeded by Clement VII.
1527. A storm burst on Rome. Lutheran hordes led by
Constable de Bourbon swooped down upon the city and plun
dered the Vatican and St. Peter's.
1534. Death of Clement VII. He was succeeded by
Paul III. Death of Baldassare Peruzzi. The new Pope placed
the superintendence of the work entirely in the hands of
Antonio da Sangallo.
1 546. Death of Antonio da Sangallo. The work had as yet
made little progress since the death of Leo X.
1546. Paul III sent for Michael Angelo, then in his seventy-
second year, and this great painter, sculptor, and architect
1 Raffaelle Sanzio d'Urbino, b. 1483, d. 1520.
a Giuliano da Sangallo, b. 1445, d. 1517.
 THE APPROACH TO t ST. PETER'S
adopted Bramante's plan, enlarging the tribune and transept,
and beginning the dome from designs of his own.
1564. Death of Michael Angelo, leaving the dome unfinished.
1585. Election of Sixtus V. Michael Angelo's great dome,
with modifications by Giacomo della Porta, was completed in
1590.
1603. The partition wall built across the basilica was taken
down and the western section of the new temple was revealed
in all its glory.
1605. Paul V, with Carlo Maderna for his architect, decided
to lengthen the nave, and for this purpose destroyed all that
remained of the older edifice. The plan of the Latin cross was
again adopted.
1614. The present facade designed by Maderna was com
pleted, but is quite unworthy of the great temple.
1626. Urban VIII solemnly consecrated the basilica on
November 18.
The cost of the building is said to have been 47 million
scudi, i.e., about ,£10,000,000. The new sacristy erected by
Pius VI in 1775, cost 900,000 scudi, i.e., about ,£180,000.
" St. Peter's was built at a period when architecture was in
a transition state, when the classical ideal and the Gothic
influence were warrmg against each other. And although the
best architects of the time were employed in its construction,
although no money was spared, and although the best as well
as the most costly and beautiful materials were used in its
decoration, it has defects which have been subjected to severe
criticism."1
7.—THE APPROACH TO ST. PETER'S.
The approach to the great temple, after emerging from the
narrow Borgo nuovo, is made through an immense piazza,
flanked by two semi-circular colonnades, which " run curving
out like giant arms, always open to receive the nations that go
up there to worship."2 In the piazza it is said that an army
of 200,000 men could be drawn up in rank and file, horse and
foot and guns.
" The piazza, with Bernini's colonnades, and the gradual
slope upwards to the mighty temple, gave me always a sense of
having entered some millennial view of Jerusalem, where all
things small and shabby were unknown." (George Eliot.)
The Colonnades, built by Bernini for Alexander VII. (1657
1 Tuker and Malleson, Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical
Rome. Part i. p. 69.
2 Marion Crawford, Ave Roma Immortalis.
 THE APPROACH TO ST. PETER'S 15
— 1667), form a striking approach to the great basilica. Each
colonnade has a width of 61 feet, a height of 64 feet, and
presents to the eye an impressive avenue of 142 gigantic
columns. On the entablature are ranged 182 statues of saints,
each 1 1 feet in height. Along these colonnades, used to pass
on every Corpus Christi festival, in the happy days before the
year 1870, the gorgeous procession of the Blessed Sacra
ment to the clanging of bells, the booming of cannon, the
chanting of hymns, and the waving of censers, amid a shower
of flowers.1
The great Obelisk in the centre of the piazza, is the one
referred to above as formerly occupying the centre of the spina
or middle line of Nero's circus, close to the spot where St. Peter
is said to have been martyred. It is one of the most remark
able monuments of antiquity in Rome, and one of the most
venerable, because of the crowds of martyrs who suffered near
it in the persecution of Nero. Sixtus V removed it from the
sacristy side of St. Peter's to its present position in 1586, and in
the bronze cross on its summit he enclosed a relic of the True
Cross. Its removal was quite a daring feat of engineering skill,
the weight being 332 tons. The height of the obelisk and base
is 132 feet, that of the shaft 83 feet.
The two noble Fountains in the piazza, which Cardinal
Wiseman describes as " sending up massive jets like blocks of
crystal into the hot sunshine, and receiving back a broken
spray, on which sits an unbroken iris,"2 stand like symbols
of the inexhaustible streams of sacramental grace ever flowing
in the Church of God.
Thackeray in The Newcomes observes : "You advance
towards the basilica through— oh, such a noble court ! with
fountains flashing up to meet the sunbeams ; and right and left
of you two sweeping half-crescents of great columns."
The ground we tread on is sacred because of the martyrs
who suffered here under Nero. Pope St. Pius V, while crossing
this piazza with the Polish Ambassador, suddenly stooped down
and gathered a handful of dust, saying : " Take this (as a relic),
for it has been reddened with the blood of martyrs."
Marion Crawford writes: "The foundations of Christen
dom's Cathedral are laid in earth wet with the blood of many
thousand martyrs. During 250 years every Bishop of Rome
died a martyr, to the number of thirty consecutive Popes. It is
really and truly holy ground, and it is meet that the air once
1 For Cardinal Wiseman's description of the Corpus Christi pro
cession at St. Peter's, see his Life by W. Ward, p. 40.
a The Last Four Popes.
16 THE GREAT PORTICO
rent by the death-cries of Christ's innocent folk should be
enclosed in the world's most sacred place, and be ever musical
with holy song and sweet incense."1
8.—THE EXTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S—THE BENEDICTIO
URBI ET ORBI.
A broad flight of steps leads up to the Portico or Vestibule.
In the Ages of Faith pilgrims would have ascended them on
their knees ; such is not the custom now, but a feeling of
intense reverence steals over us when we reflect how many
saints have ascended these very steps.
The fagade, built for Paul V by Carlo Maderna in 1614,
is disappointing in design but impressive because of its
vastness and solidity, fitting emblem of the Church built on
the Rock of Peter, against which the gates of hell shall never
prevail.
Over the middle entrance is the Balcony, whence the Pope
gave his solemn Benediction to the people every Easter Sunday
and every St. Peter's Day before the Piedmontese occupation
of 1870. It is hard, in these prosaic days, when the world is
smitten with the plagues of Freemasonry, Socialism and
Anarchism, to recall the impressive scene so often witnessed
of old, when the Pope, standing in this balcony, extended his
hands in blessing over a hundred thousand of his kneeling
children. The sudden appearance of the white-clad figure of"
the Pontiff under the awning stretched over the balcony ; the
thrilling sound of his voice as he chanted the benediction ;
the flash of the soldiers' swords raised to salute Christ's Vicar ; the
thunder of the cannon of Castel S. Angelo; the clang and peal
of St. Peter's bells, answered from the belfries of three hundred
other churches ; the acclamations of the crowd as he was borne
away in his sedia gestatoria—these are all things of the past,
which can only be seen and heard again when the Holy Father
recovers the freedom he could formerly exercise.

9.—THE GREAT PORTICO OR VESTIBULE.

Its size is enormous ; it measures 468 feet in length, is
66 feet high, and 50 feet wide. Five broad entrances admit to a
spacious hall, rich in marbles, gildings, stuccoes, with a pavement
of inlaid marble. At either extremity is an equestrian statue,
the one on the right being that of Constantine, the other of
Charlemagne. On the left of the middle door, affixed to the
1 Ave Roma Immortalis, p. 300.
Peter's Chair. (Chap. I, No.
 THE INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S 17
wall, is the epitaph composed by the order of Charlemagne
for the tomb of Pope Adrian I (772—795), a relic of Old
St. Peter's.1
Inside the porch, over the central arch, is the fragment of
Giotto's famous mosaic, the Navicella, or St. Peter's bark,
executed by the artist in 1289 and preserved at the time of the
demolition of Old St. Peter's.2 It is related of Cardinal
Baronius, the illustrious disciple of St. Philip Neri, that when
ever he passed this symbolic representation of Christ's Church,
he reverently uncovered his head.
Five huge doors give access to the Basilica. The bronze
doors in the centre belonged to Old St. Peter's, and were
executed by order of Eugenius IV (d. 1447) from the designs of
the Florentine workers, Filarete and Simone Baldi, brother of
Donatello. The bas-reliefs of the panels represent the martyr
dom of SS. Peter and Paul ; those upon the framework introduce
mythological subjects. The fifth door to the right, the Porta
Santa, is walled up, and opened only in years of Jubilee. Many
of the faithful kiss the cross on this doorway before entering the
Basilica.

IO.—THE INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S.

Pushing aside the heavy leathern curtains that hang in the
doorway we enter into Christendom's Cathedral, the Queen of
churches, the most stupendous edifice ever raised by the hand
of man to the worship of his Creator. The sight that " bursts
upon the astonished gaze, surpasses the wildest dreams of
imagination ; everything seems resplendent in light, magnifi
cence and beauty." (Eaton.)
" I saw St. Peter's," says Gray, " and was struck dumb with
astonishment." "We stopped at the vestibule of St. Peter's
church ; nor dare we with unhallowed pen violate the majesty
of so divine a structure ; for there are some things which are
never more adequately praised than by amazement and silence."
(Mabillon.)
As we enter, "the air is suddenly changed ; a hushed, half
rhythmic sound makes the silence alive. The light is not dim
or ineffectual, but soft and high, and is as rich as floating gold
in the far distance and in the apse, an eighth of a mile from the
door." (Marion Crawford.)
" It is unparalleled in beauty, in magnitude and magnifi-
1 Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome, p. 1 20.
3 Cardinal Stefaneschi paid 2, 200 gold florins to Giotto for this work
of art.
. C
i8 DIMENSIONS OF THE BASILICA
cence, and is one of the noblest and most wonderful of the
works of man." (Eaton.)
Architecture, sculpture, painting, represented by some of the
mightiest geniuses the world has ever seen, have done their
utmost to make St. Peter's a worthy house of God, a temple of
unrivalled splendour. On advancing up the nave 1 under an
arcade of stupendous arches, one is impressed by the beauty of
variegated marbles underfoot, the splendour of the golden vault
high overhead, the lofty Corinthian pilasters on either side, the
richly-gilded entablature, the colossal statues of saints, founders
of Religious Orders, the glowing mosaics above the altars.
Everything is rich, colossal, impressive, overpowering ; the eye
is bewildered at this vision of splendour seen through the
sunlit atmosphere, and gazes in wonder at the glorious lines of
arch and roof that follow on and on to the distant choir. At
certain hours of the day, the brilliancy is wonderful, all the
marbles and sculptures seem as fresh and new as though they
had only just left the workmen's hands, and the atmosphere
beneath the dome and in the choir seems laden with a mist of
gold.
In the centre of the floor near the entrance is a large round
slab of red porphyry, an object of great interest to foreigners, for
it was on this stone that Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire
were formerly crowned. Charlemagne knelt here when crowned
in the year 800.
II.—DIMENSIONS OF THE BASILICA.
" No one standing for the first time upon the pavement of
St. Peter's can make even a wide guess at the size of what he
sees, unless he knows the dimensions -of some one object. . . .
To feel one's smallness and realize it, one need only go and
stand beside the marble cherubs that support the holy water
basins against the first pillar of the nave. They look small, if
not graceful ; but they are of heroic size." (Aug. Hare.)
The nave is 613 feet long, 81 feet wide, 133 feet high ; the
transept is 449 feet long. The dome towers to a height of 448
feet above the pavement, with a diameter in the interior of 139
feet 9 inches, a trifle less than that of the Pantheon. Looking
up at the mosaic pictures of the four Evangelists on the
spandrels of the dome, notice the pen in St. Luke's hand ; it
seems of ordinary size, yet its length is about eight feet. The
1 The nave is divided from the aisles by four great piers faced with
Corinthian pilasters, which extend beyond the spring of the arches to
the vaulting of the roof.
 ST. PETER'S STATUE AND TOMB 19
letters on the frieze round the dome are about six feet high.
Fifty thousand persons would hardly fill the nave and transepts,
and it is said that the building will hold eighty thousand.1 The
enormous size of everything is not realized at first, and it is only
by observing the living, moving figures that one can form any
idea of its colossal proportions.

12. —STATUE OF ST. PETER.

As we advance up the nave, attracted by the ring of lights
that sparkle on the floor beneath the dome, we notice against
a pillar on our right the bronze figure of St. Peter seated on a
marble throne, the foot of which is reverently kissed by the
faithful. It is touching to watch the mothers as they lift up
their little ones to pay this act of homage to the great Prince
of the Apostles.
Father Grisar, S.J., proves the statue to be a work of the
sixth century, of the time of Pope St. Symmachus, and both he
and the eminent archaeologist, Lanciani, dismiss with contempt
the statement of certain Protestant writers that it was origin
ally a pagan statue.2
Every year on St. Peter's feast it is robed in a cope of gold
brocade, crowned with a jewelled tiara, and invested with other
pontifical insignia. An interminable line of persons passes
before it, each one kissing the right foot, to testify his reverence
for the Prince of the Apostles, and bending down his head to
receive St. Peter's blessing.

13. ST. PETER'S TOMB—AD LIMINA APOSTOLORUM.3

The first thought of every Catholic pilgrim in Rome
naturally turns to St. Peter's tomb, and only when he is kneeling
beneath Michael Angelo's wondrous dome, and looking down
into the oval space in front of the high altar, does he realize
that he has reached the goal of his pilgrimage. A marble
balustrade surrounds this sunken area, and a luminous crown
of ninety-three lamps in triple clusters sheds its splendour over
the hallowed spot. The descent is by a double flight of marble
steps, within the curve of which is a beautiful kneeling figure of
Pope Pius VI, by Canova. The walls are incrusted and the
floor paved with precious stones, jasper, porphyry, agate, &c.
1 It covers 240,000 square feet of ground, or about six acres.
1 Civiltci Caltolica, 1898. Analecta Jiomana, 1899, pp. 627, seq.
s Limitia, i.e., threshold, house. The word here stands for the
churches of the two Apostles.
20 ST. PETER'S TOMB
In front are two brass statues of SS. Peter and Paul guarding
the bronze doors that conceal a niche, the grated floor of which
stands immediately over the Apostle's tomb. On opening these
doors a gold coffer is seen; it is the work of Benvenuto Cellini,
and contains the Palliums destined for Archbishops. The
sides of the niche are decorated by two mosaics of SS. Peter
and Paul from designs of Michael Angelo; the back by an
ancient representation of our Divine Lord in mosaic preserved
from the older church.
As we kneel in front of this holy spot, illumined by the
mysterious splendour that streams from above, a feeling of
intense awe overpowers every other emotion; we realize the
dread majesty of the place. " This is truly the House of God
and the Gate of Heaven." How many saints have knelt here
since the dawn of Christianity ! Here St. Ignatius of Loyola,
St. Philip Neri, St. Dominic and others prayed in ecstasy and
bedewed the ground with their tears. Here kings and
emperors have come to lay their homage and even their
crowns at St. Peter's feet. Here in the dark days of perse
cution both Pontiffs and the faithful came to implore St. Peter's
help and protection. Here in the present troubles of the
Church, countless pilgrims have bent down, while from
countless hearts the prayer has gone up to Heaven, that God
would " preserve the Holy Father and give him life, and make
him blessed upon earth, and not deliver him up to the will of his
enemies."
It is related of the late Cardinal Vaughan that St. Peter's
tomb was to him the one great attraction in the Eternal City.
There he went frequently to pray, and in later years he said
Mass twice a week in the crypt of the basilica over the body of
the Apostle. His intense devotion to St. Peter made him
revere the very stones in the magnificent pile that is raised
over his relics, and he has been known to stroke its massive
pillars as if to caress them, while he repeated "This is the
church of Blessed Peter." 1
At the demolition of the ola basil1ca, in the time of Julius IIT
the tomb of St. Peter was left untouched. As some Protestants
have questioned whether St. Peter's body is still there, in the
very tomb where it was replaced in the time of Constantine, it is.
important to observe :
I. That the tombs of SS. Feter and Paul have been exposed
but once to imminent danger of desecration since the time of
Constantine, namely, when the Saracens invaded Rome and
plundered the churches in 846.
1 The Tablet, June 27, 1903, p. 1014.
 THE HIGH ALTAR 21
2. That Pope Sergius II had several months' warning of
their coming, and consequently time to wall up and conceal
perfectly the entrances to the vaults where the tombs were
situated.
3. That the Saracens never discovered the tombs, or they
would certainly have carried off the golden cross, weighing
1 50 pounds, which Constantine placed on St. Peter's tomb.
That the golden cross is still there is proved by the following
fact: In 1594, at the erection of the new altar, while the architect,
Giacomo della Porta, was levelling the floor above the Confes
sion, a portion of the pavement gave way, and through the
aperture the tomb of St. Peter became visible, and on it the
golden cross of Constantine inscribed with his own and his
mother, St. Helen's, names. Pope Clement VIII, with the
Cardinals Bellarmine and Antoniano, came to see it, and he
was so deeply impressed that he had the aperture at once
strongly sealed up, rendering the tomb once more invisible and
inaccessible.1

14.—THE HIGH ALTAR CANOPY AND DOME.

The High Altar is a Papal one, where formerly on great
festivals the Pope was wont to celebrate Mass.
" St. Peter's is only itself when the Pope is at the high altar,
. . . on the very spot which becomes him, the one living link
in a chain, the first ring of which is riveted to the shrine of the
Apostle below." (Cardinal Wiseman.)
Overshadowing the altar, Bernini's colossal baldachino,
with its four spiral columns of peerless bronze work, soars to a
height of 95 feet from the base of the pillars to the top of the
cross that surmounts it ; yet from the vastness of the building,
of which it is the central feature, no such idea of size is realized.
The weight of this mighty canopy is said to be 93 tons.
Crowning all stands Michael Angelo's wondrous Dome, the
mightiest effort of a master-hand. As we gaze upward, the
feeling is one of bewilderment ; we grow dizzy ; we wonder
how human power and human skill could have lifted and poised
in air such a prodigious cupola. The size is realized 1f two
persons stand on opposite sides of the great circle on the pave
ment corresponding to the immense sweep of the dome, and
measure the distance between them. Stones, bricks, timber,
cement, water, all had to be lifted to the height of 400 feet.
Sixtus V employed 600 skilled workmen, who worked day and
1 Marucchi, Basiliques dt Rome, p. 123 ; Lanciani, Pagan and
Christian Rome, c iii.
22 THE SIDE CHAPELS
night, and in two years the mighty structure was reared at the
cost of 200,000 gold scudi. Experts had estimated that it would
cost a million gold scudi, and would take ten years to build.1
"Everything in the place is vast ; all the statues are colossal ;
all the pictures are enormous." 2
15. THE SIDE CHAPELS AND ALTARS.
Twenty-seven chapels and altars are contained within the
aisles, apse and transept, most of them being richly adorned
by various princes. They may be visited in the following order
beginning with that which stands near the Porta Santa. The
numbers here given refer to those in the Plan.
1. Chapel of the Pieta, 1.e., of Our Lady of Dolours, adorned
with Michael Angelo's admirable group of our Lady holding
the dead body of her Divine Son on her knees. In this chapel
will be noticed a column decorated with vine branches trailing
round it. It tormerly stood near the Confession of the old
basilica. An mscription on the base states that it came origin
ally from the Temple of Jerusalem, and that our Saviour leaned
against it while praying or preaching.3 In the same chapel is
the rich sarcophagus of Anicius Probus (d. 395), with sculptured
figures of the Apostles.
2. Chapel of the Crucifix. Many of the more precious relics
of the basilica are preserved in this chapel, adjacent to which
is the monument of Leo XII (d. 1829).
3. Chapel of St. Sebastian. The altar is adorned with a
mosaic representing the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, after
Domenichino. The originals of several of these altar-pieces are
to be found in S. Maria degli Angeli.
4. Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, closed by an iron
gate. The bronze tabernacle is modelled after Bramante's
"Tempietto" at S. Pietro in Montorio. On the floor is placed
the superb bronze monument of Sixtus IV (d. 1484), designed
by Ant. Pollaiuolo. Close by, marked with a simple stone is
the grave of Julius II, for whom the fine monument in S. Pietro
in Vincoli was intended.
Under the arches of the aisle are the monuments of
Innocent XII (d.1700), Countess Matilda(d. 1115), Gregory XI I 1
(d. 1585), and Gregory XIV (d. 1591).
5. Gregorian Chapel : Our Lady of Help; the altar dates
from 1 1 18, and belonged to Old St. Peter's. Under it is the
1 Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 143. Thurston, S.J.,
Holy Year ofJubilee, -pp. 158, 159.
2 Marion Crawford, Ave Roma Immortalis.
1 Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome, p. 121.
 THE SIDE CHAPELS 23
tomb of Si. Gregory Nazianzen (d. 390) ; on the right is the
monument of Gregory XVI (d. 1846).
Proceeding to the right hand transept we pass the monument
of Benedict XIV (d. 1758).
In this transept the Vatican Council held its sessions in
1870. The altars are : 6. of St. Wenceslaus; 7. of .W. Processus
and Martinian, with their relics underneath ; 8. of St. Erasmus.
Above the latter altar is the Martyrdom of St. Erasmus, a mosaic
after Poussin.
Passing in front of Canova's monument of Clement XIII
(d. 1769) with its admirable figures of the two lions, we reach
9. The altar of St. Michael, having a mosaic after Guido
Reni.
10. The altar of St. Petronilla, under which lies the body
of the Saint. The splendid mosaic of the Burial of the Saint
is after Guercino. To the left of the altar stands the monument
of Clement X (d. 1676).
Against the two great piers that support the dome on this
side of the basilica, are four altars, viz. :
11. Altar of St. Jerome, with mosaic of the Communion of
St. Jerome, after Domenichino. The original is in the Vatican
Pinacoteca.
12. Altar of St. Basil, with the Mass of St. Basil, after
Subleyras.
13. Altar of the Navicella, with our Lord in St. Peter's bark,
after Lanfranco.
14. Altar of St. Peter, with the Raising of Tabitha, after
Costanzi.
1 5. Apse with altar of St. Peter's Chair1
On either side are the monuments of Urban VIII (d. 1644),
and Paul III (d. 1549). Canonization and Beatification solem
nities are held in this apse.
Against the two great piers of the dome on the south side
of the basilica are four altars arranged as follows :
16. Altar of SS. Peter and John, with Healing of the Lame
Man, after Mancini. Opposite is the monument of Alexander
VIII (d. 1691).
17. Altar of 56". Peter and Paul, with an oil-painting on
slate by Vanni; subject, the Punishment of Simon Magus. Oppo
site is the monument of Alexander VII (d. 1667) by Bernini.
18. Altar of SS. Peter and Andrew. Death of Ananias and
Sapphira, after Roncalli. Opposite is the door leading to the
Sacristy, and above the door is the monument of Pius VIII
(d. 1830) by Tenerani.
1 See No. 16.
 THE SIDE CHAPELS
19. Altar of the Transfiguration. The mosaic is the finest
in the basilica : it is referred to below under Mosaic Pictures.
The original is in the Vatican Pinacoteca.
20. Altar of St. Leo I, at the head of the left aisle, where a
beautiful marble relievo by AIgardi represents the meeting of
St. Leo the Great and Attila. Under the altar lies the body
of St. Leo I, while Leo XII is buried in the church floor in front
of this altar.
21. Altar of Our Lady of the Pillar. The column with the
picture of our Lady belonged to the old basilica, where the
picture was greatly venerated. A Christian sarcophagus under
this altar contains the bodies of SS. Leo I I, Leo I I I, and Leo IV.
22. Altar of St. Thomas. In front is the tomb of Palestrina,
the great composer (d. 1594).
23. Altar of St. Peter's Crucifixion. Mosaic after Guido
Rent.
24. Altar of St. Francis of Assisi.
25. Clementine Chapel : altar of St. Gregory the Great, the
Apostle of England.
The Saint's body lies enshrined under the altar. The
mosaic is after Andr. Sacchi.
On the left side of the chapel may be observed Thor-
valdsen's monument of Pius VII (d. 1823).
Under the arch leading to the next chapel are the monu
ments of Leo XI (d. 1605) and Innocent XI (d. 1689).
26. Choir Chapel, elaborately decorated by Delia Porta.
Beneath the altar is the body of St. John Chrysostom (d. 407).
The altar-piece in the choir chapel is a mosaic copy of the
Immaculate Conception, by Petro Bianchi, in S. Maria degli
Angeli. It was crowned by Pius X with the crown of twelve
diamond stars on December 8, 1904, the Jubilee of the defini
tion of the dogma.
Under the next arch is the monument of Innocent VIII
(d. 1492) by Pollaiuolo, preserved from Old St. Peter's.
Opposite it is the tomb where the most recently deceased Pope
rests until the completion of his tomb and monument else
where.
27. Chapel of the Presentation of our Lady in the Temple,
with mosaic after Romanelli.
The next arch covers Canova's monument of the last of the
Stuarts. "James III" and his sons, Charles Edward and
Henry Cardinal, Duke of York,1 erected at the expense of
George IV, who made an allowance to the last of the Stuarts.
Over the door leading to the dome is erected the monument of
1 They are buried in the crypt below the nave.
 ST. PETER'S CHAIR 25
Maria Clementina Sobieski (d. 1735), wife ol the Young
Pretender.
28. The Baptistery. The font, which is of porphyry, is
formed out of the cover of a sarcophagus, taken from the
mausoleum of Hadrian.
The altar piece is a copy in mosaic of the Baptism of our
Lord, by Carlo Maratta, in S. Maria degli Angeli.
Mosaic Pictures.—The magnificent mosaic pictures over
the side altars deserve special notice. It is only by the closest
inspection and at a certain angle of the incidence of light, that
one can detect them to be not paintings, but executed, bit by
bit, in exceedingly small particles of mosaic. They are all
copies of celebrated paintings, and were made in the
Vatican mosaic works at enormous cost. . The mosaic of
Raphael's " Transfiguration " (altar 19) is said to have occupied
ten men constantly for nine years, and to have cost 60,000
francs. " In execution they are wonderful, and many a stranger
looks at them and passes on, believing them to be oil-paintings.
They possess the quality of being imperishable and beyond all
influence of climate or dampness ; they are masterpieces of
mechanical workmanship."1 The most beautiful are the Trans
figuration, by Raphael; the Last Communion of St. Jerome,
by Domenichino ; and the Burial of St. Petronilla, by Guercino.

16.—st. peter's chaIr.

In the apse at the end of the basilica is a gigantic chair of
gilded bronze designed by Bernini, which is upheld by the four
great Doctors of the Church, two Greek and two Latin, viz.,
SS. Chrysostom and Athanasius ; SS. Ambrose and Augustine.
It contains the actual chair used by St. Peter as Bishop of
Rome. From the reign of Alexander VII till the year 1867
no one had ever set eyes upon it. In that year, however, on
the occasion of the eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of
the Apostle, Pius IX ordered it to be exposed for the veneration
of the people.
The Tablet"1 gives the following description of it: "The
ancient framework of yellow oak was found (in 1867) to
be worm-eaten and decayed, and bore marks of the pious
violence of the faithful who had chipped portions of it
away. These pieces of simple workmanship were adorned
with later, though still ancient, additions of a more ornate
kind. Panels of dark acacia wood bearing ivory squares with
* Marion Crawford, Ave Roma Immortalis.
2 Tanuary 25, 1902.
36 SHRINES AND RELICS
the labours of Hercules and other pagan scenes engraved upon
them filled up the front and sides of the chair, and the back
was composed ofthe same wood formed into arches surmounted
by a tympanum."
De Rossi and Marucchi have proved the existence of this
venerable relic as far back as the second century. In the sixth
century the Abbot John is recorded as having carried some of
the oil from the lamp burning before this apostolic throne to
the Lombard Queen, Theodolinda.
In the seventh century, Caedwalla, King of the West
Saxons, came to venerate this holy relic, as recorded in his
epitaph put up in Old St. Peter's by Pope Sergius I, and quoted
by St. Bede the Venerable in his Church History : " King
Caedwalla, the powerful in war, for love of God left all, that he
might visit and see Peter and Peter's Chair, and humbly
receive from that font the cleansing waters."
It is uncertain in what part of Rome St. Peter placed his
chair and the centre of administration of the primitive Church.
There is a tradition that it stood for a time in the house of
Pudens (S. Pudenziana), and then in the cemetery of Ostrianus
just beyond S. Agnese on the Via Nomentana. Professor
Marucchi, however, contends that its place was (for a time at
least) the ancient baptistery which has been brought to light at
the Catacomb of St. Priscilla on the Via Salaria. We have
seen above, that in the fifth century it occupied the Baptistery
of Pope Damasus in Old St. Peter's.1

17. —SHRINES OF SAINTS AND OTHER GREATER

RELICS.
1. In the Confession of St. Peter under the high altar lies
the body of the great Apostle. His head and that of St. Paul
have been venerated at the Lateran since the ninth century.2
Round the Apostle's tomb are gathered together the bodies
of his first successors, SS. Linus, Cletus or Anacletus, Evaristus,
Sixtus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, Eleutherius and Victor, all
martyred for the faith.
Somewhere in or near the basilica are said to be the
remains of the first Christians cruelly put to death by Nero,
whose number is known to God alone.
2. Under the side altars are the bodies of many great
saints, viz., SS. Simon and Jude, Apostles, St. Leo I,3 St. Leo II,
1 See No. 4. 2 See No. 47.
8 On St. Leo I and the barbarian chiefs Attila and Genseric,
see No. 22.
 GREATER RELICS *7
St. Leo III, St. Leo IV,1 St. Boniface IV, St. Gregory the Great,
St. Fabian, St. Sixtus II, and twenty-three other canonized
Popes; also St. John Chrysostom, SS. Processus and Martinian,
St. Petronilla Aurelia, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and many
others.
The head of St. Andrew the Apostle, solemnly translated by
Pius II in 1462 from S. Maria del Popolo is also preserved
here ; as are the heads of St. Luke the Evangelist, St. Sebastian
and St. Damasus. The head of St. Laurence, martyr, is rever
enced on the altar within the chapel of the relics.
3. The three Greater Relics of the Passion are :
(a) The Volto Santo, or Veil of St. Veronica, which bears
the impression of our Divine Lord's Face. No relic was more
famous in the Middle Ages, and none gave rise to such
enthusiastic manifestations of devotion. Marucchi says that
it is first mentioned in documents belonging to the eleventh
century, and that the first to speak of it was Bernard of
Soracte.2 Baronius states that the tradition concerning it
stretches back into time immemorial, ab immemorabili. The
supposed copies of the Volto Santo usually met with are, says
Marucchi, mere fancy representations—the original having
become so faint that the features can hardly be distinguished.
When on the occasion of which the year 1904 was the Jubilee,
Pope Pius IX caused the three great relics of the Passion to be
exposed on the altar of the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, in
St. Peter's, during the year 1854, the original Volto Santo was
carefully and frequently examined at close quarters by one who
testifies to very marked changes in the appearance of this relic.
On some days it was so very faint as scarcely to make any
impression on the eye at all, but on others the dim outlines
became comparatively quite distinct, and on the left cheek a
deeply shaded blur could be discerned, suggesting the infliction
of some violent blow. As the substance of the veil could have
been by no means externally approached, these alternations can
be attributed only to the varying effects of light or temperature
on marks deeply impressed upon the material itself. An antique
chest was long shown in the Pantheon, in which the relic was
at one time preserved.
1 By his prayers Italy was freed rom the incursions of the Saracens,
and a great fire was extinguished in the Borgo. These events form the
subjects of two of Raphael's frescoes.
2 Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome, p. 123. Alban Butler, Lives of the
Saints, January 13 (note), observes that the print of the Holy Face
kept at St. Peter's is mentioned in an ancient ceremonial of that church,
dedicated to Celestine II in 1143 ; also in a Bull of Nicholas IV issued
in 1290.
*8 THE VATICAN CRYPTS
(b) The Sacred Lance. St. Andrew of Crete informs us that
it was found near the True Cross by St. Helena, mother of
Constantine. St. Bede and St. Gregory of Tours speak of its
being venerated in the sixth century as one of the most
precious relics at Jerusalem. Thence it was taken to
Constantinople, and in 1453 was given by the Sultan Bajazet to
Pierre d'Aubusson, Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes,
who presented it to Pope Innocent VIII in 1492. A part
which was broken off by some accident at Constantinople, was
placed by St. Louis of France in the famous Sainte Chapelle.
(c) A large Relic of the True Cross brought to St. Peter's
from Santa Croce by Urban VIII in 1629.
4. Besides these, the basilica possesses countless other
precious relics, chiefly of martyrs and confessors.

18. THE VATICAN CRYPTS.

Formerly leave was easily given to see the Crypts, but of
late years the privilege is more difficult to obtain. Under
Leo XIII it was usually granted to a priest who wished to say
Mass there, but on the condition that he brought only five
persons with him.
The entrance is by a narrow stair under the statue of
St. Veronica at the foot of one of the four great piers of the
dome. A priest-sacristan and two little acolytes with lighted
tapers accompany visitors.1 At the foot of the steps a narrow
passage leads to a small oratory in the form of a cross (one
arm of which serves for a sacristy), where there is room for
about a dozen persons. The altar is a little to the right of
St. Peter's tomb, but this stands on a lower level, and
is hidden and inaccessible. The electric light allows every
thing to be seen clearly. After Mass visitors are shown by a
priest round the crypts, divided into Grotte nuove, i.e., the
part under the dome, and Grotte Vecchie, i.e., that under the
nave. We are here on the floor of the ancient basilica, sur
rounded by mediaeval tombs, ancient mosaics, fragments of
precious marblework, in fact, nearly all that remains of the
treasures of art that adorned Old St. Peter's. The exquisite
beauty of some of the fragments of sculpture preserved in this
place (several from the hand of Mino di Fiesole and Donatello),
1 At the foot of the stairs is the ancient chapel of S. Maria in
Portico, containing a picture of the Madonna by Memmi from the
portico of the old church. The next chapel is that of 5. Maria
Partoriente, and between them is a tenth century mosaic of our Lord,
in the attitude of benediction, from the tomb of Otho II.
 SAINTS AT ST. PETER'S
makes one regret the wanton destruction of works of art, when
Constantine's building was demolished with such haste by
Bramante. Here are to be found the tombs of Popes Adrian IV
(Nicholas Breakspear), Nicholas V, Paul II, Julius III,
Nicholas III, Urban VI, &c. ; also of the Emperor Otho II,
and those of James, the " Old Pretender," of Prince Charles
Edward, the " Young Pretender," and of Henry, Cardinal Duke
of York, the last scions of the hapless Stuart race. Rome was
kind indeed to these royal exiles, for she gave them a shelter in
life when all things earthly failed them, and in death a sepulchre
close to the Prince of the Apostles. Among the early Popes
buried close to St. Peter's tomb is St. Eleutherius, who died in
192. Lucius, one of the kings of Britain, sent an embassy to him
to ask for missioners to instruct his subjects in the Faith.
St. Eleutherius, overjoyed, sent several apostolical men, the
chief among them being Fugatius and Damianus.
Opposite the entrance to the little oratory where Mass is
said, stands the splendidly sculptured sarcophagus of Junius
Bassus, Prefect of Rome ; and on the walls at either side of the
entrance are exquisite marble reliefs by Donatello, representing
the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul.

19.—SAINTS AT ST. PETER'S TOMB.

A never-ending movement has been going on from all
quarters of the globe towards this centre of Christendom, this
" haven of salvation." Saints and doctors of the Church, sacred
virgins, Christian monarchs, the great and the lowly, the learned
and the simple, the faithful of all lands—what a glorious array
they present !
1. Of those who suffered martyrdom m Rome while on a
pilgrimage to the Apostle's tomb we may mention :
SS. Marius and Martha and their sons, SS. Audifax and
Abacus from Persia ; St. Maurus from Africa ; St. Simplician
and his two sons, SS. Constantine and Victorinus from Gaul ;
St. Paterinus from Egypt.
St. Zoe, arrested at St. Peter's tomb, and burnt alive.
2. Countless saints from all countries have come here on
pilgrimage ; we can give the names of only a few :
St. Athanasius, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Paulinus of
Nola, in the fourth century ; St. Ambrose, a youth in Rome,
must often have come here to pray, as also St. Jerome, both
before he left for Palestine and when he was recalled to Rome
by Pope St. Damasus (384).
St. Leo the Great preached at the tomb about 440 ;
30 SAINTS AT ST. PETER'S
St. Gregory the Great speaks of a miracle at the tomb in the
sixth century ; 1
SS. Cyril and Methodius in the ninth century ;
St. Odilo of Cluny, and St. Peter Damian in the eleventh
century ;
St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth.
It is related that St. Dominic was here favoured with a
vision of SS. Peter and Paul, the first of whom gave him a
staff and the second a book, saying these words : " Go and
preach, for to this ministry thou art called." Ever afterwards
Dominic constantly bore about with him the book of the
Gospels, and carried a stick on his journeys, a thing not observed
in him before.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, who had been miraculously cured
by St. Peter of the wounds which he received at Pampeluna,
cherished a tender devotion to the great Apostle and must
often have come here to pray. St. Philip Neri was once seen in
ecstasy here, raised from the ground. St. Thomas of Aquin
worked a great miracle in St. Peter's.2 St. Catherine of Sweden,
who came to Rome in search of her mother, Sc. Bridget, found
her kneeling at St. Peter's tomb, &c.

20. —ENGLISH, IRISH, SCOTCH SAINTS AT ST. PETER'S TOMB

In the fifth century St. Patrick here received his commis
sion from Pope St. Celestine I to go and plant the Faith in
Ireland. His attachment to St. Peter's Chair is embodied in his
charge to his disciples : " As ye are Christians so be ye also
Romans." 3
In the same century St. Ninian came to beg St. Peter's
blessing on his mission to the Southern Picts.
In the sixth century St. Kentigern (Mungo), Bishop of
Glasgow and Strathclyde, made seven pilgrimages to St. Peter's
tomb.
St. Benedict Biscop of Wearmouth, made six pilgrimages,
and was contemplating a seventh just before his death.
In the seventh century St. Willibrord here received his
commission to evangelize Germany and Frisia.
St. Wilfrid of York, sorely tried in his office, came hither
to seek consolation and protection, and was restored by Pope
St. Agatho to the see of York.
In the eighth century St. Boniface (Winfrid) of England
here prepared himself for his apostleship and martyrdom in
Germany.
1 Dialogues ii. 25. 2 Roman Breviary. 3 See " Book of Armagh, " fol. 9.
 ANGLO-SAXON KINGS 3i
In the eleventh century arrived St. Anselm of Canterbury.1
In the twelfth century St. Malachy. Archbishop of Armagh,
here begged leave to resign his archiepiscopal office, that he
might enter the Cistercian Order. He died at Citeaux in 1147,
and St. Bernard is his biographer.
In the same century St. Laurence O'Toole came from
Dublin, and was present at the Third Council of the Lateran,
a.d. 1 179.
After these followed St. Virgil, St. Fridian, St. Rumold.
St. Kilian, and others. Many Bishops of Ireland were educatec
and consecrated in Rome. Heads of Irish monasteries went
to the Holy See to obtain a confirmation of their rules. Irish
missionaries going forth to preach the Gospel among German
nations went to Rome to have their mission approved. The
stream of pilgrimage from Ireland was so constant that hospices
for Irish pilgrims existed in the principal cities of Gaul,
Germany, and Italy, at Paris, Cologne, Ratisbon, Vienna, &c.

31. ANGLO-SAXON KINGS AT ST. PETER S TOMB.

Caedwalla, King of the West Saxons, being converted to
the Faith by St. Wilfrid, " forsaking all for the love of God "
(as we read in the epitaph placed on his tomb by Sergius I),
came to Rome to be baptized. While still wearing the white
robe of the newly-baptized, he fell ill and died, candidus inter
oves Christi, and was buried in the loggia of Old St. Peter's,
a.d. 689.
Ina, Caedwalla's successor, after a glorious reign of thirty
years came to Rome with his wife, Queen Ethelburga, about
A.D. 720, where, renouncing the world, they lived in evangelical
poverty, and died about A.D. 728. It is doubtful whether they
were buried beneath the portico of St. Peter's, or inside the
Church of S. Maria in Saxia (now called S. Spirito in Sassia) in
the Anglo-Saxon quarter near the Vatican. Ina's foundation of a
hospice for English pilgrims will be mentioned later.2
Conrad, King of the Mercians, renouncing the world, came
to Rome to live as a monk, a.d. 709, and at his death was
buried near Caedwalla in St. Peter's.
Offa, son of Segeric, King of the East Saxons, had
1 Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1089) came to Rome to
receive the pallium, and to refer to the Pope the question of the juris
diction of Canterbury over York. Pope Alexander II, who had been
his pupil at Bee, in Normandy, rose to greet and embrace his old
master, declaring that all he knew had been learnt from him.
a See No. 30.
32 REVERENCE OF KINGS, <$«
accompanied Conrad to Rome, and following his example,
here adopted a monastic life. He also was buried in St. Peter's,
A.D. 794.
St. Richard, King of the West Saxons, while making a
pilgrimage to Rome with his two sons Winebald and Willibald
in 722, died at Lucca and is honoured as one of the Patrons of
that city.
Frithogitha, Queen of the West Saxons, came as a pilgrim
in 737-
Ceolwulf. King of Northumbria, resigning his kingdom to
Eadbert in 758, received the monastic tonsure at St. Peter's
tomb.
In 853, King Ethelwulf sent his little son Alfred, aged five,
to Rome, where the royal child was anointed by St. Leo IV.
In 855, Ethelwulf himself came on pilgrimage with a numerous
suite. He rebuilt the English Hospice, founded by King Ina
(known as the Schola Saxonum), which had been destroyed
by fire. He was the first Saxon king who granted tithes to the
Church.
In 874, King Burhed was led by devotion to undertake the
pilgrimage to Rome, and died in the holy city.
In 1025, King Canute made a penitential pilgrimage to
Rome and wrote a letter to Archbishop Alfrice full of tender
devotion to the Prince of the Apostles.
It is well known that St. Edward the Confessor had made
a vow to visit the tombs of the Apostles, but, being prevented
from fulfilling it, he built Westminster Abbey in honour of
St. Peter.
2 2. REVERENCE OF KINGS, EMPERORS, AND EVEN OF
BARBARIAN INVADERS, FOR ST. PETER'S TOMB.
The Emperor Charlemagne made four pilgrimages to Rome,
and when he came to be crowned in 800, he ascended on his
knees the steps that led to the portico of Old St. Peter's.
The other monarchs, who came out of reverence to be
anointed and crowned in Rome, were : Lothaire, in 823; Louis,
in 844; Alfred of England, in 854; Charles II of France, in
871; Charles III, in 873; Otho I of Germany,in 881; Otho II,
in 962 ; St. Henry I of Germany and his Queen, St. Cunegunda,
in 1014, &c.
Several royal personages also accounted it a privilege to be
made canons of St. Peter's. Others again sent golden crowns
to be hung over the Apostle's tomb, as Clovis, King of the
franks, Theodoric, King of the Goths, the Emperors Justin
and Justinian.
 REVERENCE OF KINGS. &-c. 33
Even barbarian princes, wild invaders from the North, were
awed by the sacredness of St. Peter's tomb.
Attila, King of the Huns (434—453), had styled himself the
"Scourge of God." "Along the track of my horses' hoofs,"
he had declared, "the very vegetation must disappear;" nor
could any havoc have been more vividly described. But when
marching on Rome, after it had been left by the Emperor
Valentinian helpless and defenceless, he was met by St. Leo I,
who forbade him to advance—a mysterious awe seized him, for
he saw the patrons of Rome appearing in the air behind the
Pope, and he at once obeyed and led his wondering warriors
back.1
Alaric, also, leader of the Visigoths (382—412), besieged
Rome and took it by surprise in 410. He then gave it up to be
plundered by his soldiers, who overran the city, causing terrible
destruction and setting fire to many of the buildings. In
the space of a few hours Rome lost that power, splendour,
and magnificence which had made it for so many ages the
first city in the world. Yet Alaric forbade his soldiers to
desecrate or plunder the basilicas of the two Apostles. It is
narrated that when the Goths came upon the dwelling of a
woman who had devoted her life to the service of St. Peter's,
and had forced open the door of her house, a store of treasure,
including the consecrated vessels belonging to the basilica was
found; but Alaric being informed of the discovery commanded
that all these vessels should be carried back to the basilica.
Genseric, King of the Vandals (428—477), whose heart was
insensible to pity, while he plundered every house and temple
in Rome with savage fury (a.d. 455), spared the Vatican and
St. Paul's basilicas with their treasures, and even allowed the
gold and silver plate from other churches to be deposited there
for safety. He, also, at the prayer of St. Leo, protected the
buildings of the city and the lives of the inhabitants.
Twice, however, St. Peter's has been plundered, viz. : by the
Saracens in 846, and by the Lutheran soldiers of Charles V, led
by Constable de Bourbon, in 1 527.
The French spoilers of the Church, during the Pontificates
of Pius VI and Pius VII, showed themselves worse marauders
than the wild men of the North. Had not Providence interfered,
all the gold, silver, bronze, and even lead of St. Peter's would
have been carried off. They had already appointed a company
of Jews to estimate the value of the treasures, when fortunately
the course of events in France made them beat a hasty retreat
1 This event is the subject of one of Raphael's frescoes, also of the
bas-relief by Agliardi over St. Leo's altar in St. Peter's.
D
34 ST. PETER'S FEAST
from Rome.1 The modern enemies of the Church seem more
relentless in their hatred of everything holy than any of their
predecessors ; but, however fierce the hostility displayed by
them, Catholics fear nothing, knowing that Christ is with His
Church guiding and protecting her, and that the gates of hell
can never prevail against her.

23. —st. peter's feast.

St. Peter's day has been kept with the greatest solemnity in
Rome from a very early period. In the fourth century it was
to the Romans what Christmas Day is to us, both as regards
public and private feasts and rejoicings. St. Jerome writes to
his friend, the virgin, St. Eustochium, acknowledging a present
of fruit and sweets on one of these occasions, and recommends
sobriety on this day more than on any other. " We must
celebrate the feast day of Peter rather with exaltation of
spirit than with abundance of food." 2 Solemn feasts and
banquets were held under the porticoes of the basilica. At
first they were meant to relieve the poor, but they degenerated
into excesses, and St. Augustine, in 395, raised his voice
against this abuse.3
At the present time all the Church's children in Rome
consider it a duty to visit the basilica on St. Peter's day. The
long avenue in the Borgo leading to it is on that day thronged
with vehicles and pedestrians going or returning. The wide
piazza presents a lively appearance from the moving groups
dotted over its immense area, and the church itself, though
not crowded, is nearly full. In the centre gateway of the portico
hangs the traditional fisherman's net made of branches of box
'wreathed round with broad bands of cloth of gold. It
symbolizes the invisible net which has been cast at the
command of the Divine Master, and has caught up in its
meshes the men of all nations.4 Solemn vespers are sung. In
the evening the facade of the basilica is illuminated and large
crowds flock to see it. Since 1870 the dome has never been
illuminated.
1 Eustace, Classical Tour Through Italy, I. p. 244.
a Epist. xxxi. ad Eustoch. Thurston, S.J., Holy Year ofJubilee,
p. 150.
8 Epist. xxix. ad Alypium, sec. IO.
* The Tablet, June, 1901, p. 18.
 CHAPTER II.
The Holy Father —The Vat1can Palace — Ne1gh
bourhood of St. Peter's.
24. —the prIsoner of the vat1can.
StandIng near the obelisk in the piazza of St. Peter's and
looking up at the windows of the Pope's apartments, we may
recall the words of Louis Veuillot, " Que de soucis derrtire ces
vitres!" There dwells the successor of St. Peter, the keeper of
the keys, the Vicar of God on earth— an old man, bent with the
weight of years and cares, yet full of mental vigour, and unyield
ing in his resistance to the enemies of the Church.
In the London Daily Telegraphy Pope Leo XI IPs position
was thus described : " The Pope is alone in the Vatican,
without a friend among the Governments of the world,
without territory, without treasure, without an army, without
power, without a voice in the senate of nations, a prisoner in
his own palace, begirt by the troops of a hostile king. His
visible sovereignty is indeed gone. Nevertheless his invisible
sovereignty was perhaps never stronger than to-day. . . . With
all the forces of the world against him, he has fought the fight
well and drawn tighter the bonds of respect and love and
obedience which knit the Roman Church into one harmonious
whole, its unity never more absolute, its purity never more
apparent, its authority never more loyally recognized."
Pope Pius X, at the Consistory on November 9, 1903,
declared in presence of the Sacred College, that he was bound
by the nature of his office, by his oath, by the interests not only
of the Catholic Church, but of Christendom, to complain of the
" most serious outrage (gravissima injuria), which has been
inflicted and is still inflicted on the liberty of the Holy See."
25.—st. peter's successor.
There at the Vatican Peter still lives in his successor. The
power given to Peter, the Primacy vested in him, the promises
1 August 21, 1899.
36 WHAT THE POPES HAVE DONE
made to him are perpetuated in that successor. Pius X is the
reigning monarch of a dynasty that counts the empires of
Europe as children of a day. On that throne have sat in
unbroken line 257 men, nearly one-third of them Saints, and
all of them for over 300 years, martyrs. Their history has been
and is the history of civilization, the constant struggle of mind
against materialism ; of order against anarchy ; of truth against
scepticism ; of principle against voluptuousness. It is a
chronicle of the success of freedom over slavery, of kindness
over cruelty, of noble ideas over human depravity.
" Of all the Popes not one has failed to brave the troubled
waters of a hostile world. Many of them were supposed at the
time to have been hopelessly shipwrecked, but the barque of
Peter did not sink. Wave after wave, generation after genera
tion, century after century has come with its threat and peril
and shock, but the centuries have passed and Peter remains.
Men overwhelmed him by force or buffeted him with insult, but
men came and passed, while Peter remained."1
Cardinal Vaughan, in an address delivered in 1895, speaks
thus of the Papacy : " Thirty Popes have been martyred, and
one-fifth of the whole line has been exiled or imprisoned, but
the Popes have always regained their liberty. The life of the
Papacy is like that of Christ Himself, chequered by sufferings
and peaceful times ; to-day hosannas, to-morrow the passion
and crucifixion ; but these followed by the resurrection. The
Vicar of Christ and His Church are necessarily in conflict with
the false maxims of the world ; and sufferings and persecutions
are the inevitable consequence."
26.—WHAT THE POPES HAVE DONE FOR ROME, ITALY,
AND EUROPE.
1. They destroyed the colossal monster of Greek and
Roman paganism, with all its unspeakable and sickening
abominations.
2. They changed the whole face of Europe, rescuing the
degraded slave from bondage, protecting the rights of the poor
and defenceless, putting down infanticide, exalting the position
of woman, teaching the nations to be pure and chaste, shedding
everywhere the blessing of holy charity and peace.
3. They founded Christian Rome and made it a centre of
enlightenment and salutary influence to all the rest of the
world.
1 From Peter to Leo. Lenten Lectures preached by Father Robert
Kane, S.J., in Gardiner Street, Dublin, and published by the Irish
Catholic Truth Society.
 FOR ROME, ITALY, AND EUROPE 37
4. They rescued Italy over and over again, in successive
ages, from Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Saracens, &c. Even
the infidel Gibbon is forced to confess that but for the Popes
the name of Rome might have been erased from the earth.
5. They converted and civilized the wild barbarian hordes
that rushed in from the north on the decaying Roman Empire.
6. They covered Europe with churches, minsters, colleges,
universities, and beneficent institutions.
7. They rescued Europe once more from hopeless slavery,
when barbarism, brutal feuds, and tyranny replaced the Carlo-
vingian Empire.
8. They projected and organized the Crusades, persuading
the Christian sovereigns of Europe to abandon rapine, violence,
internecine conflict, and " to take the cross " against the
common enemy of Christendom.
9. They planned the victories of Lepanto, Vienna, and
Temeswar, without which Europe at this day might have
formed part of one vast Ottoman Empire.
10. They humbled tyrants like Henry IV, and the three
Fredericks of Germany, and defended, pacified, preserved the
oppressed States of mediaeval Italy.
1 1. During their absence at Avignon, Rome fell into a state
of decay, misery, and barbarism. At their return the city
revived, and a new and remarkable era opened with the accession
of Nicholas V.
12. They preserved the ancient monuments of Rome. But
for them the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Hadrian's Mauso
leum, &c., might have long since disappeared. In recent times
they preserved the art treasures of Rome and the Papal States,
which enterprising agents were trying to secure for the museums
of England, France, and Germany.
13. They fostered the arts of music, painting, sculpture,
architecture, &c., and attracted to Rome the mightiest geniuses
in these arts the world has ever seen.
14. Above all, they have upheld the light of faith, shining
clear with undimmed splendour amid the darkness with which
Gnostics, Manicheans, Arians, Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists,
Jansenists overspread the world.
In his allocution of April 21, 1878, Leo XIII says : " It was
this Holy See that gathered and moulded the remnants of the
old society that had fallen into decay (after the fall of the
Roman empire). It was the friendly torch that showed the
way to the humane kindness that beamed over Christian ages.
It was the anchor of safety in cruel tempests by which the
human race was tossed. It was the one sacred bond of concord
that held together nations otherwise separated, and differing in
38 POPE PIUS X.
their customs. It was the common centre whence, not only
the teaching of faith and practice was sought, but also, counsel
and rulings in regard to peace and the settlement of disputes.
It is the glory of the Popes that they ever stood as a wall and
a bulwark to prevent human society from sinking back again
into its former barbarism and superstition."

27. —OUR HOLY FATHER, PIUS X.

In order to see the Holy Father application should be made
by pilgrims to the Rector of the College of their own nation
ality, English, Irish, Scotch, North American or Canadian,
through whom tickets of admission to audiences may be
obtained from the Maestro di Camera of His Holiness. Appli
cations may also be made through any Bishop of their own
nationality, or through any ecclesiastic or religious superior
known at the Vatican.
The remarkable enthusiasm with which the election of
Pope Pius X was hailed in the Catholic world, and the almost
equally remarkable good-will with which it was received in the
non-Catholic world, could have been awakened only by the
sterling virtues of the new Pontiff. Although seldom seen in
Rome, and little known out of Italy, the extraordinary and
most attractive virtues and the eminent natural gifts of the
Patriarch of Venice had long been drawing towards him great
multitudes of people. Simple as a child in life and personal
manner, generous to a fault, zealous to seek personally the
most ungrateful and depraved of his flock, singularly wise in
counsel and strong in action, a most practical lover of the
people, from whose ranks he has sprung, Cardinal Sarto ruled
with undisputed sway the people of religious Venice. He
almost literally gave all he had to the poor. He was unwearied
in his intelligent efforts to better their condition both materially
and spiritually, and countless are the works and institutions
that grew up under his care. A student as well as an apostle, he
is learned and eloquent, a patron of the arts, and especially of
music. In appearance and still more in manner, he closely
resembles Pio Nono, whom he greatly loved. He is very
genial, and has a keen sense of humour, but his goodness
predominates over every other quality. Born in a humble
station, his habits have changed in nothing as he has risen into
prominence : yet is he full of native dignity, courtesy, and wise
discretion.
Born at Riese on June 2, 1835, Pius X was educated at
the diocesan seminary of Treviso, and subsequently at the
University of Padua. He was ordained priest in 1858, and
 THE VATICAN PALACE 39
remained a simple, devoted, hard-working parish priest until
the age of 40. In 1884 he was made Bishop of Mantua, and
nine years later Cardinal and Patriarch of Venice. In August,
1903, he was raised to the Chair of Peter. One Cardinal, in
speaking of the election, remarked : " The finger of God is
here. No one can see Pope Pius X without admiring his
humility, simplicity, and goodness."

28.—THE VATICAN PALACE.

The usual entrance is by the bronze door at the end of the
right colonnade. Once the pilgrim passes that door, where
the Swiss guards in picturesque uniform stand sentinel, he is
no longer on Italian but on Papal territory, this being all that
remains of the States of the Church and the Patrimony of
St. Peter since the Italian occupation of 1870.
The Vatican is a world in itself. Even those who have
visited it can form a very insufficient idea of its immensity. It
is not one palace, it is a collection of palaces, in which are
gathered together museums, libraries, treasures of art, &c.
The Louvre, the Tuilleries, and Versailles cannot be compared
in extent to the Vatican, with its thirty magnificent halls, nine
galleries, seven grand chapels, twenty courts, eight state stair
cases, besides about 200 smaller ones, together with museums,
library, archives, and about 1 1,000 rooms. All the great artists
of the Renaissance have adorned its walls with their master
pieces ; its museums are full of works of antique art, the
Laocoon, the Apollo Belvedere, the Mercury, the Antinous, the
Perseus, the Wrestlers, the Meleager, &c.
The Vatican is the work of many Popes. Mgr. Duchesne
tells us in his commentary on the Liber Pontificalis that Pope
St. Symmachus (d. 514,) was the first to build an episcopal resi
dence near St. Peter's on the Vatican Hill. It was known as
the Episcopium, and was a modest abode compared with the
present palace. In the time of Popes Adrian I. (772—795) and
St. Leo III. (795—816) the Vatican was used as the Papal
residence, and, under the latter Pontiff, Charlemagne, a pilgrim
in Rome, is said to have resided here.
It was rebuilt by Innocent III ( 1 198— 1216) after it had
fallen into decay, and was enlarged by Nicholas III (1277—
T280.)
Up to the time of the removal of the Papal See to Avignon
(1305), the Lateran Palace was the ordinary Papal residence, the
Vatican being used only on State occasions and for the reception
of sovereigns. After the return from Avignon (1377), the
 THE SISTINE CHAPEL
Lateran Palace having perished by fire, the Pontifical residence
was fixed at the Vatican.
Nicholas V (1447-1455) began to enlarge it, and his work was
continued by Alexander VI. Sixtus IV built the Sistine Chapel
in 1473, and Julius IT began to erect the Loggie round the
Court of St. Damasus, the work being completed by Leo X.
Other portions were added by subsequent Pontiffs.
As these notes are intended for pilgrims in search of what
is devotional rather than what is artistic, the apartments and
art treasures of the Vatican are but briefly described.
The " Royal Stair," Scala Regia, by which we ascend to the
Sistine Chapel, was erected by Bernini for Urban VIII. It
consists of four flights of marble steps, adorned with a double
row of marble Ionic columns ; and at the fourth landing another
stair, that on the right, leads to the Sala Regia, in which is the
principal entrance to the Sistine Chapel. The frescoes in this
Sala Regia represent the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and other
notable events marking the history of the Papacy.
1. The Sistine Chapel. La Cappella Sistina.—It was
built by Baccio Pintelli for Sixtus IV in 1473, and was
decorated with frescoes by the great Florentine masters
Ghirlandaio, Signorelli, Botticelli and Roselli. Their works
are still preserved on the side walls.1 Three frescoes by
Perugino originally adorned the wall at the end. In 1508, 1509,
Michael Angelo covered the whole of the vaulted ceiling with
his stupendous frescoes of the Creation and Fall of Man, the
Deluge, &c., adding colossal figures of the prophets and Sibyls
in the curvatures of the arches. Within the years 1537-1541, he
painted the huge fresco of the Last Judgment on the end wall.
This colossal composition, 60 feet in height by 30 feet in
breadth, embraces an almost countless number of figures, and
covers the whole of the end wall. It has been often described ;
as a monument of genius it is wonderful, as a representation of
a religious subject it is disappointing ; there is too much
" ostentatious display of academic attitudes and anatomy, and,
in some of the prominent personages, especially the Divine
Judge, there is absolute poverty and meanness of conception."2
The Sistine Chapel is used for occasional Papal ceremonies,
also for Papal elections since the seizure of the Quirinal Palace.
The Sala Ducale opposite the Sistine Chapel is seldom shown
to visitors. It is traversed by the Papal processions to the
Sistine Chapel, or to St. Peter's.
1 They represent scenes from the life of Moses, and from that of
our Lord.
2 Spalding, Italy and the Italian Islands, vol. ii. p. 329.
Scala Reale. (Chap. II, No.
I
 MODERN PAINTINGS 41
2. Gallery of Modern Paintings. —Returning to the head
landing of the Scala Regia, and ascending another narrow
stair, we reach four large rooms containing a collection of
modern paintings presented to Pius IX and Leo XIII.
The First Room has a striking painting by Fracassini,1
" The Interview of Blessed Peter Canisius, S.J., with the
Emperor Ferdinand II and Cardinal Otho Truchses ; " also
" The martyrdom of five Jesuit Beati at Salsette, near Goa,"
by Nobili, and a picture of " Blessed John Baptist de la Salle,"
by Mariani, &c.
In the Second Room is a large painting by Mateiko, a Polish
artist (1883) representing Sobieski's entrance into Vienna after
his triumph over the Turks (1683). On the left wall is
Fracassini's " Martyrs of Gorcum, Holland," and on the right
Loverini's picture of " St. Grata taking up the head of the
martyr, St. Alexander."
The Third Room known as the Hall of the Immaculate
Conception is richly decorated with frescoes by Podesti and
Fracassini, representing the proclamation of the dogma of
the Immaculate Conception by Pius IX in 1854. In composition
and colour they are remarkably fine works, and interesting as
a portrait gallery of eminent ecclesiastics living at the time.
3. The Stanze of Raphael.—From the " Sala dell' Imma-
colata" we enter four of the state rooms belonging to the
old Vatican palace, now known as the Stanze of Raphael, which
contain the foremost creations of this great master, rivalled by
no similar works of art except the ceiling-paintings in the
Cappella Sistina. The marvellous works of Raphael, Michael
Angelo, Domenichino, Ghirlandaio, Pinturicchio, Perugino, &c.,
as seen in the Vatican and the churches of Rome, show that
genius is greatest when exercised in portraying and conveying
to the people the sublime truths of Faith.
The First Room, Stanza dell' Incendio, contains three
large frescoes. In order of time this was the third room
finished by Raphael, (a.d. 15 17) : the services of his scholars
were freely used, and the execution sinks below that of the two
next apartments, though the designs of all the pieces are wholly
his own.
The subjects are : (a) the Fire in the Borgo : this represents
a conflagration which, under Leo IV raged in the suburb close
to [Link]'s, and which was stopped by his Papal benediction
given from the gallery of the basilica ; (b) the Victory of Leo IV
1 This young artist, one of the best of his time in Rome, died about
1865, at the age of twenty-nine. Some of the noblest frescoes in
S. Lorenzo are his work.
42 STANZE OF RAPHAEL
over the Saracens at Ostia, a.d. 849, a fresco which has been
seriously damaged, and is not equal to the rest ; (c) the Coro
nation of Charlemagne, by St. Leo III in St. Peter's, a.d. 800.
The scene here presented is interesting, as depicting the interior
of Old St. Peter's, and containing many beautiful and finely
coloured heads. The frescoes on the ceiling are by Perugino.
The Second Room. Stanza della Segnatura, so-called
because Papal briefs were formerly signed and sealed in it. This
was the first room finished by Raphael (a.d. 1511), and contains
two of his most splendid works, (a) La Disputa represents
" Religion," not a discussion about the Blessed Sacrament, as
the popular name would seem to imply. In the lower portion,
saints, doctors, and laymen are assembled round an altar,
and are engaged in investigating and revering the tenets of the
Church. In the upper part of the painting the heavens are
opened, and our Divine Saviour, overshadowed by the Holy
Ghost and blessed by the Eternal Father, stretches out His arms
to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin. This was the earliest of
Raphael's works in Rome, and none of his later ones display
such enraptured warmth of feeling. Rio speaks of it as the
most beautiful representation of the Christian Church in exist
ence." On the completion of this, the master's greatest work,
Julius I I caused the frescoes previously painted in these rooms
by Perugino, Sodoma and others to be effaced, saying no other
hand than Raphael's should touch those walls.1
(b) The School of Athens or assembly of scholars, is a repre
sentation of Philosophy in contrast to Religion as portrayed in
the Disputa. The composition is admirable, the colouring most
agreeable, the life, expression, and variety of character unsur
passed in any of his later works. The two central figures in
the background are Plato and Aristotle. Among the groups on
each side of the leaders stands Socrates along with Alcibiades
and his other disciples ; and Diogenes lies prone on the steps.
In the foreground Pythagoras is engaged in writing, while
Empedocles and others are represented as watching him, and
Archimedes (a portrait of Bramante) bends down to explain
some geometrical figure on a tablet.
(c) The Parnassus presents to us Apollo, together with the
Muses and the great poets. On the ceiling may be traced
figures of Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Jurisprudence,
designed by Raphael.
The Third Room, Stanza d'Eliodoro, contains four
1 For each of the paintings Raphael is said to have received 1,200
gold scudi, i.e., nearly ^500. They were seriously injured during the
plundering of Rome by the Lutherans in 1527.
 LOGGIE OF RAPHAEL 43
frescoes by Raphael. It was begun under the reign of Julius II
and finished after the accession of Leo X. Here the subjects
are :
(a) Heliodorus driven from the Temple by Angels.
(b) The meeting of St. Leo the Great and Attila.
(c) The miracle of the Blessed Sacrament at Bolsena, near
Orvieto. It records how a priest at Bolsena, while saying
Mass, began to doubt about transubstantiation, and was
convinced by the bleeding of the Sacred Host. The corporal,
bearing marks of the Precious Blood, is preserved in the
Cathedral of Orvieto.
Pope Julius II and his court are represented as assisting at
the miracle.
(d) The deliverance of St. Peter from prison.1
The Fourth Room, the Sala di Costantino, (Hall of
Constantine). The frescoes in this apartment were begun by
Raphael, but were almost entirely executed after his death
(1520), by his pupils Giuglio Romano, II Fattore, and Raffaelle
del Colle, from the great artist's own designs. The subjects of
the four large paintings are : (a) the Apparition of the Cross to
Constantine ; ib) his Baptism ; (c) his Donation to the Popes ;
(d) his battle with Maxentius on the Tiber bank beside the
Milvian bridge ; the latter excellently painted by Giuglio
Romano.
4. Chapel of Nicholas V, (open on Tuesdays and Fridays).
Visitors should not fail to see the Cappella di NicolU Quinto,
adorned in 1447 with marvellous frescoes by Beato Angelico,
which represent incidents in the lives and martyrdom of
St. Stephen and St. Laurence. They are the last and finest
of his works. This prince of religious painters entered the
Dominican Order in his twentieth year (1407) and spent his life
in the entire consecration of his art to sacred subjects. Before
beginning to paint, he always spent some time in prayer, and
when representing the Crucifixion he wept bitterly ; indeed he
seems to have been guided in his works by a sort of angelic
inspiration. "His paintings are pervaded by a tone of sentiment
expressing profound religious ecstasy : from the countenances
of his saints and angels there breathe a beauty and a bliss
which are pathetically moving."2
5. The Loggie of Raphael.—The name of Loggie di
Raffaelle is given to one of the arcades surrounding the second
storey of the beautiful court of St. Damasus, the decoration of
which was planned and begun by Bramante under Julius II,
and continued by Raphael in 15 14, under Leo X. The arcade-
Acts v. 19, seq. a Spalding, Italy, vol. ii. p. 245.
44 THE PINACOTECA
in question was adorned with paintings and stuccoes wholly
designed by Raphael, and executed by his scholars with little
of his assistance. Elegant arabesque ornaments are scattered
everywhere; and in the compa1tments of the vaulted roof is
painted a series of Scriptural stories, forty-eight of which are
taken from the Old Testament. Of the New Testament subjects
four only were developed from the great master's des1gns.
These beautiful representations have concurred with the
cartoons in forming the taste of all succeeding painters in their
treatment of Scriptural subjects.1 The great artist is said to
have obtained from stucco and fresco decorations, then recently
discovered on some of the lofty arches in the Baths of Titus,
the first idea of these marvellously graceful arabesques, which
exhibit so delightful a play of artistic fancy.
6. The Pinacoteca, or Picture Gallery. — This gallery,
founded by Pope Pius VII, is a collection of paintings few in
number, but priceless in value. Nearly every picture here has
a history, and two at least of the collection, The Transfigura
tion and The Last Communion of St. Jerome, are said to be
the grandest oil-paintings in the world.
(a) The " Transfiguration " by Raphael, the most renowned
-of all his oil-paintings, was begun for the Cathedral of Narbonne
by order of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, who, on being elected
Pope under the name of Clement VII, would not allow the
picture to leave Italy. It was not quite finished when Raphael
died (1520), and after being placed at the head of his death-bed
on which he lay in state it was carried in his funeral procession.
Clement VII, at his death (1534), left as a special legacy to
S. Pietro in Montorio this wonderful picture, well worthy to
terminate the labours of the prince of artists. As the mystery
therein represented took place at night, the corners of the
picture are darkened. The groups in the foreground are
intended to typify the confusion and misery prevalent in the
world ; and the three disciples on the Mount represent the
contemplation of heaven. The presence of our Lord, along
with Moses and Elias, gives a glimpse of heaven itself ; and His
outstretched arms remind us that the subject of which He speaks
is His Crucifixion.
This picture was carried off to Paris by Napoleon I in 1798,
and remained in the Louvre till 1815. When it was restored to
Rome Pius VII placed it in the Vatican.
(b) Domenichino's glorious painting, "The Last Communion
of St. Jerome," was ordered by the Franciscans of Ara Cceli,
who, disliking it, quarrelled with the master, paid him only fifty
1 Spalding, Italy, vol. ii. p. 338.
 THE VATICAN LIBRARY 45
scudi, and threw his noble work into a lumber room. Poussin
the great French artist, being asked to paint an altar piece for
their church, the friars produced Domenichino's picture,
requesting him to use that and so spare the expense of fresh
canvas. Poussin at once saw its value and refused to paint
anything for those who had shown such contempt for a work of
extraordinary merit. Such is the story told. The painting
found its way to the Church of S. Girolamo della Carita, whence
it was taken to Paris in 1798, and on its restitution in 18 15, was
placed in the Vatican.
This picture was declared by Sir Joshua Reynolds and many
eminent artists of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
to be the second finest panel painting in the world, the Trans
figuration ranking as the first.
(c) Raphael's "Madonna di Foligno'' was commissioned
about 1512 by Sigismondo Conti, a priest (whose portrait
appears in the picture), for the Church of Ara Cceli on the
Capitol : it was thence removed in 1 565 to the Convent of Sant'
Anna in Foligno, where Conti's great-niece had become a nun.
The scene in the lower part of the picture comprises a landscape
and a distant church ; in the foreground St. John the Baptist,
clad in his camel-skin, points to the vision above ; St. Jerome
presents the aged priest who ordered the picture ; and opposite
to these kneels St. Francis gazing up at our Lady with an
expression of wonderful faith and affection. In the sky above
is seated our Lady with the Divine Child, both bending down
toward the worshippers.
Other paintings of wonderful beauty and great historical
interest in the Pinacoteca are the work of Fra Angelico, Perugino,
Francisi, Benozzo Gozzoli, Crivelli, Mantegna, Murillo, &c.
Each of these well deserves a special study.
7. The Vatican Library.—The Vatican Library was first
formed by Nicholas V (1447- 145 5), who gathered into it 9,000
manuscripts, to which were added many libraries, including that
of Queen Christina of Sweden. At the present time it contains
more than 2,500 Greek, Latin, and Oriental manuscripts, and
more than 100,000 volumes, which is a comparatively small
number ; but the value of the collection is greatly enhanced by
the extreme rarity of several of the books which it contains.
The library stands on the ground floor, but the books are
not exposed to view, being shut up as they are in low cases
surmounted by busts and vases. Among its treasures are the
famous Codex Vaticanus, a manuscript of the Greek Testament
of the fifth century ; a Virgil of the fifth century ; a Terence of
the fourth century ; the palimpsest of "The Republic ;" manu
scripts written by St. Thomas of Aquin, and Petrarch ; the
46 THE BORGIAN APARTMENT
original manuscript, Defensio Fidei, which won for Henry VIII
the title of "Defender of the Faith;" also many illuminated
manuscripts of rare beauty.
Cardinal Wiseman thus describes the Vatican Library :
" A door opposite gives a view of the grand double hall beyond,
divided by piers. The cases round them and along the walls
are the very treasure shrines of learning, containing only gems
of manuscript lore. Above, all is glowing with gold and ultra
marine, as airy and brilliant as Zuccari could lay them."1
8. The Borgian Apartment. —The block of building known
as the Afpartamento Borgia, begun by Nicholas V, was com
pleted by Alexander VI (1492— 1503). Here were the private
dwelling rooms of the Popes of the late fifteenth century.
When Sixtus V built the Quirinal Palace, the Borgian Apart
ment was deserted and fell into a state of dilapidation. During
the sack of the Vatican in 1527, it was greatly injured by
Bourbon's soldiers, who scratched their names upon the frescoed
walls, and blackened them with their fires.2 Leo XIII ordered
the restoration, which was completed in 1897. The beautiful
majolica pavement has been restored upon the old models.
First Room, Stanza del Pontefice. —Julius II here enter
tained six English envoys at dinner on Corpus Christi, 1504,
they having previously given in their sovereign's obedience to
the Holy See. The frescoes of this room were entirely des
troyed, and it has been hung with tapestries taken from one
of the other rooms.
The following rooms were decorated by Pinturicchio (1492
— 1495), at the desire of Alexander VI. The ceilings are
richly decorated. In the lunettes on the upper part of the
walls, formed by the spring of the arches, are exquisite frescoes
representing the following subjects :
Second Room. Mysteries in the life of our Blessed Lady.
Third Room. Scenes from the lives of the saints, one fresco
being that of St. Catherine of Alexandria disputing with the
philosophers before the Emperor Maximian.
Fourth Room. Representations of the liberal arts.
Fifth Room. Representations of the Apostles and Prophets.
Sixth Room. Representations of the Sibyls and twelve
minor Prophets.
9. The Vatican Gardens.—Special leave is required to see
them. They are beautifully laid out, but have melancholy
associations, as they are the only spot of ground where the
august Prisoner of the Vatican has been able to take exercise
1 W. Ward, Life of Cardinal Wiseman, p. 55.
2 Tuker and Malleson, Handbook to Ecclesiastical Rome.
 S. MARIA IN CAMPO SANTO 'l7
since 1870. Entering the gardens we follow a broad avenue
hedged in by high walls of laurel and ilex, which leads to a
grotto of Lourdes, a gift from the French people to the Pope.
Two flights of stairs wind up the rocks to the chapel on the
summit, where there is a fine view of St. Peter's and Rome.
A portion of the walls of Leo IV runs from here to the Observ
atory. These walls were erected by Leo IV in 850, after the
first Saracenic invasion, and the part then enclosed was known
as Civitk Leoniana, or Leopolis. The Torrione of Leo IV was
transformed by the architect Vespigniani into the new pavilion
in 1893, which was often occupied by Leo XIII during the hot
summer months. In these gardens Leo X held his Court,
encouraging art and letters, and listening to poets reciting
their odes beneath the woodland shades of the Vatican hill.
The Casino del Papa was built by Pius IV, and here St. Charles
Borromeo passed many hours with his uncle conversing on
sacred subjects, the progress of religion, and the welfare of the
Church. Pius VIII and Gregory XVI held audiences here,
but as malaria was supposed to lurk in the lower part of the
gardens, the Casino was finally abandoned and the new
pavilion built.
As we leave the Vatican to visit the churches in the neigh
bourhood we may reflect on the contrast between the Papacy,
founded on the Rock of Peter, and the ephemeral governments
and political organizations built by man on shifting sand—the
one a divine institution, the others often born of violence and
oppression ; the one to last to the end of time, the others
fleeting with the passing years ; the one ever leading its
subjects upward and heavenward, the others hurried on the
downward path by the forces of destruction ; the one a rock
and centre of peace, the others storm-swept, in perpetual
tumult ; the one with its age-long traditions of sanctity, the
others grown godless, irreligious, materialistic, detached from
all the restraints of conscience and morality ; the one being the
centre of a spiritual empire not of this world, the others leagued
in perpetual and irreconcilable conflict against it and all the
ideas it represents.
"Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build My
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
- 29.—s. marIa In campo santo, to the left of
st. peter's, near the sacrIsty.
This church, built in the time of Leo IV (S44-855), has near
it a cemetery, over the soil of which earth from Calvary is said
to have been strewn. A hospice or home for Frankish pilgrims,
4» S. SPIRITO IN SA SSIA
known as Schola Francorum,1 was founded here in Charle
magne's reign (about a.d. 800), the buildings of which were
destroyed by Pius VI when erecting the new sacristies of
St. Peter's. Papal alms seem to have been distributed at this
hospice from the time of its foundation. A pilgrim to Rome,
writing in the year 1630, says : "Every Monday and Friday
some 2,000 poor persons here receive a dole of bread and a
flask of wine ; every week 1,000 large loaves and fourteen
barrels of wine are thus distributed."2 Monsignor de Me'rode,
Minister and Almoner of Pius IX, died in July, 1874, and was
buried in this cemetery.

30.—s. sp1r1to In sassIa, In the borgo s. sp1r1to,

near st. peter's—anglo-saxon sa1nts.
This church, formerly known as S. Maria in Saxia
( " St. Mary's in the Anglo-Saxon quarter "), has a special
interest for English pilgrims. In the eighth and ninth centuries
the English occupied this district, which came to be known as
Burgus Saxonum ; it still bears the title of Sassia, the Saxon
word Burg surviving in the modern appellation Borgo.
Ina, King of the West Saxons, here founded a hospice or
home for English pilgrims in 727, with a church adjoining it,
which was plundered and burned down by the Saracens in 846,
but was rebuilt by King Ethelwulf in 853-3 King Burhed,
of Mercia, is thought to have been buried here, and it is
uncertain whether King Ina and his wife, Queen Ethelburga,
were laid to rest here or in the atrium of St. Peter's. They are
said to have died blessing God in their last moments that He
allowed them to lay their dust in the consecrated soil of Rome.
The church was again rebuilt by Paul III in 1540, and the
facade was added by Sixtus V in 1587.
A little before the pontificate of Innocent III (1198— 12 16),
the Anglo-Saxon home was changed into a general hospital,
confided to the care of the Hospitallers of the Holy Ghost,
founded by Guy de Montpellier in 1178.4
Another English Hospice was founded by John and Alice
Shepherd in the fourteenth century, where now stands the
English College.
The characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon Church were purity
1 The church and hospice were given to the Germans in 1449, and
the former is still served by German priests.
2 Armellini, Le Chiese di Roma, p. 766.
3 See No. 21.
1 Armellini, Ibid. p. 772.
 HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY GHOST 49
of doctrine, intimate union w1th Rome, a national devotion to
" Our Lady St. Mary," which earned for England the name of
" Mary's Dowry," and a great devotion to St. Peter. The very
name of Rome threw a spell over churchmen and laymen,
Bishops and kings, and drew them in frequent pilgrimages to
the tomb of the Apostle. Anglo-Saxon England stands unique
in history for the number of its royal saints, kings and queens.
Ethelbert of Kent, Edwin and Oswald of Northumbria, Oswin
of Deira, Sebbe of Essex, Ethelred of Mercia, Ina of Wessex,
and many others are numbered with the saints. No less than
twenty-six English kings and queens exchanged the pomp of
royalty for the poverty of the cloister.1 The calendar of the
Anglo-Saxon Church was filled with the names of over three
hundred canonized saints, of whom more than half were of
royal birth.
The Serristori Barracks, opposite S. Spirito in Sassia, were
the scene of a terrible tragedy on the night of October 25,
1867. The Papal Zouaves were quartered there at the time,
and, fortunately, on the night in question many were out on
duty. Two wretched assassins, named Monti and Tognelli,
laid a train of gunpowder in a drain under the building and
blew up one whole wing. Fifteen Zouaves were buried in the
ruins. The two murderers were sentenced to death by the Papal
government, and died repentant.

31.—OSPEDALE DEL S. SPIRITO—HOSPITAL OF THE

HOLY GHOST.
This immense establishment, founded by Innocent III, was
rebuilt by Sixtus IV in 1471. Volumes have been written on
the charity to the poor exercised in this and similar Papal
institutions in Rome.2 Since 1870 the Hospital has been
laicised, with its revenue of nearly a million francs ; 3 its present
revenue hardly amounts to a third of that sum, so that its charit
able work has suffered greatly.
Many saints have ministered to the sick in this hospital.
Here St. Philip Neri saw angels whispering to St. Camillus de
Lellis and his companions the words of comfort they were to
1 Guggenberger, S.J., General History, i. 11. 102, p. 73.
2 See v.g. Cardinal Morichini, Instituti di carita, lib. i. c. 2.
3 The revenues of charitable institutions and pious confraternities
were appropriated, the reason stated being that works of beneficence
belonged to the State ; and by a special law, absolutely everything
belonging to the pious works of Rome, legacies, foundations for Masses,
fix., was converted into State bonds.
E
50 S. MARIA TRASPONTINA
speak to the sick and dying. St. Frances of Rome, and her friend
Vannozza came almost every day to this hospital and nursed
the sick with the kindest attention, consoling them with gentle
words, bestowing alms upon the more needy, and tending with
special affection those suffering from disgusting forms of
disease.
The following fact is interesting.
Venerable Oliver Plunket, the martyr-Archbishop of Armagh,
came to visit this hospital before his departure from Rome.
When standing at the door which looks towards Castel S. Angelo
and bidding farewell to the then prior, Don Jerome Mieskow,
a Polish priest of extraordinary sanctity of life, the latter,
embracing him, and as if prophesying, said to him : " My Lord,
you are now going to shed your blood for the Catholic faith.''
Dr. Plunket, wholly inflamed with the desire of thus shedding
his blood for Christ, replied, with humility : " I am unworthy of
such a favour ; nevertheless, aid me with your prayers, that this
my desire may be fulfilled." 1
An immense hospital has been built outside the Porta Pia to
take the place of S. Spirito.
32.—s. mar1a traspontIna, 1n the borgo nuovo
near st. peter's.
p1llar at wh1ch st. peter was scourged.
This, the head church of the Carmelites, was founded by the
Cardinal of Alessandria, who was afterwards Pope St. Pius V.2
It is richly decorated and has a handsome high altar, with a
picture of our Lady, brought by the Carmelites from the Holy
Land when they fled before the Saracens.
In a side chapel on the left is venerated the pillar at which
the Prince of the Apostles is said to have been scourged before
he was led to crucifixion. St. Paul, because of his position as a
Roman citizen, would be exempted from the cruel and humiliat
ing penalty of flagellation, but it seems certain that St. Peter
underwent the torture, Roman law requiring its infliction before
crucifixion. Flagellation was accounted by the Romans a most
humiliating form of punishment, never to be inflicted on a
Roman citizen, but reserved for slaves, traitors, rebels. Pruden-
tius refers to it as perhaps the most painful and cruel of the
tortures the martyrs had to suffer.3
1 Cardinal Moran, Life of Ven. Oliver Plunket, p. 22.
a Cardinal Ghislieri, called Alessandrino, from his native place in
Lombardy.
3 See a Lapide in Matt, xxvii. 26.
 RAPHAEL'S DEATH 51
An ancient church of S. Maria Traspontina stood close to
Castel S. Angelo, but was pulled down by Pope Pius IV in
1514 to make way for a new bastion of the fortress.

33. S. GIACOMO A SCOSSA CAVALLI RAPHAEL'S DEATH.

A little nearer St. Peter's than the last-named church is the
Piazza Scossa Cavalli, a strange name, probably derived from
some family, or possibly from Coxa Cabali, a fragment of the
statue of a horse that may have been found here. Beyond the
piazza is the Palazzo de' Convertendi, where Raphael died, on
Good Friday, 1520, at the early age of thirty-seven.1 As the
body lay in state, with the unfinished painting of the Trans
figuration at the head of the bed, Leo X came to offer some
prayers for his soul, and it is said that he shed tears as he
kissed the hand now cold in death, that had given being to so
many glorious creations of Christian art.
A portion of this palace was, in accordance with 1ts title
and original object, as given above, assigned to the use of the
Collegio Pio, founded by Pius IX for British converts of a more
advanced age. Here it found lodgment for several years
until it was ultimately transferred to, and associated with, the
English College, where it assumed the title of the Collegio Beda.
This transfer had been previously proposed and discussed
when one sole link with the past was left in the person of
the Rev. W. Bodley. He, however, strong in his preference
for the existing and more independent arrangement, and in
his loyalty to Alma Mater, refused to migrate, and was soon
rewarded for his staunchness by the arrival of new recruits to
strengthen the one connecting tie, until the Collegio Pio became
once more a body corporate. The floor which it had occupied
in the Palazzo de' Convertendi was afterwards utilized by the
Staff of the Civilta Cattolica.
In the Piazza Scossa Cavalli is the Church of S. Giacomo,
where two stones are shown, said to have been brought by
St. Helena from Jerusalem. A popular legend informs us that
when St. Helena returned from Palestine, she brought with her
the stone on which Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, and
another stone on which the Holy Child was placed at the
Presentation in the Temple. The horses drawing these stones
intended for St. Peter's, stood still at this spot, and in spite of
every effort to make them move, refused to stir. Hence the
name Scossa Cavalli, as folk-lore would have it.
1 Others say he died in a house now destroyed in the Piazza Rusti-
cucci, in front of St. Peter's.
52 CASTEL S. ANGELO
In the Jubilee of 1600, Clement VIII got ready a palace
in the Borgo near St. Peter's, where poor Bishops and other
ecclesiastics were received and hospitably entertained for ten
days. The Pope used to go there with the Cardinal-nephews,
Aldobrandini and San Giorgio, to wash the feet of the venerable
pilgrims. As many as four thousand ecclesiastics are said to
have received hospitality there in that year.
At S. Caterina in Borgo (a church and convent destroyed
in the sixteenth century), was the convent home of St. Galla,
where at her death she was consoled by a vision of St. Peter.1
In ancient rituals the church is referred to as Ad Kata Galium
Patriciam.
34. CASTEL S. ANGELO—MAUSOLEUM OF HADRIAN.
This huge, fortress-like structure, was built by the Emperor
Hadrian as his family tomb. Here he was buried in a.d. 140,
his remains being transported from the temporary tomb at
Pozzuoli. Here also were buried Antoninus Pius, a.d. 161 ;
Marcus Aurelius, 180 ; Commodus, 192 ; Septimus Severus,
211 ; and Caracalla, 217. The castle, as it now appears, is but
a skeleton of the splendid mausoleum, which Procopius describes
(sixth century) : " It is all built [he says] of Parian marble, the
square blocks fitting close to each other without any cement.
It has four equal sides each a stone's throw in length. On the
summit are statues of men and horses, of admirable workman
ship in Parian marble," &c.
In 537, the castle turned into a fortress was besieged by
Vitiges, leader of the Ostrogoths, when the defending garrison,
reduced to the last extremity, hurled down upon the besiegers
all the magnificent statues which decorated the cornice.
In 547, Belisarius defended the fortress against Totila, whose
Gothic troops captured and held it for three years, after which
it was taken by Narses.
At the close of the great procession of penance, ordered by
St. Gregory the Great during the pestilence of 590, tradition
asserts that the Archangel Michael appeared over the mole
of Hadrian, sheathing a sword, which announced the
cessation of the plague. On the present castle of St. Angelo
the figure of an angel sheathing a sword commemorates the
event.2
Boniface IV (608—615) opened a shrine here in honour of
1 See St. Gregory's Dialogues, bk. iv. c. 13.
2 Abbot Snow, St. Gregory the Great, p. 65. This tradition dates
from the tenth or eleventh century, and is not mentioned by the earliest
biographers of St. Gregory.
 CASTEL S, ANGELO 53
St. Michael, which was known as S. Michael inter nubes. It
was replaced afterwards by the figure of an angel. There is a
legend that during the pestilence of 1348, as the panic-stricken
people were carrying the image of our Lady from Ara Cceli to
St. Peter's, thirty witnesses testified that they had seen the
angel on the monument bow in reverence to the Queen of
Heaven.
In 1378, the castle was stormed by the people and the angel
destroyed.
Nicholas V (1447— 1455) replaced it by a new image, which
was shattered by the explosion of the powder magazine, in
1497. The shock was so violent that pieces of the statue were
found beyond St. Mary Major, a distance of one and a half
miles.
Alexander VI (1492— 1503) set up a statue for the third
time, which was stolen by the Lutheran hordes of Charles V,
in 1 527, for the sake of its heavy gilding. A marble statue was
then set up, and remained till the time of Benedict XIV (1740
— 1758). This Pope erected a fifth figure, which still holds its
place.1
In the tenth century the Crescentii (Cenci) garrisoned Castel
S. Angelo as a stronghold. Under the shelter of its massive
ramparts they were able to dictate the law to the Pope and
commit bloodshed and sacrilege with impunity. In 928, they
seized and cast Pope John X into prison, where he was either
murdered or died broken-hearted. In 974, they imprisoned
and murdered Pope Benedict VI and set up as Pope a deacon
named Franco, who took the title of Boniface VII. The people
rose in rebellion and stormed the castle, they then deposed the
usurper and elected Benedict VII.2
In 1084, during the siege of Rome by Henry IV of Germany,
Pope St. Gregory VII (Hildebrand) took refuge in Castel
S. Angelo. Robert Guiscard, with his Normans, came to his
rescue, took Rome by storm and delivered the Pope, who left
Rome and died at Salerno, in 1085.
In 1527, Clement VII with his Cardinals and the nobility
of Rome took shelter in Castel S. Angelo during the sack of the
city by Bourbon's soldiers.
At the suppression of the Society of Jesus by Clement XIV
in 1773, the General, Very Rev. Father Laurence Ricci, and his
five Assistants were imprisoned in the Castel S. Angelo, where
Father Ricci died on November 24, 1775, after solemnly pro-
1 Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 228.
2 His tomb is in Santa Croce, and the events here mentioned are
alluded to in the epitaph. See No. 147.
54 PONTE S. ANGELO
testing in presence of the Blessed Sacrament his own innocence
and that of the Society of the crimes imputed to them by the
Bourbon Courts. By order of Pope Pius VI his obsequies were
celebrated with great solemnity in the Church of S. Giovanni
dei Fiorentini, and his remains were interred in the Gesi1.

35.—PONTE S. ANGELO—CATASTROPHE AT THE JUBILEE OF

1450—ST. PHILIP NERI AND ST. FELIX.
This bridge was built by the Emperor Hadrian to connect his
mausoleum with the city, in a.d. 136, and was named after him,
Pons ^ilius.1 The statues of SS. Peter and Paul, at the south
end of the bridge, were erected by Clement VII on the site of
two chapels, memorials of a terrible occurrence that took place
here in the Jubilee of 1450. A dense crowd of pilgrims was
crossing the bridge, when some horses and mules took fright
and a block ensued. Many pilgrims were pushed down and
trampled under foot, many too, fell into the Tiber. One
hundred and twenty-eight bodies were carried to the Campo
Santo near St. Peter's, others were brought to S. Maria Sopra
Minerva, or buried in S. Celso. The two memorial chapels
were erected at the entrance of the bridge to commemorate the
sad event, and Mass was said daily in them for the souls of the
victims.2 These chapels having been used by the Lutherans (1527)
and others as cover to fire from at Castel S. Angelo, Clement VII
had them destroyed and replaced by the statues of the two
Apostles. On the parapet of the bridge are statues of angels
holding different instruments of the Passion. They were
designed by Bernini and executed by his scholars. The drapery
of the figues is bizarre, and suggests the idea that a high wind
is blowing.
In the Life of St. Philip Neri, it is related, that one day he
here met St. Felix of Cantalice the Capuchin, who was carrying
a bag filled with scraps of food and a flask of wine, alms which
he had received for his monastery. St. Philip playfully asked
the holy Friar to give him a drink, pretending to be thirsty,
and put his lips to the wine-flask to the amazement of the
passers-by, who scorned him for his levity, the very result
which St. Philip's humility desired.
1 P. /Elius Hadrianus, born in 76, was adopted by Trajan, 117,
and died in 138.
- Thurston, S.J., Holy Y^ar ofJubilee, pp. 69, 70.
f
 PONTE S. ANGELO 55

36. —HORRIBLE OUTRAGE ON PONTE S. ANGELO AT THE

FUNERAL OF POPE PIUS IX.
At midnight, July 12 (13), 1881, the mortal remains of
Pius IX were transferred without pomp or ceremony in a simple
hearse, followed by three mourning coaches, to S. Lorenzo
outside the walls. The Prefect of the city had recommended
that the funeral should be at midnight, and it was understood
that he and his police would be there to prevent any disorder
on the part of the enemies of the Papacy. Alongside the hearse
and behind the coaches followed several thousand persons
on foot with lighted candles reciting the Rosary and other
prayers.
On reaching the Ponte S. Angelo the funeral cortege was
suddenly and savagely attacked by some three or four hundred
ruffians, Freemasons, Garibaldians, and other apostates, with
the avowed object of seizing the body and casting it into the
Tiber. The Catholic young men, who were following in the
procession, quickly closed around the hearse, resolved to defend
it at the cost of their lives. A sharp struggle ensued, and many
were severely wounded, but the Catholics succeeded in beating
off their savage assailants, and the procession moved on its
course. The whole Catholic world was shocked at the news
of this sacrilegious outrage, and ever since that time it has been
considered unsafe for the Holy Father to set foot outside the
Vatican.

37. INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCES OF ROME,

NEAR PONTE S. ANGELO.
SS. CELSO E GIULIANO.
As St. Frances and her friend Vannozza were returning
from St. Peter's, one hot day in July, both suffering from thirst,
they approached the river-brink and holding each other by the
hand tried to reach the water to cool their burning lips. As
they bent over the stream a violent blow from an evil spirit
hurled them both into the water. They were carried some
distance by the current and seemed lost, but calling God's aid,
they were miraculously carried to the shore near a church of
St. Leonard, which no longer exists.
In the Via dei Banchi near Ponte S. Angelo is the Church
of SS. Celso e Giuliano (SS. Celsus and Julian) who suffered
martyrdom at Antioch about A.n. 304. Their bodies were
56 S. SALVATORE IN LAURO
translated by Clement VIII from St. Paul's to this church with
extraordinary solemnity. On or near the site of this church
stood the famous Arch of Gratian, erected about the year 379,
which served as an entrance to the great portico leading to
St. Peter's. It was a work of royal piety and munificence, as
we gather from the inscription on its front : " Imppp. Caesares
[Link]. Gratianus, Valentinianus, Theodosius, Pii, Felices,
Semper Augusti, Arcum ad Concludendum Opus Omne l'orti-
cuum Maximorum ^Eterni Nominis Sui Pecunia Propria Fieri
Ornarique Jusserunt." Two splendid columns of verde antico
discovered here a few years ago are thought to have belonged
to this monument.
Near the church was a market or show-ground frequented
by roughs and mountebanks (ai Banchi), whither St. Ignatius
sent the novices and young scholastics to preach to the people
in the open air.

38.—S. SALVATORE IN LAURO—S. ANTONIO DEI PORTO-

GHESI S. MARIA IN CAMPO MARZIO.
After crossing Ponte S. Angelo, we may take the electric
tram which goes to the Piazza di Venezia ; or, if we prefer to
walk, we may follow the Via Tordinona (below the Tiber
embankment wall, past a row of bric-a-brac shops kept chiefly
by Jews), and the Via dell' Orso, which latter street leads to
the Piazza Colonna. A narrow passage from the Via Tordi
nona takes us to the church of S. Salvatore in Lauro, built in
1450 by Cardinal Latino Orsini for a community of the Regular
Canons of S. Salvatore in Alga (Venice). In 1668 Clement IX
suppressed this Order of Canons, and his successor, Clement X,
gave the church and monastic buildings to a confraternity of
the Marchegiani, or natives of the Marches of Ancona, &c. In
a chapel off the cloister is the richly sculptured tomb of Pope
Eugenius IV (d. 1447), brought, it is said, from Old St. Peter's.
In 1867 this chapel was used as a barrack-room for the Papal
Zouaves, but fortunately the delicate carvings of the Pope's
tomb suffered little injury. In Eugenius' reign was held the
Council of Florence for the reunion of the Greeks.
At the entrance of the Via dell' Orso is the ancient Albergo
dell' Orso, where Dante is said to have lodged in 1300. It was
in the Via dell' Orso that St. Philip Neri, on some night errand
of charity to a poor family, fell into a deep trench dug for the
foundations of a building. He escaped miraculously without
any injury, rescued, it is believed, by an angel.
In the Via dell' Orso is the Church of S. Antonio dei Porto
 TORRE DELLA SCIMIA 57
ghesi, erected by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century in
honour of St. Antony of Padua (a native of Portugal), with a
hospice attached to it for their compatriots. It is very rich in
marbles, intended originally for the Church of S. Ignazio, but
presented by Clement Xiy to this church on the suppression
of the Society of Jesus in 1773. The costly marbles at S. Luigi
dei Francesi are also said to have come from S. Ignazio.
Opposite the church is a mediaeval tower known as Torre
della Scimia, " Monkey tower," where a man once lived who
had a favourite ape. One day the ape seized a baby and
rushed with it to the very top of the tower, where it was seen
by an excited crowd, seated on the battlements holding the
infant in its arms. The agonized parents made a vow that if
the child were restored in safety, they would place an image of
our Lady on the summit of the tower and make provision that
a lamp should burn nightly before it for ever. At once the
monkey, still clasping the infant, slid down the walls and laid
the child safely on the ground. The vow has been faithfully
kept, and every night a lamp burns on the tower before our
Lady's image.
Crossing the Via della Scrofa, on the right side of which we
notice the large Augustinian monastery (Austin Friars) appro
priated by the Government as offices for the Admiralty, we
reach the Piazza della Stelletta and the Church of S. Maria in
Campo Marzio. This church, now belonging to a community
of Benedictine nuns, possesses a miraculous picture of our
Lady, said to have been brought from the East by Basilian
monks, fleeing from the Iconoclasts, in the eighth century. On
a side altar is a beautiful picture of St. John Berchmans, an
object of great veneration. The story is told of the miraculous
cure of one of the nuns by this Saint, long before his beatifica
tion. She had a picture of him in her cell very rudely painted,
and in her simplicity asked the young Saint whether it was like
him or not. Suddenly the picture was completely altered, and
became the very beautiful portrait we see at present.
Till 1564, a church dedicated to St. Gregory Nazianzen, and
served by Basilian monks, occupied this site, where the body of
the titular Saint had lain enshrined since the eighth century :
but Gregory XIII translated the body to St. Peter's, and
Caterina Colonna rebuilt the church as it now stands. A few
steps further bring us to Monte Citorio.
58 MONTE CITORIO

39.—MONTE CITORIO, ITALIAN PARLIAMENT—ANTONINE

PILLAR, THE THUNDERING LEGION.
In the Via delle Missioni to the left as we enter the Piazza
di Monte Citorio, is a fine church built in 1650 and dedicated
to the Most Holy Trinity. It belongs to the Lazarist Fathers,
whose religious home has been appropriated by the Govern
ment and converted into a girls' high school. The church
is not seen from the street, and it is necessary to pass through
a corridor to reach it. Attached to the church is a house for
retreats, where St. John Baptist de Rossi and Venerable
Vincent Pallotti made the Spiritual Exercises.
The Palace of Monte Citorio, erected by Bernini in 1650
for the Ludovisi family, and transformed into a law court by
Innocent X, has been used since the Italian occupation of
Rome as the Camera dei Deputati, or Parliament House of
United Italy. The obelisk in the piazza belonged to the famous
sun-dial of Augustus (B.C. 10) discovered near the Church of
S. Lorenzo in Lucina. It was set up on its present site by
Pius VI in 1792.
The splendid Column of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in the
Piazza Colonna, with a series of bas-reliefs winding round the
shaft, commemorating the Emperor's exploits in Germany and
his victories over the Marcomanni, has a special interest for
Catholics because of the representation of Jupiter Pluvius, i.e.,
of the god sending rain to the army. This refers to a prodigy
obtained by the prayers of Christian soldiers. The Emperor
conducted the campaign in person, with a skill and valour that
drew upon him general admiration. However, after many
victories, he suffered himself and his troops to be entangled in
narrow defiles amidst the mountains of Bohemia, where, being
surrounded on all sides by the enemy, they were on the point
of perishing with heat and thirst. In this extremity, the soldiers
of the twelfth legion, all Christians, betook themselves to prayer,
and presently the clouds gathered and an abundant rain fell,
which refreshed the Romans : whereas, hail, thunder, and
lightning spread confusion among the barbarians, and enabled
Marcus Aurelius to gain a complete victory (A.D. 174). On
this occasion the name of Thundering was given, or confirmed
to the twelfth legion. This prodigy, which pagan writers1
themselves relate, and which is seen engraved on the Antonine
1 Dion Cassius, Capitolinus, Claudian, &c, see Tillemont, vol. ii.
?- 37°-
 ANTONINK COLUMN 50
pillar, checked for a time the persecution that the Christians
were then suffering.1
In the Middle Ages the column became the property of the
monks of S. Silvestro in Capite (S. Silvestri in Catapauli). An
1nscription in the vestibule of that church, dated 1 119, states
that both the column and the little Church of S. Nicolai de
Columna, which stood at its foot, belonged to S. Silvestro, and
that the column was leased to the highest bidder, probably
from year to year. " It was evidently rented on account of the
profit which could be derived from pilgrims or tourists wishing
to ascend it."2
1 Fredet, Modern History, " Marcus Aurelius." On the Legio
Fulminans, see Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, January 8.
2 Lanciani, Ruins of Ancient Rome, p. 509.
 CHAPTER III.
To St. John Lateran and the Holy Places on the
Qel1an.
40.—st. john lateran, the mother and head of
all churches.1
On reaching the Eternal City the visitor first directs his steps
to St. Peter's, and feels that he has at length reached the goal
of his pilgrimage when kneeling before the Apostle's tomb
beneath Michael Angelo's wonderful dome. On leaving the
basilica he is surprised to learn that St. Peter's, with all its
stateliness, is not the most important of the churches in Rome,
that St. John Lateran, the Pope's Cathedral, ranks first in
dignity among all the churches of the Eternal City and of the
world. Its chapter takes precedence over that of St. Peter's,
and every Pope, when elected, comes here to be crowned and
to be solemnly enthroned as the successor of St. Peter.2 The
inscription on the facade proclaims it to be, " The Mother and
Head of all the churches in the city and in the world." In one
of the corridors leading to the sacristy is a marble tablet with
the Bull of Pope Gregory XI inscribed on it, recording the
foundation of the basilica by Constantine, and describing it as
the first and chief of all the churches in Urbe et Orbe.
Popes Paschal II, Callixtus II, Honorius II, Innocent II,
and others, speak of it in their Bulls as the " Mother, Head
and Queen of all the churches."
The Lateran is the Cathedral of the Pope, as Bishop of
Rome. Here, till September, 1870, he officiated on the first
Sunday in Lent, on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Holy
Saturday, Easter Monday, Whit Sunday, the feasts of St. John
Baptist, the Exaltation of the Cross, the dedication of the
basilica and the anniversary of his election.
1 An electric car runs from the Piazza di Venezia to the Lateran
about every ten minutes.
2 This has been impossible since the Italian occupation of Rome in
1870.
 CONSTANTINE'S CONVERSION 61
These solemn services he can no longer perform. "The
Holy Father, confined within the precincts of his palace, a
prisoner for twenty-one years, has never quitted the Vatican,
has never felt free to visit the Church, which, as Bishop of
Rome, is peculiarly his own —the Lateran Basilica of Constan-
tine."1
From the loggia, over the entrance facing Santa Croce, the
Holy Father used to give his solemn blessing to the people
every feast of the Ascension.

41.—constantIne's g1ft ok the lateran palace to

THE POPE.
The palace belonged originally to a rich patrician family
named Laterani, and the place still preserves their name.
Plautius Lateranus, head of the family, was put to death by
Nero, in a.d. 67, for alleged complicity in the conspiracy of
Piso, but in reality that the Emperor might confiscate his
estate.2 It then became an imperial residence. At the begin
ning of the fourth century it was the property of Fausta,
daughter of the Emperor Maximian and wife of Constantine.
In A.D. 312, Constantine won his celebrated victory over
Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. While advancing into Italy
against his rival, Constantine and his whole army had seen the
vision of a luminous cross, just over the sun, with the inscrip
tion, "In this conquer."3 The cross was the sign or symbol
that was to marshal his hosts to victory. He caused a repre
sentation of it to be made and carried as a standard, known as
the Labarum, before the army, and under this standard he
inflicted a crushing defeat on Maxentius and his forces on
October 12, Maxentius perishing in the fray.1 Entering Rome
in triumph Constantine chose the Lateran palace for his royal
dwelling, and proceeded to annul the penal laws against the
Christians ; he also openly professed his faith in Christianity,
though he was not baptized t1ll a little before his death.
The Church, after a persecution of some 300 years, was now
free to emerge from the catacombs, and one of the first acts of
Constantine, in gratitude for his success, was to present the
Lateran Palace to Pope St. Melchiades, to be used as a Papal
1 London Daily Telegraph, August 21, 1899.
a Tacitus gives a graphic account of the stern and dignified manner
in which Lateranus met his death. (Annales, xv. 60.)
3 Eusebius, Life of Constantine, bk. i. cc. 27, 28.
1 The battle took place near the Milvian Bridge (Ponte Molle),
outside the Porta del Popolo.
62 CONSTANTINE'S CONVERSION
residence. On October 2, 313, the Pope here presided at the
first council assembled against the Donatists. On the death
of St. Melchiades, the Emperor confirmed his gift to St.
Sylvester, in 314.
Some years later, the Emperor was persuaded by the
Senate to tolerate the pagan worship. Thereupon, profiting by
his absence in the East, on a campaign against Licinus, the
senators and other pagans in the city assumed a threatening
attitude, and there was good reason to fear that a massacre of
the Christians was preparing. Pope St. Sylvester fled to Mount
Soracte for safety. The legend has it, that the Emperor, in
punishment for this toleration of paganism, was stricken with
leprosy, and his court physicians (pagans) prescribed a bar
barous and inhuman remedy ; but one night, as he lay asleep,
he was warned by SS. Peter and Paul, to send for Pope
Sylvester, hiding on Mount Soracte, and to seek baptism at his
hands as the only cure for his distemper.1
These events, which are said to have happened in 323, are
represented in the frescoes of the transept of the basilica.

42.—EMANCIPATION OF CHRISTIANITY—CONSTANTINE
BUILDS THE LATERAN BASILICA.
Twelve years after his conversion, Constantine called
together the senators and patricians of Rome in the Basilica
Ulpia (a portion of the ruins of which may still be seen in the
Forum of Trajan), and after explaining his reasons for embracing
Christianity, exhorted them to follow his example. Henceforth
Christians were to be free to open churches and practise their
religion publicly, and their priests were to enjoy the privileges
previously granted to the pagan priests. This announcement
was listened to by the senators in sullen silence, but the
Christians present greeted his words with shouts of acclamation,
which were taken up by the people outside, and Constantine
was accompanied to his palace by immense crowds bearing
lighted torches.2
The year 324 marks the downfall of idolatry in Rome and
the triumph of Christianity, though paganism was revived for a
time by Julian the Apostate, and efforts were made by Vettius
Prcetextatus and others to keep it alive up to a.d. 390.3
1 This story is no longer accepted, and has been corrected in the
Soman Breviary, December 31.
2 Baronius, Annates, 324, n. 81; Gerbet, Rome Chreiienne, vol. i.
p. 266.
3 Grisar, S.J., I Papi del medio Evo, vol. i. pp. 21 seq.
 CONSTANTINE'S BASILICA
Constantine began at once to erect a Christian basilica in
one part of the Lateran palace, assisting in the work, it is said,
with his own hands. It was consecrated by Pope St. Sylvester
on November 9, 324. Tradition asserts that on the day of
consecration God signified His acceptance of this, the first
publicly consecrated church in Rome, by a miraculous event.
In the vault of the apse there suddenly appeared an image of
the Divine Countenance of the Redeemer, and the words of
salutation were heard, Pax vobis /-
St. Sylvester dedicated the church in honour of our Blessed
Saviour, whence it is known as Basilica Salvatoris. Its other
titles are—Lateran Basilica, Basilica of Constantine, St. John
Lateran, from its being also dedicated to St. John the Baptist,
by Sergius III. Later still, St. John the Evangelist was made
tutelary patron along with St. John the Baptist.

43. —IMPERIAL ENDOWMENT OF THE BASILICA.

In the Liber Pontificalis (seventh century) is preserved an
authentic inventory of the rich endowment—both in revenues,
in landed property, and gold and silver vestments left by
Constantine to this, the principal church in the city.
The annual revenues to be divided between St. Peter's,
St. Paul's, the Lateran, and St. Laurence, amounted to .£13,000
sterling, i.e., about £60,000 or ,£70,000, according to modern
valuation.2
Of his other presents, we may mention a silver canopy for
the high altar, weighing 2,025 lbs. ; a silver statue of our
Saviour, five feet high, weighing 140 lbs. ; another silver statue
of our Saviour, weighing* 1 20 lbs. ; four silver statues of angels,
each weighing 105 lbs. ; silver statues of the Apostles, each
90 lbs. ; a golden tabernacle of 50 lbs. weight ; seven altars of
silver ; 45 silver lamps ; besides gold candelabra, thuribles,
chalices, &c.
So rich and splendid was the interior that it was commonly
spoken of as the Basilica Aurea, "The Golden Basilica."
Early mediaeval writers dilate on the splendour and brilliancy
of the interior on festivals, when the whole basilica seemed a
mass of light gleaming on polished pillar, gilded roof and
ornaments of gold and silver.3
1 Roman Breviary, November 9. Thurston, S.J. , Holy Year of
Jubilee, p. 178.
a Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, November 18.
3 Two writers of the fifth century, SS. Jerome and Prudentius,
refer to this basilica of Constantine.
64 VICISSITUDES OF THE BASILICA
Prudentius1 speaks of the faithful flocking to the Lateran
to receive the royal unction, i.e. the Sacrament of Confirmation.
St. Jerome2 speaks of Fabiola, one of the most illustrious
ladies of Rome, doing public penance for her fault (crrorenij*
in sight of all Rome, standing the whole of Holy Saturday
among the penitents in the atrium of the Lateran, clad in sack
cloth, with ashes sprinkled on her head, a sight that moved
Bishop, priests and people to tears.

44.—VICISSITUDES OF THE BASILICA.

It was first erected by Constantine in 324.
In the fifth century, it suffered so much injury from Genseric
and his Vandals, that it had to be restored by St. Leo the
Great. In the eighth century, Hadrian I (771—795) repaired
with great splendour the ravages which time had made. In
894, the fabric was nearly destroyed by an earthquake. In
904, it was completely rebuilt by Sergius III, and dedicated to
St. John the Baptist. This is the building Dante saw, and he
describes how " the barbarians from the North stood in mute
wonder 'mid the works of Rome, when to their view the Lateran
arose in greatness more than earthly."4
In 1276— 1277, it was restored byAdrianVand Nicholas III.
The mosaics of the apse belong to this period.
In 1308, three years after the transference of the Papal
Court to Avignon by Clement V, the Sergian basilica was
almost totally destroyed by fire, as well as the Lateran palace.
The only parts that escaped were the patriarchio or large
council hall, a part of the triclinium, apd the chapel known as
Sancta Sanctorum.
The fire seems to have been caused by the negligence of
some plumbers who were repairing the roof.5 For three days the
fire raged with unabated fury, during which time the miraculous
1 Contra Syrnmachum, lib. i. 579-
2 Epist. xxx. alias Ixxvii.
3 To repair the scandal she had given by her second marriage,
A.D. 390. She had repudiated her dissolute husband and availed
herself of the right which the Roman law gave her to marry another.
After her conversion she became a model of Christian virtue, renounced
the world, served the poor in the hospitals, practised great austerity,
and went to live as a Religious in Palestine. (Grisar, S.J. , 1 Papi del
medio Evo, i. p. 80.)
4 Paradiso, canto xxxi. II. 34—36.
• A similar carelessness is responsible for the destruction of
St. Paul's outside the walls, in 1823.
 EXTERIOR OF THE LATERAN
head of St. Pancratius, the boy-martyr (preserved in the basi
lica), is said to have dripped with blood. The people regarded
this calamity as a visitation from Heaven for the removal of the
Papal Court from Rome to Avignon, and religious processions
defiled throughout the streets to appease the Divine wrath.
Pope Clement V sent skilled architects from Avignon with
immense sums of money to restore the basilica. The restoration
begun by him was completed by his successor, John XXII.
In 1360 it was again burnt down. From 1360 to 1364, it lay
in utter ruin, and its desolation evoked the pathetic laments of
Petrarch in his letters to Urban V. In 1364, and the six
following years, it was once more rebuilt by Urban V and its
walls were frescoed by Giotto and Gentile da Fabriano. The
magnificent Gothic canopy over the high altar, the work of
Arnolfo del Cambio, is of this period.1 In the fifteenth century
some restorations were made by Martin V and Eugenius IV.
Sixtus V(1585— 1 590) built the present north entrance to the
basilica with its loggia, erected the obelisk in front and cleared
the piazza of debris. He also rebuilt the Lateran palace, and
transferred the Scala Santa1 to its present site. In 1650 the
basilica was painfully modernized by Borromini. The present
eastern facade, looking towards Santa Croce, was erected from
the designs of Galilei, in 1734. In 1895— 1896, the tribune was
enlarged and splendidly restored by Leo XIII at a cost of some
;£ 180,000 sterling. The Holy Father never had an opportunity
of seeing the work on which he spent so large a sum.

45.—EXTERIOR OF THE BASILICA.

The east front presents a noble appearance as seen from the
road near Santa Croce. The view from the porch, embracing
the ancient walls of Aurelian, the Campagna, with its long
1 For a description of the ancient basilica, see Maracchi, Basi-
liques de Rome; Grisar, S.J., 1 Papi del medio Evo, vol. ii. pp. 433,
434, seq.
2 " The eastern facade of the church at that period still maintained
its original type, with three arched windows, such as may be seen at
S. Maria in Trastevere. It was decorated with mosaics, the centre
being a figure of Christ, and below the four Prophets with other figures.
On the walls of the nave the principal events of both the Old and
New Testaments were set Forth for the instruction of the faithful.
This was the common practice in earlier ages, when the walls of
the church were the book from which the unlettered could read and
learn the sacred story. A large portico with six columns stood in front
of the building with a fountain in the centre." (Thurston, S.J., Holy
Year ofJubilee, p. 174.)
F
66 INTERIOR OF THE LATERAN
lines of aqueducts, the Alban and Sabine hills dotted with
white villages, is very beautiful. The large open space between
the Lateran and Santa Croce was formerly the Pope's gardens,
and here St. Francis of Assisi is said to have had his first
interview with Innocent III. The hideous blocks of modern
houses on the left are a great disfigurement. The apse of the
Triclinium of St. Leo III, seen in the foreground, is a modern
copy of one of the three apses of the great dining-hall of the
Papal palace. Part of the mosaic work is said to be ancient.1
To the right may be seen Porta S. Giovanni, outside which
starts the Via Appia Nuova. Pope Pius IX's flight through
this gate in the revolution of 1848 will be referred to later.2
Near it is the ancient Porta Asinaria, now closed, through
which Belisarius entered Rome in 505, and Totila in 546. In
1084 Henry IV, of Germany, entered Rome by this same gate
with his anti - Pope, Guibert, to dethrone, if possible, St.
Gregory VII (Hildebrand). He was soon followed by Robert
Guiscard with his Normans, who rescued the Pope and set fire
to a great part of the city. Outside the Porta Asinaria there lived
in St. Dominic's time a holy recluse, Murata, in a walled-up
cell, who was visited and consoled by the Saint.
The great bronze doors of the central entrance of the
basilica were brought from S. Adriano in the Forum by
Alexander VII (1655 — 1667) ; they are said to have belonged to
the ancient Basilica ^Emilia. In the porch is a bronze statue of
Henry IV of France, the French kings being the protectors and
ex-officio canons of the basilica.
Over the northern fagade of the basilica stand two quaint
towers, relics of the tenth century edifice. The loggia and
porch at this entrance have already been referred to as the work
of Sixtus V.
46. INTERIOR OF THE BASILICA.
It consists of a broad nave, with a rich mosaic pavement,
four side aisles, a spacious transept and a noble tribune or
sanctuary. Behind the first pillar of the inner right aisle is the
well-known fresco by Giotto, which represents Boniface VIII
proclaiming the first Jubilee in 1300. It is supposed to be a
fragment of a larger fresco that has perished.
(a) Nave. —This is of grand proportions and impressive
appearance, but unfortunately spoiled by Borromini, who
encased the ancient columns (except two near the sanctuary) in
cumbrous piers of brick and plaster. The colossal statues of
1 Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome, p. 105.
2 See No. 209.
Lateran Basilica. Interior. (Chap. Ill, No. 46.)
 INTERIOR OF THE LATERAN 6»
the Apostles are of the Bernini school. The mosaic pavement
was the work of Martin V (1417— 1431),1 whose bronze effigy
may be seen in the confession at the foot of the high altar.
The carved ceiling, said to have been designed by Michael
Angelo or Giacomo della Porta, is richly gilt.
(b) Right Transept.—In a corner to the right is seen the
Turkish standard taken by John Sobieski at the Battle of
Vienna in 1673, on which occasion the Turks lost 28,000 men.
The two splendid columns of giallo antico, flanking the northern
entrance, are supposed to have belonged to the Lateran palace
which Constantine gave to Pope St. Melchiades. Over the door,
to the right of the sanctuary, 1s the tomb of Innocent III (1198
— 1216), restored by Leo XIII.
The frescoes in the transept, by Roncalli, Nogari, and
Ciampelli, represent the events from the life of Constantine
mentioned above.
(c) The High Altar and Tribune, or Sanctuary.—This is a
Papal altar, at which the Pope alone may say Mass. Its splendid
Gothic canopy was erected by Arnolfo del Cambio for Urban V,
about 1366. The altar encloses one of Rome's most precious
relics, viz., the wooden po1 table altar used by St. Peter in the house
of Pudens,and by the first Popes in the catacombs.2 Above the
altar are preserved the Heads of SS. Peter and enshrined in
silver gilt busts.3 The mosaics of the apse are the joint work of
two celebrated Franciscan artists, Fra Jacopo Torriti and Fra
Jacopo da Camerino, made for Nicholas IV, a Franciscan, about
1280; but the mosaic figure of our Lord in the upper part of the
vault dates, according to De Rossi, from the fourth or fifth
century, and is a memorial of the miraculous event mentioned
above.4
(d) Left Transept.—The altar of the Blessed Sacrament at
the end of the transept is richly adorned with marbles and
bronzes. The four superb Corinthian columns of gilt bronze
are said to have belonged to the palace of Constantine. One
tradition asserts that they were brought from Jerusalem by
Titus.
In a recess above the altar is preserved the Sacred Table of
the Last Supper, on which our Divine Lord instituted the
1 Martin V (Otto Colonna) was elected Pope in 141 7 on the
abdication of Gregory XII, and of the anti-Popes, John XXIII and
Benedict XIII. His election put an end to the great Western
Schism.
3 See No. 47.
3 See No. 42.
* Roman Breviary, November 9, Lect. V; Marucchi, Basiliquet
de Rome, p. 90.
68 TOMBS OF THE POPES
Blessed Sacrament. The fresco of the Ascension on the wall
above the altar is by d'Arpino.
(e) The Corsini Chapel.—It stands first in the left aisle, and
is the richest in the basilica. On the left side may be seen a
splendid urn of porphyry, once placed at the entrance of the
Pantheon. It encloses the remains of Clement XII (Corsini,
«73°—>74°)-
47. GREATER RELICS.
1. The Sacred Table of the Last Supper, already mentioned.1
2. The Heads of the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul.—They
are thought to have been removed from the Apostles' tombs by
Sergius II just before the invasion of Rome by the Saracens in
846. After a time they disappeared, having been probably
hidden during some invasion or popular insurrection, and the
secret of their hiding-place subsequently lost. They were found
again in 1367 by Urban V. in the oratory Sancta Sanctorum.
These relics were solemnly exposed to the veneration of the
faithful on March 1, 1368; and were translated to the present
shrine above the Papal altar in 1370.2 Urban V enclosed them
in silver busts adorned with jewels, which were, however, stolen
by the French in the beginning of the nineteenth century. They
have since been replaced by others, said to be of gold, the gift
of the Duchess of Villa Hermosa, who also presented the
splendid silver reliquary of the Holy Manger to St. Mary Major
in 1830.
3. The wooden portable altar on which St. Peter said his
daily Mass.3—It is preserved under the high altar, and was
saved at great risk to life from the conflagration of 1 308.*
4. The miraculous head of the boy-martyr, St. Pancratius,
mentioned above as having dripped with blood during the same
conflagration.
5. The remains of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria and countless
other precious relics.
48. TOMBS OF THE POPES.
Popes Leo V, Sergius III, Lucius II, Paschal II, Callixtus II,
Honorius II, Celestine II, Innocent II, Innocent III, and
others, were buried in the Lateran. The monuments of the
1 Proofs of its authenticity are being sought.
2 St. Bridget of Sweden was present at this exposition and transla
tion. See her Life by J. M. Partridge, p. 206.
3 See No. 46.
* No one except the Pope himself ever offers the Adorable Sacrifice
over a relic so precious and so unique.
 SAINTS AT THE LATEKAN
earlier Popes perished in the great fire of 1308 ; that of
Innocent III has been beautifully restored by Leo XIII, and
may be seen above the door to the left of the sanctuary. Leo
XIII expressed a wish to be interred in the Lateran. Clement
XII's monument stands in the Corsini chapel.
During some works at the foundation in 1648, a marble
sarcophagus was discovered, containing the body of Pope
Sylvester II (99c;— 1003), perfectly preserved, the arms being
crossed over the breast. The pontifical vestments were almost
intact ; but on exposure to the air all crumbled into dust, the
ring and silver pectoral cross alone remaining. There is a silly
legend that the bones of this Pope were formerly heard to
stir in the vault, when the reigning pontiff was nearing his
end.1
49. GIFTS OF POPES AND PRINCES.
A long catalogue might be compiled of the gold and silver
vessels, crosses, statues, candelabra, and of the richly
embroidered vestments presented by Popes, kings, and
princes.
The silver canopy over the high altar, presented by
Constantine, having been stolen by the Goths, the Emperor
Valentinian replaced it by another weighing 1,550 pounds.
Among the imperial benefactors of the basilica may be
mentioned Theodosius the Great, Arcadius, Honorius, Theo-
dosius I I, Marcianus, Justinus and Justinian.
Charlemagne presented an altar with silver columns, a copy
of the Gospel bound with plates of gold and enriched with
jewels, also a large gold cross sparkling with gems.
SO. SAINTS AT THE LATERAN.2
St. Gregory the Great (590—604) lived at the Lateran after
his elevation to St. Peter's Chair. Here he wrote his homilies
and composed his famous antiphonary, thought by some to have
been dictated by angels. Here he presided at the lessons of the
choristers, who were being taught the Gregorian chant. From
this spot he guided the destinies of the Church during the
storms and troubles occasioned by the pretensions of the Greeks
and the invasions of the Lombards.
St. Martin I (649—655) was here arrested by Calliopas, at the
command of the Emperor Constans, and dragged to Constanti
nople, where he was brutally treated by the Greek patriarch
1 See No. 147.
2 Piazza, Emerologio Sacro, I. p. 238, says that Pope Celestine I
made St. Patrick a Canon of the Lateran.
70 SAINTS AT THE LATERAN
Paul, and by the populace; finally he was exiled to Cherso-
nesus (Crimea), where he died a martyr.
St. Gregory II (715—731) here received Winfrid, of England
(St. Boniface), and sent him on his apostolic mission to
Thuringia and Germany. St. Boniface received episcopal con
secration from St. Gregory II, probably in the Lateran.
[Link] III (731 —741) here boldly resisted the impious
Emperor Leo, the Isaurian, and held a council in which he
condemned the heresy of the Iconoclasts.
St. Nilus, who died at Grotta Ferrata, near Frascati, in
1005, came to the Lateran at the end of the tenth century
to plead for Philagetes, the anti-Pope, his former friend, who
was in prison and subjected to great cruelty by the Emperor
Otho III.
St. Gregory VII (Hildebrand, 1073— 1085) here fought for
the liberties of the Church and resisted the impious pretensions
of Henry IV of Germany.
St. Francis of Assisi came to the Lateran in 12 10, to request
Innocent Ill's confirmation of the Order of Friars Minor. The
Pope received him coldly ; but warned by a vision, in which
the Poor Man of Assisi was seen to be upholding the tottering
Lateran basilica, he sent messengers in search of Francis, who
found him in the hospital of St. Antonio, near St. Mary Major.
The Pope at once approved the new Order orally viva vocis
oraculo. The Rule was confirmed by a Bull of Honorius III,
in 1 2 16.
St. Dominic came to the Lateran in 12 15, to seek a similar
favour from Innocent III for his Friars Preachers. A dream
or vision, like to the one just related, decided the Pope to
give his verbal approbation. The formal confirmation by
Honorius III followed later.
During his stay in Rome (1215), St. Dominic first met
St. Francis in the Lateran. Kneeling one night in prayer in
the basilica,1 Dominic saw in vision our Divine Lord, holding
three arrows, with which to strike the world because of its
enormous wickedness. Then the Blessed Virgin was seen to
prostrate herself before Him and present to Him two men
whose zeal was destined to convert sinners and appease His
outraged justice. One of these the Saint recognized as himself;
the other was unknown to him. Next morning he met Francis
in the Lateran, and detecting in him the stranger of his vision,
ran to embrace him.
1 The Lateran was then open night and day, as it had the privilege
of " sanctuary."
 GENERAL COUNCILS 7t
In a sermon preached in the Lateran during the same year,
1215, at which St. Dominic and St. Francis were present,
St. Angelus the Carmelite spoke prophetically of the two holy
founders, predicting their future greatness and the extension of
their Orders.
St. John of Matha and St. Felix de Valois, in the twelfth
century, came to the Lateran to obtain the conf1rmation of the
Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the ransom of captives.
Innocent III received them like two angels from Heaven, and
lodged them in his own palace. While deliberating on their
proposal to found a new Order, he saw in vision during Mass
an angel in a white robe, with a red and blue cross on his
breast, who seemed to be loosening the chains of two captives.
St. Ignatius of Loyola said Mass at the Lateran, in the
chapel of the Relics, with ecstatic fervour and abundance of
tears.
St. Aloysius Gonzaga here received Minor Orders in March,
1588, along with Venerable Abram Giorgi, S.J., martyr.
St. Frances of Rome, St. Philip Neri and other great saints
were frequently seen praying in the Lateran.

51. —GENERAL COUNCILS IN THE LATERAN.

Five (Ecumenical Councils have held their sittings in the
Lateran, viz. : First Lateran Council in 11 23 ; Second in 1139;
Third in 1 179 ; Fourth in 121 5 ; Fifth in 1 5 12.
Of these the Third and Fourth were momentous assemblies
which produced a profound impression upon the Christian
world by their measures of internal reform and by the mcreased
definiteness they gave to the whole system of ecclesiastical law.
St. Laurence O'Toole, Archbishop of Dublin, was present at
the Third Council.
St. Dominic was present at the Fourth Council, and was
cordially welcomed by the Fathers. In this Council decrees
were passed concerning the nature of the sacraments, and, in
particular, of the Holy Eucharist, and the two binding obliga
tions of yearly Confession and Communion were imposed.
St. Francis was also present, and Pope Innocent III.
declared before the assembled Fathers that he approved the
Order and Rule both of the Friars Minor and of the Friars
Preachers.
1 Thurston, S.J., Holy Year ofJubilee, p. 184.
7a THE LATERAN PALACE

52.—THE MEDIEVAL CLOISTER—THE LATERAN IN 1600—

THE LATERAN PALACE.
The sacristan should be asked to open the door of the
mediaeval cloister.1 This interesting monastic court is the
work of the thirteenth century, and formed part of the
monastery founded at the end of the sixth century by Bene
dictines from Monte Cassino. The low arches rest on twisted
columns inlaid with mosaic, above which is a frieze of coloured
marbles. In the cloister are many interesting monuments, and
many architectural remains from the old basilica. A writer in
The Month 2 gives the following description of the Lateran as
it was in the year 1600. "Had we visited the basilica in that
year, we should have found the exterior on the north side much
as it is at present, with the span-new palace built by the
practical but unarchaeological Sixtus V, in place of the venerable
palace of his predecessors ; and the new north facade with the
obelisk before it, raised by that Pope. In the interior, the nave
is bare and plain, unmodernized and unadorned. The columns
have suffered so by the fire that they have to be supported by
brick piers, and look as if built of brick. But there is the
pavement of rich Opus Alexandrinum, with the bronze effigy of
the restorer of the church, Martin V, lying before the high altar
and its Gothic baldachino ; the roof is shining with new
decoration, the great transept has just been adorned with vast
frescoes, and the four gilt bronze columns, which are still
a puzzle to antiquarians, have gone to adorn the altar of the
Blessed Sacrament. No stately front as yet at the west end,
but there is the old facade, like that of so many ancient basilicas
still remaining in Rome, and a sunken area with a row of
ancient columns, and mosaics in the frieze and pediment
above."
The ancient Lateran Palace was the ordinary Papal resi
dence till the transference of the Holy See to Avignon in 1305.
In 1308 it perished in the great fire mentioned above, the only
parts that escaped being the patriarchio, or hall of consistories,
and the chapel Sancta Sanctormn. Sixtus V pulled down what
remained of the patriarchio, and built the present palace from
the designs of Fontana, as a summer residence for the Pope.
It was no sooner finished than it was found to be unhealthy
because of malaria, so the enterprising Pontiff at once started
a new palace on the Quirinal. In 1693 the Lateran Palace
1 A small fee of 20 or 30 centesimi is expected when any door,
usually kept locked, is opened to visitors.
" May—August, 1874, p. 389.
 THE LATERAN BAPTISTERY 73
began to be u»ed as a hospital, and in 1843, it was converted
by Gregory XVI into a museum. It contains many fine sarco
phagi, both pagan and Christian, some ancient frescoes, and a
collection of valuable pictures by Crivelli, Gozzoli, Lippi,
Signorelli, &c. The Marian Exhibition, opened on occasion
of the 50th anniversary of the definition of the dogma of our
Lady's In1maculate Conception, was held here.

53. THE LATERAN BAPTISTERY BUILT BY CONSTANTINE.

This is an octagonal building detached from the basilica.
In the interior, eight large porphyry columns enclosing the font,
support an antique architrave, from which rise eight smaller
columns' to support the dome. These columns are said to have
been the gift of Constantine, who was the founder of this
baptistery.1 The font is of green basalt, and stands at a lower
level than the entrance. In this font or basin Cola di Rienzi
bathed the night before he summoned Clement VI and the
Electors of Germany to appear before him for judgment,
August 1, 1347, and before his coronation with seven crowns in
the adjacent basilica.2
The baptistery was restored by Sixtus III (432—440), after
being plundered by the Goths, and on the marble architrave an
inscription by that pontiff refers to the spiritual effect of
baptism.3
It was probably in this very font that Caedwalla, the Anglo-
Saxon king, was baptized in 689. While still wearing the white
robe of the newly-baptized he fell ill and died, and was buried in
the portico of Old St. Peter's, near the tomb of St. Gregory the
Great.
Jewish converts are here baptized on Easter eve.
Adjoining the baptistery are four ancient chapels, which
should be visited. (1) The Chapel of St. John the Baptist, on
the right, was built by Pope St. Hilary in the fifth century, and
has two bronze doors, popularly supposed to have been brought
from the baths of Caracalla : when moved slowly to and fro
they have the sound of a powerful organ. The bronze statue
of St. John Baptist by Veladier (1772) stands between two
columns of serpentine. (2) The Chapel of St. John the
Evangelist on the left was also built by Pope St. Hilary in the
fifth century, and has bronze doors wrought by Alberto and
1 Armellini, Le Chiese di Roma, p. 89.
2 Thurston, S.J., Holy Year ofJubilee, p. 184.
8 The inscription will be found in Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome,
P- 94-
74 SCALA SANTA
Pietro de Losanna (Lausanne) in 1 203 for the old Papal palace.
The statue of the Saint is by Landini. The vaulted ceiling is
covered with fifth century mosaics. (3) The Chapel of
SS. Rufina and Secunda, opposite the baptistery entrance, was
built by Anastasius IV in 1153, who decorated the apse with
mosaics and a picture of our Lord crowning the two sister
Saints. St. Philip Neri used to advise his penitents to go and
pray before this altar. (4) The Oratory of S. Venanzio
(St. Venantius, bishop and martyr) was built in 640 by John IV
to receive the body of the titular Saint translated from Illyria.
The interesting mosaics, with figures of John IV and Theodore I,
are of the seventh century.

54. THE SCALA SANTA OR HOLY STAIRS.

Close to the Lateran palace and basilica is a sanctuary in
charge of the Passionists, containing the Scala Santa and the
Sancta Sanctorum.
The "Holy Stairs" consist of twenty-eight marble steps,
which tradition states to have been those of Pilate's palace, and
to have been ascended and descended by our Blessed Lord in
His Passion. They are said to have been brought from
Jerusalem in 326 by St. Helena, mother of Constantine, and
have been regarded with great reverence for 1 500 years. They
formerly stood on the right of the portico of the ancient
Lateran basilica. Sixtus V removed them to their present site
in 1589. Cardinal Hergenrother says that the Scala Santa was
repaired by Pope Sergius I I about the year 845.1
The faithful always ascend these steps on their knees, and
reverently kiss the glass panes let into the woodwork, over the
marks of our Saviour's bleeding feet.
St. Gregory I I used to ascend these stairs shedding tears of
devotion, meditating on our Saviour's Passion. Clement VIII
ascended them as many as seventy times during the Jubilee of
1600 ; and many other Popes, amongst them Urban VIII,
Innocent X, and Clement IX practised this devotion with great
humility and fervour. On September 19, 1870, the eve of the
mvasion of Rome by the troops of Victor Emmanuel, Pope
Pius IX came to the Scala Santa, there to begin his passion ;
and in spite of his seventy-eight years mounted the twenty-eight
steps of the staircase. He was accompanied by his faithful
almoner, Mgr. de Merode.
Great Indulgences are attached to this devotion. Pope
Paschal II, by a Bull of August 5, 1100, is said to have granted
1 Storia Universale della CAiesa, vol. Hi. p. 138.
 SANCTA SANCTORUM 75
an Indulgence of nine years for each of the twenty-eight steps,
to be gained by those who ascend them on their knees, praying
or meditating on the Passion with a contrite heart. Pope
Pius VII confirmed this Indulgence on September 2, 1817,
declaring it applicable to the souls in Purgatory. In a vault
beneath the stairs have recently been discovered the relics of
many martyrs. The marble groups at the foot of the stairs are
by Giacometti.
55. —THE CHAPEL SANCTA SANCTORUM.
At the head of the Holy Stairs may be seen through an
iron grating the chapel Sancta Sanctorum, the private oratory
of the Popes before 1308, and the only part of the Lateran
Palace that escaped the great fire of that year. It was formerly
known as the Chapel of St. Laurence, and is referred to in the
Liber Poniificalis as .5". Laurentius in Palatio.
In this chapel the heads of SS. Peter and Paul, that had
long lain hidden, were discovered by Urban V in 1367 as stated
above. Here also, Father Florian Jubaru, S.J. found in 1901
the head of St. Agnes, which was supposed to have been lost.
The chapel contains many precious relics, said to have
been placed there by St. Gregory the Great in 540,1 and by
St. Leo III in 795, also the celebrated picture of our Lord,
known as the Acheiropita, or " Painted not by mortal hand."
It is on a panel of cedar-wood, and tradition has it that it was
outlined*. by St. Luke and completed by angels. "Whatever be
its origin," says Father Thurston,2 "there can be no question
as to its great antiquity, and to the veneration in which it has
been held since the eighth century. Amid the panic caused by
the Lombard invasion, A.D. 754, Pope Stephen II instituted a
solemn procession to St. Mary Major, himself carrying this
picture of our Lord, the people following him with ashes
sprinkled on their heads and chanting litanies."
Innocent III covered it with plates of silver, leaving only
the face exposed. Padre Garrucci, S.J., conjectures that it may
possibly be a copy of the picture belonging to Abgar, King of
Edessa, a contemporary of our Divine Lord.3
In the annual processions of the Middle Ages, the picture
was carried from the Sancta Sanctorum to the Forum ; in front
of the churches of S. Maria Nuova (i.e., S. Francesca) and
1 St. Gregory here placed the relics he brought from Constantinople.
(Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome, p. 101.)
2 Holy Year ofJubilee, p. 192. Cf. Liber Pontificalis.
3 Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome, p. 102.
76 THE LATERAN PIAZZA
S. Adriano, the image was put down and its feet washed with
basil ; it was then taken to St. Mary Major.1
The picture was exposed in the Lateran basilica for several
days during the Jubilee of 1900.

56. THE LATERAN PIAZZA ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST'S

FEAST—ST. FRANCES OF ROME.
In the centre of the piazza stands the Obelisk of the Lateran,
1 50 feet in height, the most ancient object in Rome, and said
to date from the reign of the Pharaoh Thothmes IV, i.e., about
1740 years before Christ. It is composed of red granite, covered
with hieroglyphics, and originally stood before the Temple of
the Sun at Heliopolis. It was brought to Alexandr1a by
Constantine, who intended it for Constantinople, but his son
Constantius presented it to the Roman Senate, by whom it was
erected in the Circus Maximus. Sixtus V removed it to its
present site in 1588.
On St. John's Day (June 24) the Lateran piazza and the
streets opening into it present a scene of great animation.
" The day is associated in the mind of every Roman with stalls,
roast pig, cloves, pinks, bells of baked clay and lavender. The
cloves are blessed by a Cardinal in a cloister of the basilica on
the eve before Vespers, and a small packet of them is given to
each member of the Chapter. They are used in presses where
woollen goods are stored, to keep moths away. The lavender,
which is not blest, is used for the same purpose. The pinks
serve for ornament, the clay bells amuse the children, and the
roast pig is devoured by the proletariate. The feast goes on
merrily at illuminated stalls all through the night, and the
Romans flock there to witness the scene."2 Of late years the
popular enjoyment has been disturbed by roughs of the lowest
type : few respectable people care now to go and see the
merriment.
In the Life of St. Frances of Rome, by Lady G. Fullerton,
we are told that as the Saint and her friend, Vannozza, were
returning from Santa Croce, and crossing this piazza, a wild
bull, that had escaped from its leaders, came dashing savagely
towards them. Loud shouts warned them to get out of the
way, but they walked on with eyes fixed on the ground, as
directed by their confessor. The bystanders, cowering at a
distance, shuddered and gave them up for lost. The savage
beast, at the sight of the two women, suddenly stopped in its
1 Ibid. p. 193. a The Tablet, June 29, 1901.
Clivus Scauri. SS. John and Paul. (Chap. Ill, No. 69.)
 S. CLEMENTE 77
course, became perfectly tranquil, stood still while they passed
and then resumed its flight.
The large hospital of S. Salvatore on one side of the piazza,
was frequently visited by St John Baptist de Rossi, and two
remarkable conversions he here made are mentioned in his
Life.1
57. THE CHURCH OF S. CLEMENTE.
This sanctuary, one of the most ancient and interesting in
Rome, is thought to have been the paternal home of St. Clement,
disciple of St. Peter, his third successor in the Papacy, and a
fellow-labourer of St. Paul. His house, converted by him into
an oratory, was enlarged to the dimensions of a church,
probably in the reign of Constantine. It is mentioned by
St. Jerome, 420 ;2 Pope St. Zozimus, 417 ;3 St. Leo the Great,
449. Anastasius the librarian tells us that Pope Hadrian I
(772 —795) restored the roof, which had fallen in. St. Leo III
(795—816) and St. Leo IV (847—855) each enriched the church
with many and costly gifts.
(a) The Upper Church, built by Paschal II (1099— 11 18).
In 1084 the part of the city that lies between the Lateran and
the Capitol was burned by Robert Guiscard the Norman.4
St. Clement's suffered so greatly from the conflagration that
it became necessary to construct an almost new church. In
doing so, the old intercolumniations were filled up with
masonry, while rubble was shot into the nave and side aisles.
Upon this foundation the present church was built by
Paschal II in 1108, the apse, however, being reduced in
diameter to about two-thirds of the proportions of the former
one, and the colonnade on the Epistle side raised on a new
substruction. In the course of ages this lower church came to
be quite forgotten till rediscovered by Prior Mulhooly, O.P., in
1857.
The front entrance, now seldom used, is by an old pillared
gateway, with a heavy canopy opening into an atrium or court
paved with fragments of precious marbles.
(b) The Choir of John VIII, in the Upper Church. —Pope
1 Vie de [Link] Bapt. de Rossi, Rome, 1001, pp. 198, 199.
a St. Jerome, who left Rome in 385, speaks of the church as having
been already in existence for some time.
8 St. Zozimus in his letter to the Bishops of Africa styles the church
a basilica.
4 He was Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and came to rescue Pope
St. Gregory VII from the hands of Henry IV of Germany. The Pope
was delivered, but a great part of the city was almost totally destroyed.
78 S. CLEMENTE
John VIII (872— 882) made several restorations and embellish
ments in the edifice, of which one was the choir in front of the
high altar, with its marble balustrade bearing the Pope's
monogram, and its two ambones or marble pulpits, for reading
the Epistle and Gospel. These were removed by Paschal II
from the lower to the upper church. The marble candlestick
inlaid with mosaic was probably a gift of the same Pope John.
(c) The High Altar and Tribune.—The high altar, erected
by Paschal II in 1 108, has a canopy resting on four columns of
pavonazzetto marble. In an urn beneath are contained the
bodies of St. Clement and St. Ignatius of Antioch. The
pierced marble screens in front of the altar are beautiful
specimens of early mediaeval work. In the centre of the apse
stands a marble Episcopal throne bearing the name of Cardinal
Anastasius (1 108), and along the wall on either side are ranged
stone seats for the clergy. The mosaics of the apse and on the
face of the arch were executed in the time of Paschal I I, and
restored in 1299 by Cardinal Jacobo Gaetani, nephew of
Boniface VIII.
"There are few Christian mosaics in which mystic meaning
and poetic imagination are more felicitous than in those on the
apse of S. Clemente, where the Crucifix and a wide-spreading
vine tree spring from the same stem ; twelve doves, emblems
of the Apostles, being on the Cross with the Divine Sufferer ;
the Mother and St. John beside it ; the usual Hand stretched
out in glory above, with a crown ; the four Doctors of the Church,
also other small figures, men and birds, introduced amidst
the mazy vine foliage ; and at the basement the four mystic
rivers, with stags and peacocks drinking at their streams."1
(d) Frescoes of Masaccio."—They adorn the chapel near
the side entrance of the church. Besides the crucifixion, these
represent scenes from the life of St. Catherine of Alexandria
and of other saints. Here and in the chapel of the Carmine,
Florence, also frescoed by Masaccio in his youth, the painters,
Raphael, Leonardo, and Michael Angelo, studied and gratefully
acknowledged that they had acquired their highest instruction
in art. Masaccio's works stood, in truth, unequalled and
unapproached till the time of these more perfect masters.
(e) Chapel of SS. Cyril and Methodius, adjoining the
right aisle.—The bodies of these brother Saints, apostles of the
Slav nations, were discovered in the lower church and trans
ferred to this chapel in 1880. At the tenth centenary of the two
1 Hemans, Mediieval Art.
2 Maso, or Tommaso, nicknamed Masaccio (1401 — 1433), one of
the great Tuscan masters.
 S. CLEMENTE 79
Saints in 1886, the chapel was decorated by Leo XIII. The
frescoes, which are the work of a 'French artist, represent the
funeral of St. Cyril, and the defence of the use of the Slav
tongue in the liturgy, by St. Methodius before John VIII.

58. THE UNDERGROUND CHURCH OF S. CLEMENTE.

This lower church, which is entered through the sacristy,
dates from about 385, and lasted till the year 1084. Much that we
find here is intensely interesting to the Christian archaeologist, a
well-preserved church of the fourth century, with pillars of the
rarest marbles, a portion of the ancient tesselated pavement,
and on the walls a remarkable series of frescoes belonging to
the eighth and ninth centuries. In the narthex or vestibule
the frescoes represent the translation of the body of St. Clement
from the Vatican to this church by Nicholas I (858 —867), and
a miracle wrought at St. Clement's tomb. The frescoes in the
nave introduce scenes from the lives of St. Clement and St.
Alexius, with the names of the donors. " Beno de Rapiza,
Maria Macellaria and her children Clemente and Attilia."
Other frescoed representations are the Crucifixion, with our
Lady and St. John standing beside the Cross, the Assumption
of our Lady, the marriage-feast of Cana, &c.
The excavation of this church, in 1857— 1859, was a work of
great difficulty and danger, more than 130,000 cart-loads of
rubbish having to be conveyed away on men's shoulders.1
Beneath this lower church stands a third structure, dis
covered in 1867. It is decorated with rich stucco ornaments,
and formed probably the actual house of St. Clement. Being
often flooded with water, it is seldom visited. Its massive walls
of tufa are thought to belong to the republican period of ancient
Rome. Thus, at St. Clement's three distinct edifices exist, the
lowest of them being a patrician mansion of the first century ;
above it the ancient church of the fourth century ; and again,
above this, the present (Paschal II's) church of the twelfth
century.
59.—SAINTS AND SHRINES AT S. CLEMENTE.
Beneath the high altar lies the body of St. Clement, Pope
and martyr, brought from the Crimea by St. Cyril, Apostle of
Bulgaria, in the ninth century. St. Clement was exiled to
Chersonesus, and there died for the faith in the third general
1 See Mulhooly, St. Clement and his Basilica. For a description
of this remarkable church and its frescoes, see Marucchi's Basiliques
de Rome, pp. 289, seq.
8o S. CLEMENTE
persecution, that under Trajan. The Greek Acts of his martyr
dom, though old as St. Gregory of Tours, are rejected by
Tillemont, Orsi, &c.
Beneath the same altar are the relics of St. Ignatius, Bishop
of Antioch, and martyr. His body having been torn to pieces
by the lions in the Colosseum, no part of this was left after his
glorious combat except the larger bones. These, as St. Chrysos-
tom relates, were gathered together with pious care by the
Christian bystanders, and were "borne in triumph through every
city from Rome to Antioch." They were brought to Rome in
637, when Antioch fell into the hands of the infidel Saracens.
In the porch of S. Clemente died St. Servulus, a holy
mendicant, refreshed in his agony by the songs of angels.
St. Gregory the Great narrates this of him in his Dialogues}
His body, preserved under the altar of the Blessed Sacrament,
formerly worked many miracles. In the chapel off the right
aisle rest the bodies of SS. Cyril and Methodius, brothers,
apostles of the Slav countries, who lived in the ninth century.
In a council held in this church, in 417, Pope St. Zozimus
condemned the errors of Celestius, the Pelagian.
St. Gregory the Great here delivered his thirty-third and
thirty-eighth homilies. Every Saturday morning St. Frances
of Rome came to S. Clemente to consult the Prior, Fra Michele,
on spiritual subjects.
Father Tom Burke, O.P., was in our own days for some
time stationed at this church.
Stuart Memories at S. Clemente.—Urban VIII gave the
church to the Irish Dominicans in 1623. Above a doorway in
the atrium of the basilica may be read the inscription : Suo Divo
Clementi Collegium Hibernia Dominicana. In the first reception-
room within this doorway are hung contemporary portraits in
oils of the Old Pretender, James III, and of his consort, Maria
Clementina Sobieski. Both chose for their confessor an Irish
Dominican, Father John Browne.2 In the villa of the Friary
outside the Porta Maggiore, Prince Charles Edward was enter
tained in 1742, on the eve of his departure from Rome, and a
slab on the spot attests the fact.
King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, visited the Friary
in 1859, and sent an engraving as a souvenir of his visit in
1863. In 1899 the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and the
Princesses of their family came to visit the convent, and showed
the greatest interest in the Stuart memories.
1 Book iv. ch. xiv.
* De Burgo, Hibernia Dominicana, pp. 145—147.
 QUATTRO CORONATI S1

60. — CHURCH OF THE QUATTRO CORONATI, CLOSE TO

S. CLEMENTE.
This ancient church, which stands fortress-like at the foot
of the Ccelian hill, is mentioned in a document of the time of
St. Gregory the Great (590—604). It was rebuilt by Honorius I
(626—638), enlarged by St. Leo IV (847—855), almost burnt to
the ground by Robert Guiscard the Norman in 1084, then again
rebuilt by Paschal II in 11 12, and finally restored by the
Spanish Cardinal, Alfonso Carillo, under Martin V (14.17— 1431).
There are two entrance courts, the inner one having formed
part of the church destroyed by Guiscard. Paschal II shortened
the edifice, and so spoilt its proportions.
Eight granite columns divide the nave from the narrow
aisles, and, above these, smaller columns support a gallery, as
at S. Agnese. In the tribune or sanctuary behind the high
altar is an ancient Episcopal throne. The frescoes of the apse
are by Giovanni da S. Giovanni, a Florentine painter of the
Barocco school.
The pavement of nave and sanctuary is a mosaic patchwork
of precious marbles.

6l.—SAINTS AND SHRINES AT QUATTRO CORONATI.

In the crypt immediately under the high altar, lie the
bodies of the Four Crowned Martyrs (Quattro Coronati,)
SS. Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus and Victorinus
brothers, who held important offices in Rome, were arrested
under Diocletian for denouncing the worship of idols, and
cruelly scourged to death. They were buried first on the
Labican way, three miles from Rome. With them are asso
ciated five other martyrs, SS. Claudius, Nicostratus, Sympho-
rianus, Castorus and Simplicius, sculptors, who suffered at
Pannonia in the same persecution, for refusing to make a statue
of /Esculapius. They were buried along with the first four Saints
in the cemetery on the Labican way. Pope St. Leo IV translated
the remains of the nine martyrs to this church about a.d. 847 ;
their bodies are enshrined in two rich urns of porphyry and
serpentine.
Pope St. Leo IV (847—855) and Stephen III (768—772) are
said to have been elected in this church. Pius IV (1559— 1565)
constructed the road leading from the church to the Lateran.
An orphanage for girls was established here by St. Ignatius
of Loyola, and endowed by Pius IV and St. Charles Borromeo.
G
8s S. STEFANO ROTONDO
A similar orphanage for boys was opened by St. Ignatius at
S. Maria in Aquiro, near Piazza Colonna.
The church formerly belonged to the Camaldolese monks :
it is now served by the Capuchins. Adjoining it is a large
and splendidly preserved mediaeval convent.
Chapel of S. Silvestro.—This little chapel, opening out of
the court in front of the church, was built by Innocent II in
1140. It belongs to the confraternity of the sculptors (Scalpel-
lini) and contains some remarkable frescoes, the chief subjects
of which are : (1) The Baptism of Constantine ; (2) Constantine's
gift to St. Sylvester ; (3) Constantine holding the bridle of
St. Sylvester's horse ; (4) St. Sylvester presenting portraits of
SS. Peter and Paul to Constantine.

62. —S. STEFANO ROTONDO ON THE CCELIAN.

From below the Quattro Coronati we ascend the Ccelian
hill, on which are many sanctuaries full of beauty and rich
in holy memories. Though now but sparsely populated, the
Ccelian was, in the early ages, the aristocratic part of Rome,
and many noble Christian names (Pinianus, Pammachius,
Cyriaca, Anicius, &c.) are associated with it.
S. Stefano Rotondo (The Rotunda of St. Stephen), is one
of the most ancient religious edifices of Rome, having been
built by Pope Simplicius in the fifth century ; it is also architec
turally and archaeologically interesting because of its remarkable
construction.1 It consists of a double peri-style or circle of
granite columns, thirty-six in the outer, twenty in the inner
circle. Originally there were three concentric rings of pillars
enclosed by a wall decorated with pilasters. Nicholas V (1447
— 1455) shut out this wall, and raised the space between the
columns of the outer circle w1th masonry, thus reducing the
church's size from 210 feet diameter to 133 feet. The fifty-six
columns still seen present a unique and striking appearance.
The dome rests on two lofty columns of granite and two piers
or pillars of masonry. Though cold and bare now, the interior
was once rich with marbles and noble monuments. John I
(523) began to decorate it with frescoes and mosaics, and
Felix IV (526—530) completed the decoration. Biondo, writing
about 1430, speaks of the church as exceedingly rich in marbles
and mosaics.2 *
1 Some have supposed it was originally the Macellum Magnum or
Great Market of the time of Nero, transformed into a church by Pope
St. Symmachus (498—514). See Marucchi, Basiliquts de Rome, p. 220.
2 Ugonio, Historia delle Stationi di Roma. Rome, 1588.
 S. STEFANO ROTONDO 8j
Near the vestibule is an ancient marble Episcopal throne, from
which St. Gregory the Great is said to have delivered one of his
homilies.
(a) Chapel of SS. Primus and Felicianus, martyrs. — The
chapel, to the left on entering the circular edifice, is dedicated to
two brothers, who suffered a cruel martyrdom under Diocletian,
about a.d. 286. From Nomentum, the place of martyrdom,
their remains were translated to this church by Pope Theodore I,
about A.D. 645. In 1625 they were discovered under the altar
of this chapel during the pontif1cate of Urban VIII, when they
were enclosed with great solemnity in a new and richer
shrine, and replaced under the altar. The frescoes on the
walls represent their martyrdom and the translation of their
remains.
The mosaics in the small apse behind the altar date from
the' seventh century. This is also the chapel of the Blessed
Sacrament, and in it is said to have been buried Donough
O'Brien, King of Cashel and Thomond (now Munster and
Clare), who came on pilgrimage to Rome, and died here in
1064. He was the son of Brian Boroihme, Ireland's great
national hero.
(b) Mural Paintings.—Around the circular walls of the
church is a series of frescoes by Tempesta and Pomarancio,
representing the chief forms of martyrdom in the ten great
persecutions of the early Church. These pictures, fearful to
look at, and, perhaps, in some cases, too realistic, are intended
to enable the beholder to realize how terrible were the suffer
ings of the martyrs, the horror of which no painter can
adequately portray.1 They show, too, how precious the gift of
faith is to which they clung more than life, no torture being
able to wrest it from them. Formerly it was customary for
parents to bring their children to this church, and show them
what the martyrs had suffered for the faith. Though ordinary
visitors may be inclined to turn away fastidiously from these
pictures, and to feel shocked by the representations of bodies
torn with iron hooks and claws, or racked, scourged, scorched
and burnt, yet the Catholic pilgrims will kneel to venerate the
memory of God's innocent ones, and to thank Him for their
triumph. The mortal remains, from which their souls fled
under every appalling form of death, are cherished by the
Church as precious relics, being destined to rise in glory on the
1 Lactantius, De Morte Persautorum, n. 16, says: "Though I had
a hundred mouths and tongues, with an iron breast, it would be
impossible for me to describe the various and horrid tortures that were
inflicted on the guiltless Christians."
84 S. STEFANO ROTONDO

Last Day, when their wounds shall be resplendent with light

outshining the sun at mid-day, and every drop of blood shall
sparkle with brilliancy like the ruby.

63.—RELIGIOUS MEMORIES OF S. STEFANO ROTONDO.

Somewhere on the Ccelian hill, not far from S. Stefano
Rotondo, the boy martyr, St. Pancratius, is said to have lived
with his uncle, St. Dionysius, both natives of Phrygia, and of
noble birth. They were instructed and baptized by Pope
St. Marcellus, who was hiding on the Ccelian in the persecution
of Diocletian. St. Dionysius died a natural death, and soon
after Pancratius was anested and won the crown of martyrdom.
Adjoining the church was formerly the famous monastery of
St. Erasmus, founded, it is said, by St. Benedict himself. Pope
Adeodatus (672 —677) was here a monk. To this monastery
Pope St. Leo III (795—816) was dragged by his enemies, after
they had plucked out his eyes and cut off his tongue, near the
Church of S. Silvestro in Capite.1 He was delivered from
their hands by his servant Albinus, his sight and speech being
miraculously restored.2
St. Stephen of Hungary here founded a college of twelve
priests, at the beginning of the eleventh century.3 Nicholas V
(1447— 1455), after the alteration in the building mentioned
above, gave the church and monastery to the Hermits of St. Paul.
The tomb of these religious may be seen at the entrance of the
chapel of SS. Primus and Felicianus.
In the sixteenth century, Gregory XIII made over the church
and its possessions to the Collegio Germanico (founded by
St. Ignatius of Loyola) as part of its endowment. They are
still the property of the college.
The old conventual buildings are occupied by a community
of poor Carmelite nuns, whose convent in the Via Venti
Settembre was seized and destroyed to make way for the new
War Office, about the year 1880. In the vineyard behind the
church is the Calvary Hospital of the Maternal Heart of Mary,
belonging to the Little Company of Mary. The foundation-
stone was laid in December, 1904. During the excavations
many important archaeological remains were found. The nuns
1 Anastasius Biblioth., Liber Pontificalis, nn. 369, 370. The
miscreants who thus barbarously mutilated the Pontiff were Paschalis,
head of the chancery (Primicerius), and Campulus, the treasurer
(Saccllarins), with several accomplices.
2 See No. 333.
3 Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, September 2.
 ST. MELANIA THE YOUNGER *5
devote their lives to the service of the sick with a charity that
1s truly heroic.
Archbishop David Beaton of St. Andrew's, in Scotland, was
created Cardinal Priest of S. Stefano in Monte Celio, by
Paul III in 1538. A zealous champion of the ancient faith, he
was brutally murdered by Protestant assassins in 1 546.

64.—THE HOUSE OF ST. MELANIA THE YOUNGER.

In a rich mansion near S. Stefano Rotondo there lived at
the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth,
St. Melania the younger, with her husband Pinian son of
Severus, the prefect or governor of Rome. She was the
daughter of Publicola (son of St. Melania the elder) and
Albina, and her family belonged to the highest nobility of
Rome. Obeying an interior call of grace, and encouraged by
the example of her saintly grandmother, who had renounced
the splendours of the world to lead a life of poverty at Bethlehem,
Pinian and Melania, both young, bound themselves by mutual
vows to serve God in perpetual chastity, and determined to
forsake the world with all the riches and honours they enjoyed.
They freed 8,000 of their slaves, and those who would not
accept of their freedom they gave to Melania's brother. They
sold all their rich estates in Spain, Gaul, Italy, and Sicily,
distributing their immense wealth to the poor. Their most
precious furniture was bestowed on churches and altars.
Having thus, by an heroic sacrifice, made themselves poor for
Jesus Christ, they retired first to Sicily, then to Africa, where
they were received by the great St. Augustine, and finally to
Bethlehem, living there in great poverty and austerity.
Melania's widowed mother, Albina, also distributed her wealth
to the poor and joined them at Bethlehem.
St. Melania buried her mother in 433, and her husband
Pinian two years later. She survived him four years, living in
a monastery of nuns which she built and governed. Her feast
is kept by the Church on December 31.

65.—S. MARIA IN DOMNICA—THE HOME OF ST. CYRIACA.

This church, which is close to S. Stefano Rotondo, is also
called S. Maria della Navicella, from the marble figure of a
Roman galley placed in front of the building by Leo X.
The name Domnica is a latinized form of Cyriaca, the Saint
whose house was on this spot, and who owned the property on
the Veran Estate (i.e., S. Lorenzo), where the cemetery or
86 ARCH OF DOI.A BELLA
catacomb is called " of Cyriaca " after her. The church, served
by Greek Melchite priests, is seldom open ; for admission apply
to the sacristan, who lives near the church. It is uncertain when
it was first built. Paschal I restored it in 817. It was again
restored in the sixteenth century from the designs of Raphael,
by Cardinal Giovanni de Medici, who became Leo X. The
beautiful mosaics of the apse, are the work of Paschal I,
a.d. 817. The Pope is represented kissing the foot of our
Lady, who is enthroned with the Holy Child and surrounded by
saints.
The church has holy memories.
Here in front of the house of St. Cyriaca, St. Laurence, the
martyr, used to distribute alms to the poor. St. Ado of Vienne,
writing in the ninth century, says, " St. Cyriaca concealed many
priests and clerics in her house in times of persecution."
The Olivetan monks (White Benedictines, founded by
Blessed Bernard Ptolemei, in 1348) were established at this
church in the foutteenth century before going to S. Maria
Nuova in the Forum.
The church stands in a picturesque spot on the highest part
of the Ccelian hill, commanding charming views of the Alban
and Sabine hills, and of the Roman Campagna with its long
lines of aqueducts stretching away into the distance. Close by
are the beautiful grounds of the Villa Maltei, with avenues of
ilexes, shady groves, and masses of brilliant flowers blooming
amid fragments of ancient statues and columns. Here
St. Philip Neri used to bring the Dominican novices and other
young friends for innocent recreation. The stone seat where he
used to sit and converse with them is still shown.

66. —ARCH OF DOLABELLA ROOM OF ST. JOHN OF

MATHA.
Leaving S. Maria in Domnica we pass by an ancient
doorway surmounted by a mosaic representation of an angel
between two captives, the work of one of the Cosimati.1 This
was the entrance to the great monastery of the Trinitarians, or
Order for the Ransom of Captives,2 occupied by them till the
fourteenth century, when the troubles and disturbances during
the Avignon period forced them to seek a place of greater
security. They have been for centuries at S. Crisogono.
The arch in front of us bears the name of the consul, Publius
1 Jacobus Cosimati, A.D. 1260.
2 Founded by St. John of Matha and St. Felix of Valois in 1197.
 SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO 87
Cornelius Dolabella, who built it in A.D. 10. The window over
the arch shows the cell where St. John of Matha, founder of the
Order of the Trinitarians, died in 12 13.
The spacious ruins about, belonging to some ancient edifice,
were transformed into a monastery of the Order in the thirteenth
century.
In a garden near the arch stands the little Church of
S. Tommaso (St. Thomas) in Formis, so called from the
aqueducts, Formae," near to which it was built. It dates from
the eleventh century, and was presented by Innocent III to
St. John of Matha and the Trinitarians. The Saint's body was
venerated here till the seventeenth century, when it was trans
lated to Spain. His Order had formerly forty-three houses in
England.
67. —SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO—CHURCH OF SS. JOHN AND
PAUL, BROTHERS, MARTYRS.
Following the picturesque road through the arch of Dolabella,
we come to the Church of SS. John and Paul.
These two brothers, officers in the service of Constantia,
daughter of Constantine, were beheaded for the faith in their
own house during the persecution of Julian the Apostate,
A.D. 362. Crispus, a priest, Crispinus, a deacon, and Benedicta,
a pious lady, while trying to secure the bodies in order to give
them honourable interment, were arrested and condemned to
death.
This church was originally the house of the two Saints, as
well as the place of their martyrdom. St. Pammachius, a
wealthy senator and the friend of St. Jerome, erected here a
church at the end of the fourth century, known as Titulus
Pammachii, the original house being filled in with earth, and
the new building made to rest on it as a foundation.
The church was restored by Adrian I and St. Leo III. In
1 1 58 the present portico was erected by Adrian IV (Nicholas
Breakspear), the only Englishman elected Pope (d. 1159).1 In
1206, the beautiful campanile was built. The picturesque
arcaded apse and the mosaic pavement are probably of the
same period.
1 He was for a time an inmate of the monastery of St. Al ban's.
Going to France he entered the monastery of St. Rufus in Provence,
of which he was afterwards chosen Abbot. Eugenius III created him
a Cardinal in 1146, and in 1148 sent him as Legate to Denmark and
Norway, which nations he converted to the true faith. In 11 54 he
was elected Pope, and Henry II of England sent the Abbot of
St. Alban's with three Bishops, to congratulate him.
88 SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO
Entering the church we notice a part railed off in the nave,
indicating the spot under which SS. John and Paul were
martyred. The high altar has beautiful columns of Egyptian
alabaster, and an altar-piece by Triga. A large urn of porphyry
beneath the altar contains the bodies of the two titular Saints.
In a side chapel off the right aisle, rich with marbles and
paintings, lies the body of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the
Passionists, who died in the adjoining monastery in 1775, and
was canonized in the year 1867. He was distinguished from his
childhood by extraordinary devotion to our Saviour's Passion,
and was the first to organize public prayers for the conversion
of England. Pius VI visited him in his illness, and revered
him as a saint. The room where he died has been converted
into a chapel, and is occasionally shown to visitors.

68.—THE HOUSE OF SS. JOHN AND PAUL, BENEATH

THE PRESENT CHURCH.
Excavations made under the direction of Padre Germano in
1887, brought to light the house of SS. John and Paul, which
had been filled in with earth by St. Pammachius, in order to
form a foundation for the church erected upon it. The entrance
to the house is by a narrow stair at the end of the right aisle.
Here may be seen the place of their martyrdom, the cavity
where their bodies lay till the sixteenth century, the dining-
room, kitchen, bath-room, wine-cellar, &c. Many frescoes yet
remain, especially in the dining-room. They are works of the
second century, of pagan origin, and artistically good, repre
senting men, birds, flowers, and boys playing among vines.
One room contains Christian frescoes of the Good Shepherd,
and in another is a figure of an Orante, i.e., a person praying
with arms extended. Here also are later frescoes of the
Crucifixion, &c., much ruder specimens of art, painted when the
house was converted into an oratory. The whole is well
preserved through having been filled in with earth and covered
over for some fourteen centuries. Several bodies of martyrs
were discovered here in 1901.

69. —SAINTS AND SHRINES AT SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO.

St. Pammachius, the founder of the church (fourth century),
was a wealthy Roman senator. St. Jerome, whose school
fellow he was in youth and friend in after-life, styles him an
illustrious ornament of the family of the Camilli. In 370,
while still a youth, he was raised to the proconsular dignity and,
 SS. GIOVANNI E PAOLO 89
somewhat later, married Paulina (the second daughter of
St. Paula), who died a few years after her marriage. Thence
forth, Pammachius made the poor the heirs of his immense
property, and lived retired from the world, devoting himself
to exercises of devotion, charity, and penance. He built an
immense hospital for st1 angers at Ostia, and used to serv e the
sick and poor with his own hands. He died in 410, and his
panegyric was written by St. Jerome. His body is placed under
one of the altars of the church.
Several other saints have resided here, viz. : St. Marcarius,
St. Paulinus of Nola, St. Savinus of Piacenza, St. Heliodorus,
St. Paul of the Cross.1
Besides the bodies of SS. John and Paul (beneath the high
altar), and those of St. Pammachius and St. Paul of the Cross,
the church enshrines the remains of St. Saturninus, and of the
twelve martyrs known as Scilitani, from Scillium, a town in
Africa.2
The church and monastery belonged to Eastern monks
till the fourteenth century, then to the Jesuati, an Order founded
by St. John Columbini in 1367, and suppressed by Clement IX
in 1668. It then passed into the hands of the Irish Dominicans,
who had fled from Ireland in the days of persecution ; finally,
to the Passion ists, whose holy founder was presented with the
church by Clement XII, about the year 1735 , the Irish
Dominicans joining the Community at S. Clemente.
In the garden of the monastery may be seen the entrance
to vast substructions, known as the Vivarium, where wild beasts
were kept ready to be let loose on the Christian martyrs in the
Colosseum.
The road to the left of the church, spanned by arches, and
leading to S. Gregorio, is known as the Clivus Scauri, or
" Slope of Scaurus," from a mansion of Scaurus that once stood
here. He was Praetor of the city and censor, and his eloquence
is praised by Cicero and Tacitus. His death occurred in the
year 87 B.C. In this road will be noticed the door belonging
to the house of SS. John and Paul, under the level of the
present church.

1 Also the Popes St. Innocent, St. Zozimus, St. Leo the Great,
St. Hilarius, Pelagius II. (Piazza, Stazioni cli Roma.)
2 Allard, Histoire des Persecutions, vol. i. p. 446.
9« S. GREGORIO

70.—S. GREGORIO ON THE CCELIAN — CHURCH OF

ST. GREGORY THE GREAT.
"The cradle of English Christianity." St. Gregory the Great,
the Apostle of England, and one of the most majestic figures in
the history of the Church, was a member of the noble house of
Anicia. His parents were Gordianus, a wealthy Roman
senator, and St. Sylvia. While still young, he held the high
office of city Pnetor, or Governor of Rome. At his father's
death, he devoted the vast wealth he inherited to the founding
of six monasteries in Sicily and to other religious works, and
converted his father's mansion on the Ccelian into a monastery
for Benedictine monks. He himself entered the Order of
St. Benedict, and held the office of Prior and Abbot, till he was
raised to the Chair of St. Peter, in 590.
St. Gregory's Home.—" On the Clivus Scauri, a declivity
of the Ccelian hill, some 300 yards from the Colosseum, stood
the palace of Gordianus, a man of senatorial rank and con
siderable wealth. He possessed large estates in Sicily, and
the appointments of his house doubtless corresponded with
his wealth and rank.
" The marble colonnades of the atrium, the central fountain
surrounded by choice plants, the frescoed walls of the triclinia,
the rich tapestries and sumptuous furniture testified to a
home of comfort and luxury. Here, probably, Gregory was
born about the year 540, and here he passed his infancy and
boyhood. His father, Gordianus, was sprung from the Anicii,
a family noted in Roman story, which had given saintly-
heroes to the Church ; his grandfather, Felix, had sat in
the Chair of Peter ; his mother, Sylvia, and his aunts, Tharsilla
and Emiliana, are numbered among the saints."1

71. —TROUBLES DURING GREGORY'S CHILDHOOD AND

BOYHOOD.
Before entering the church, we may recall what is told us
by historians of Gregory's early life spent on this spot.
In 538, two years before his birth, the twelvemonth's siege
by Vitiges left Rome crippled and starving.
During his infancy, Totila was engaged in subduing Southern
Italy.
In 546, when he was six years old, Rome passed through a
1 Snow, St. Gregory the Great, p. 26.
 S. GREGORIO 91
terrible siege and famine, ending in its capture by Totila and
its complete destruction.
In 547, Belisarius occupied it and repulsed the assault of the
Gothic King.
In 549, Totila again took the city.
In 553, Nares regained possession of the capital, which was
followed by the massacre of the patricians.
In 553-554, the whole of Italy was ravaged by the merciless
invasion of the Franks and Allemani.
It is easy to imagine what Gordianus' family, one of the
noblest in Rome, had to suffer during these trying vicissitudes.
Gregory's life, which was one of conflict, was plentifully sown
with trials from its very outset.

72. THE SAINT'S YOUTH AND VOCATION.

He was carefully trained in piety and holiness by the
solicitude of his saintly mother, Sylvia, who, when freed from
domestic cares by the death of her husband, withdrew to a
secluded spot called Cella Nuova (i.e., S. Saba on the Aventine),
where she spent the days of her widowhood in prayer and
asceticism.
Gregory's talents, success and lineage fitted him for a public
career, and in 574, the Emperor Justin, the younger, appointed
him Praetor of Rome, at the age of thirty-four.
In 575, he resigned his office, sold his patrimony, distributed
the money to the poor, and asked for the Benedictine habit in
his old home.1
The Apostle of England. — St. Gregory is styled by
the Church and by Venerable Bede, the "Apostle of the
English."
His zeal for the conversion of England was first awakened
when, in the early years of his monastic life, he was passing
through the Forum, and saw some blue-eyed, flaxen-haired
Anglo-Saxon boys exposed for sale as slaves. Those winsome
faces appealed to his heart and stirred his sympathy and zeal.
He went to Pope Benedict to plead the cause of that distant
nation, and to offer himself for the hazardous mission, and
after extracting a reluctant consent from the Pope, set out with
a few of his brethren for the conversion of England. As soon
as his departure was known a popular tumult arose. He was
so dear to the people that they loudly clamoured for his recall,
and forced the Pope to send messengers to bring him back.
1 Snow, Ibid. pp. 30—32.
 S. GREGORIO
Gregory at once obeyed the Pope's order, and returned to his
monastic cell on the Ccelian.1
Many years later, after his elevation to the Chair of
St. Peter, amid all the anxieties of office, he still remembered
England, and was full of solicitude for its conversion. Unable
to go there himself, he sent a band of Benedictine mis
sionaries from this, his old monastic home, in 594, chief
among them being St. Augus'ine, first Archbishop of Can
terbury ; St. Laurence, second Archbishop of the same
see ; St. Mellitus, Bishop of London : St. Justus, Bishop of
Rochester; St. Paulinus, Bishop of York.2 The account of their
journey, of their fears, their landing and reception, of the con
version of Ethelbert, followed by that of his subjects, and of
Gregory's joy at the glad news, may be read in Venerable
Bede's History of the Anglo-Saxon Church.
The work of evangelizing England having been begun,
directed, helped and encouraged by Gregory, he is justly
styled the Apostle of England.

73.—THE PRESENT CHURCH OF S. GREGORIO.

St. Gregory had dedicated the church and monastery to
St. Andrew, but the title was changed by one of his successors.
The Benedictines resided here from the sixth to the sixteenth
century, except for a short period during the ninth and tenth
centuries. In 1573, Gregory XIII. introduced the Camaldolese
monks, a branch of the Benedictines founded by St. Romuald,
who still serve the church, though they were despoiled of their
monastery and other property about 1872.
The external walls of the church and the internal piers are
said to be those of St. Gregory's time, carefully preserved at the
restoration of 1725.
The approach is by a broad flight of steps. The present
entrance and the atrium are the works of Cardinal Scipio
Borghese, 1633. In the rooms above the entrance was the
noble library of the Camaldolese monks, seized by the Italian
Government in 1872. In the cloistered court are some
interesting tombs, taken from the church at the restoration in
1725 ; several of these are of English exiles for the faith, who
died in Rome in the sixteenth century.
On the pillars near the entrance of the court may be seen
the names of St. Augustine and the other missionaries sent by
1 Snow, St. Gregory the Great, p. 43.
a Alban Butler, Lives ofthe Saints, May 26.
S. Gregorio. (Chap. Ill, No. 73.)
 THREE ANCIENT CHAPELS
St. Gregory to England ; also the names of many saints who
have resided in this monastery.
(a) Interior of the Church—the Saint's Cell and Altar. —
The nave is separated from the aisles by sixteen ancient
columns. Close to the right aisle is the monastic cell of
St. Gregory, with the stone slab on which he slept, and a
marble Episcopal chair, said to have been used by him. It
was probably here that he wrote that delightful book, The
Dialogues of St. Gregory, which was the standard spiritual
work of the Middle Ages.
At the end of the right aisle is the altar of the Saint, with a
portrait by Sacchi, and some exquisite miniatures on the step
over the altar table, by Signorelli. On the marble altar-front
are some bas-reliefs representing the deliverance of the soul of
the monk Justin from Purgatory, after thirty Masses had been
offered for him.1
(b) The Salviati Chapel.—Off the left aisle is a chapel
built by Cardinal Salviati in the sixteenth century. Its chief
treasure, a painting by Annibale Caracci, was stolen at the
close of the eighteenth century, sold at Genoa, and is now in
England.
The chapel has two ancient pictures of our Lady, one in a
deep niche to the right on entering—the other over the side
altar. There is a tradition that St. Gregory heard our Lady
speak to him. from the latter picture. On the opposite side is
a beautiful marble tabernacle executed in the year 1469, with a
representation in relief of the famous procession of St. Gregory
and the appearance of the angel on the summit of Hadrian's
mole. (Castel S. Angelo.)

' 74. THE THREE ANCIENT CHAPELS IN THE GARDEN.

In a garden beside the atr1um or entrance-court, are
three ancient chapels built by St. Gregory and restored by
Cardinal Baronius.
(a) Chapel of St. Sylvia, mother of St. Gregory, in which
the marble statue of the Saint is by Cordieri.
In the upper part of the apse may be seen a charming
fresco of angels singing and playing musical instruments, by
Guido Reni.
(b) Chapel of St. Andrew. —On the side walls are the
famous frescoes of the martyrdom of St. Andrew, by Guido
Reni, and Domenichino. The latter artist represents the
1 The story will be found in St. Gregory's Dialogues, Book iv. ch. lv.,
and in Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, March 12.
94 CONVERSION OF ENGLAND
martyr on the rack ; Guido, the procession to the place of
martyrdom, at the solemn moment when the Saint seeing the
cross from afar kneels down to salute it.
(c) Chapel of St. Barbara, also called Triclinium Pauperum.
—The beautiful statue of St. Gregory by Cordieri was partly
modelled, it is said, by Michael Angelo.
In the centre of the chapel stands an ancient marble table
on which St. Gregory daily served twelve poor men. On
one occasion an angel entered as a thirteenth guest.1 After
the meal, when the rest had dispersed, Gregory took the
stranger apart and asked him his name. The angel replied
that his name was a mystery, but bade him recall the day when
a shipwrecked person had come to his cell three several times
to ask alms, and he had given him twelve pieces of silver, and
the silver plate on which his mother, Sylvia, had been wont to
send him a daily pittance of vegetables from her garden at
Cella Nuova (i.e., S. Saba on the Aventine). From that time,
the angel said, the Lord had elected him to be the successor of
St. Peter. This story will be again referred to when we visit
S. Saba. A fresco on the wall here by A. Caracci represents
the event.
Pope Gregory XVI (1831 — 1846), a Camaldolese, was
abbot of this monastery before his elevation to the Papacy,
and amid the trials of his exalted position as Head of
the Church, he is said to have sighed for his quiet cell at
S. Gregorio.
Cardinals Manning and Vaughan are among the Cardinals
who have taken their titles from this church.2
In 1872, the monastery was appropriated by the Italian
Government, and the magnificent library of the monks declared
to be State property.

75. —THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND.

Kneeling in the Church of S. Gregorio we join our fervent
prayers to those of countless pilgrims who have preceded
us for the conversion of England. It is the privilege of
English Catholics to claim St. Gregory as their Apostle, as the
"Father of Christian England," and to say with St. Bede,
1 Hence the practice adopted by the Popes of serving not twelve,
but thirteen poor men on Good Friday.
2 During the occupation of Rome by the French at the close of the
eighteenth century, this venerable sanctuary was converted into a
barrack, and nearly everything of value was carried off.
 CONVERSION OF ENGLAND 95
"We English are the seal of St. Gregory's Apostleship in
the Lord."
For a thousand years the strong work of Gregory and
Augustine in England stood in unbroken unity. In an evil day,
Henry VIII came and tore England from the union with the
See of Peter, while he and his Protestant successors dragooned
the English people out of their birthright.
We pray that England may return again to the bosom of
the true Church ; that the Church's gentle sway may extend
throughout the land, from the prince in his palace to the
peasant in his cot ; that the venerable cloisters and sanctuaries
now lying in ruins or, worse still, desecrated by heresy, may be
rebuilt and restored to one true worship of God ; that those
grey ruins, mantled with ivy, that were once resonant with holy
song, may again be transformed into the homes of holy monks,
sanctifying with their psalmody the loneliness of the night ;
that the spotless Sacrifice may once more be offered on ten
thousand altars throughout the length and breadth of the land ;
and the Angelus bell may once more be heard on every
mountain and valley, reminding the faithful that England
has been again restored to Mary as her cherished dowry.
Of St. Paul of the Cross, before whose shrine we knelt in
the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, it is said in his Life : There
is no telling how many tears he shed, how many sighs he
breathed out to Heaven, how many prayers he put up to God,
for the return of England to the Catholic Church. Often he
used to say with great feeling :
" Oh, England, England! let us pray for England! I
could not help doing it, even if I wished ; for as soon as I
begin to pray, that unhappy kingdom comes before me. It is
now fifty years that I have been praying for the conversion of
England. I do it every morning in the Holy Mass. What
may be God's intentions concerning that kingdom, I know
not : perhaps He will yet have mercy on it, and the day will
come when He will, by His goodness, bring it to the true faith.
Well, let us pray for this blessing, and leave it in God's
hands."
The dying prayer of Venerable Henry Heath, O.S.F., martyr,
was : " O Jesus, convert England ! O Jesus, have mercy on
this nation 1 "
 CHAPTER IV.
To St. Mary Major and the Holy Places on the
EsquIl1ne.
76. —ss. domenIco e sIsto near p1azza magnanapolI.
St. BrIdget of Sweden was bidden by our Divine Lord
to go to the Holy City to obtain the confirmation of the Rule
of her Order. " Go to Rome : there the streets are all golden-
paved and bedewed with the blood of martyrs ; there, because
of the Indulgences their merits have won, the road to Heaven is
shortened."
It is well in visiting the churches to have the intention of
gaining all these Indulgences, which are very great and
numerous ; and in passing along the streets to reflect that we
are treading in the footsteps of saints, on soil reddened with the
blood of martyrs.
Starting from the Piazza del Quirinale 1 we follow the wide
street that leads down to the Via Nazionale, having on our left
the Palazzo Rospigliosi, built on the site of the baths of
Constantine, and on our right the handsome entrance to the
Colonna gardens. On the site of these gardens stood Aurelian's
great Temple of the Sun, a colossal building, occasionally
referred to in the Acts of the Martyrs. It was built after the
conquest of Palmyra in a.d. 273, and placed at the top of a
broad flight of marble steps leading from the Campus Martius
to the crest of the Quirinal hill. The steps in question were
removed to the Ara Cceli great staircase in 1348 by Lorenzo
dl Andreozzo. Just beyond the garden is the Church of
S. Silvestro a Monte Cavallo, belonging to the Lazarists or
Missionaries of St. Vincent de Paul. A few months after the
Suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, Pope Clement XIV
gave the church, house (novitiate) and garden of S. Andrea in
Quirinale to these Religious, who enjoyed the possession of the
property till 18 10, when they were banished by the French
1 The terminus of the well-known Via Venti Settembre.
 SS. DOMENICO E SISTO 97
Government. At the restoration of the Society in 1814, Pope
Pius VII took the property from the Lazarists and gave it back
to its original owners. As compensation the Lazarists received
this church and monastery of S. Silvestro which formerly
belonged to the Theatines. The church contains some
important works of art, the chief being the figures in the
cupola by Domenichino. In 1872, the monastery was converted
into barracks. At the foot of the street is the Piazza
Magnanapoli, a strange name supposed to be derived from
Balnea Faul1. In the centre of the square, protected by an
iron railing, is a fragment of the ancient Servian wall built in
the time of the kings. Another fragment, with an interesting
stone doorway, may be seen inside the entrance of the Palazzo
Antonelli, which is immediately on our right as we enter the
square. On the opposite side of the square stands the Church
of St. Catherine of Siena, with a high mediaeval tower known
as Torre delle Milizie, and extensive conventual buildings
on the right now used as barracks. The lofty gardens on our
left, bright with verdure and flowers, and reaching to the
handsome Banca d'ltalia, belong to the Villa Aldobrandini.
Altogether this is one of the most picturesque spots in Rome,
where the modernizing mania has done least harm.
Passing by the Aldobrandini gardens, we come to the
lofty and imposing Church of SS. Domenico e Sisto, at the
entrance of the street Via Panisperna,1 and here begins our
pilgrimage.
The first community of Dominican nuns was established by
St. Dominic himself in the convent at S. Sisto, on the Via
Appia.2 In the course of time, as the population receded
from that neighbourhood, the place became malarious, so
that St. Pius V judged it advisable to transfer the nuns to this
churh and convent, about a.d. 1 570. They brought with them
the miraculous picture of our Lady.3 The present church
with its imposing flight of steps was built by Urban VIII in
1623. In 1872, the nuns lost their beautiful convent, which was
seized by the Italian Government, and converted into secular
schools. In the church is preserved the hand of St. Catherine
of Siena.

1 The full name of the street is Via S. Lorenzo in Panisperna.

1 See No. 196. • Ibid.

H
 S. AGATA DEI GOTI

77. S. AGATA DEI GOTI—ST. AGATHA OF THE GOTHS—

THE IRISH COLLEGE.
This church, which dates from the fifth century, stands in
Via Mazzarino, a narrow street at the back of the Villa
Aldobrandini, with a side entrance from the street Via
Panisperna. It was built by the consul Flavius Ricimer, who
was buried here in 472. The splendid mosaics of his time
perished at the restoration made in 1589,1 and the only remains
of antiquity visible at present are the twelve granite columns
and the mosaic pavement, the latter being of the thirteenth
century.
When the Goths, who were Arians, occupied Rome in 549,
they made this their national church, hence the name dei Goti.
St. Gregory the Great restoring it to Catholic worship, recon
secrated it, purifying it from the stain of Arianism, and dedicated
it to St. Agatha, some of whose relics he placed in the altar.
In 1567 St. Pius V gave it to the Umiliati, an Order afterwards
suppressed. About 1600, the Benedictines of Monte Vergine
were established here ; the frescoes in the chapel at the end of
the left aisle are a record of their stay. In 1850 Pius IX gave
the church and convent to the Irish College, whose previous
home was near the Torre del Grillo. The church preserves
one great Irish treasure—the heart of the Liberator, Daniel
O'Connell. In strict conformity with his last wish, bequeathing
"his soul to Heaven, his body to Ireland, and his heart to
Rome," the heart was embalmed and placed in a rich urn,
preserved in a marble monument in the left aisle.
The college was first established in 1627, through the
munificence of Cardinal Ludovisi, nephew of Gregory XV, and
placed under the care of the Society of Jesus. During the one
hundred and seventy years of its existence, till its suppression
by the French usurpers of Rome in 1798, it was scarcely ever
able to receive more than eight students within its walls. The
most illustrious of its students was Venerable Oliver Plunket,
the martyred Archbishop of Armagh, who entered the college
in 1646.
An interesting incident of the Revolution of 1848- 1849,
borrowed from the Rambler, deserves to be inserted here.
During the troubles, persecutions, and horrible profanations of
the sad period of the so-called Roman Republic, the Irish
College displayed the British flag as a protection, and offered
1 A watercolour copy of them by Penna is preserved in the Vatican
Library.
 S. BERNARDINO DA SIENA 99
an asylum to several of the faintly clergy, who were special
objects of hatred to the revolutionists. Information of this was
carried to the Government, probably by spies. Thereupon a party
of republicans presented themselves at the college gates and
demanded admittance. There were in the college at the time
three Roman ecclesiastics, whom these ruffians would gladly
have discovered, viz., his Eminence Cardinal Castracane, the
saintly Don Vincenzo Pallotta, and Don Pietro Sciamplicotti,
the parish priest of S. Maria de' Monti. It was thought prudent
not to refuse admittance to the republicans, who at once set
about their search. On entering one of the larger rooms,
where the students were all standing together in a group, they
took a hasty scrutiny and passed on, little dreaming that Cardinal
Castracane himself was standing in the midst of that group ; they
expected to find him hiding in some remote corner of the
house. By some singular accident, or rather, by the overruling
providence of God, they altogether overlooked the room in
which Don Vincenzo Pallotta was hiding. Entering another
room they found a student lying dangerously ill in bed, and a
priest sitting near him with a stole around his neck and a ritual
in his hand, his back turned towards the door. This was Don
Sciamplicotti, but the soldiers, not recognizing him, closed the
door and passed on.

78. S. BERNARDINO DA SIENA SECOND RESIDENCE OF

ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA IN ROME.
Opposite the Irish college in the Via Panisperna is the
modest Church of St. Bernardine of Siena, built in 1 592, on the
ruins of an ancient edifice, and presented by Clement VIII to
the nuns of the Third Order of St. Francis. In the Chapel del
Crocifisso is a crucifix before which St. Bridget of Sweden is
said to have prayed. The nuns lost their convent in 1900, the
buildings being appropriated for a secular school. Another but
poorer building was given them at S. Prisca. Near the church
was the residence of Quirino Garzonio, the wealthy Roman,
who offered hospitality to St. Ignatius and his companions on
their first arrival in Rome in 1537. The house he lent them
stood in a vineyard on the Pincio, and will be referred to later.
This proving too small for the community, on the arrival of
St. Francis Xavier and some five other Fathers, St. Ignatius
took a larger house in the heart of the city, a little after Easter,
1538. The site of this second residence is unknown, but there
is a tradition, mentioned by Piazza,1 that it was near this
1 Emerologio Sacro, vol. i. published in 1690.
 S. LORENZO IN PANISPERN.-I
Church of St. Bernardine of Siena. Here they lived in great
poverty and devoted themselves to works of real, preaching
and catechizing in the churches, streets, and public squares.
Not unfrequently, after a hard morning's work, they returned
home to find no food in the house, so great was their poverty ;
and they were obliged to go out into the streets again to beg
sufficient alms wherewith to sustain life.
The large public school adjoining the church was, till
recently, the convent home of some Franciscan nuns.

79.—S. LORENZO IN PANISPERNA— MARTYRDOM OF

ST. LAURENCE, THE ARCHDEACON.
The church on our left, after crossing the Via dei Serpenti
and ascending the slope of the Esquiline, is S. Lorenzo in
Panisperna, the latter curious name being possibly derived from
Perpenna Quadratus, one of Constantine's officers, of whom an
inscribed tablet was found in the garden here. This sacred
building, full of holy memories, was built in the eighth century
on the supposed site of St. Laurence's terrible martyrdom.
St. Gregory of Tours, who visited Rome in the eleventh century,
speaks of it as one of the richest churches in the city. Boniface
VIII rebuilt and reconsecrated it in 1300. Cardinal Sirleto
restored it as it is at present in 1575. In the crypt (the entrance
to which is outside the church) a cavity is shown under the
sanctuary, where the martyr is said to have suffered. Over
the high altar is a large fresco of the subject by Pasquale
Cati da Jesi, a pupil of Michael Angelo. The circumstances
of that fearful conflict have been transmitted to us by
St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Maximus, Prudentius and
others.
St. Ado of Vienne says he was f1rst cruelly scourged ;
and, among the eleventh century frescoes on the walls of
the portico of S. Lorenzo outside the walls, is one that
represents the scourging. The Saint, all bleeding, was
dragged to the spot where we are standing, and bound with
chains on a gridiron over a bed of fire, which, being made 10
burn slowly, gradually consumed his flesh, searching into its
most vital parts. To the newly-baptized Christians, who were
present, his countenance shone with marvellous light ; he
seemed transfigured like an angel ; and from his broiled flesh
there exhaled a delicious fragrance ; but the light and the
fragrance were imperceptible to unbelievers.
St. Augustine says, so vehement was his desire of possess
ing Christ, that he felt not the torments of the persecutor.
 OTHER HOLY MEMORIES OF PANISPERNA 101
St. Ambrose observes, that while his body was being consumed
in the material flames, the fire of divine love, which burnt far
more intensely within his breast, made him regardless of the
bodily pain. So calm and peaceful was he amid the flames,
that he smiled at his tormentors ; and, turning to the judge,
said : " Let my body be now turned ; this side is done
enough."
The martyr's dying prayer was for the conversion of
Rome and for the spread and triumph of the Catholic faith.
'The bystanders were deeply impressed by his tender piety
and heroic endurance, and several senators were converted.1
Prudentius even ascribes to the Saint's prayers the entire
conversion of Rome and the final extinction of idolatry in that
city. His entombment in the Catacomb of Cyriaca will be
spoken of elsewhere.

80. OTHER HOLY MEMORIES OF PANISPERNA THE

BURIAL OF ST. BRIDGET OF SWEDEN.
On the steps of this church and at the convent gate, good
St. Bridget of Sweden, whom our Lord favoured with such
wonderful revelations, used to sit among the poor, asking
alms of those who entered. At the close of the day she took
what she had collected to the poor pilgrims of the Swedish
hospital founded by her.
Just before her death, which happened in the convent of
her Order, in the Piazza Farnese, in 1373, she charged her
son Birger to have her body carried quietly by night to the
convent of the Poor Clares, at Panisperna, without the slightest
show or ceremony. She wished to lie among the good
Religious, in whose house she had spent so many peaceful
hours during her long residence in Rome, and at whose convent
gate it had been her delight to solicit alms. Notwithstanding
her humble wish to be thus buried at night in obscurity, her
funeral was attended by great numbers of the clergy and of
the first nobility of Rome. The body was exposed for two
days in the church of Panisperna to satisfy the devotion of
the faithful, during which time several miraculous cures took
place. It was then laid in a sealed coffin and placed in a
marble sarcophagus, near the altar of the second chapel on
the right side of the church, where it remained a year, that is,
till preparatipns were completed for its translation to the
monastery of Wastein, in Sweden, a.d. 1374.
1 St. Romanus, martyr, was one of those converted on this occasion.
Z02 S. PVDENZIANA
The church still treasures among its relics an arm of the
Saint, her mantle and office book.
In 1376, St. Catherine of Sweden, Bridget's daughter,
returned to Rome to continue her mother's holy work for the
Church. She was received with the warmest affection by
the Poor Clares of Panisperna, occupied the cell consecrated
by her mother's prayers, tears, and visions, knelt before the
same crucifix on which her mother's eyes had so often rested,
and here waited for the return of the Vicar of Christ from
Avignon, the great object of her mother's prayers and work.
St. Catherine of Siena here came to visit her, and would listen
to all the wonderful things that the daughter had to tell of her
saintly mother.
In this same church Pope Leo XIII was consecrated
Bishop, in 1843. The handsome steps at the entrance
were restored on occasion of his sacerdotal jubilee in 1888.
The Poor Clares, who had occupied the adjoining convent
since the thirteenth or fourteenth century, left about the
year 1873, and their religious home is now applied to secular
purposes.
The two lambs, blessed every year on St. Agnes' feast, used
formerly to be sent to this convent.

8l. S. PUDENZIANA —"THE CRADLE OF THE

WESTERN CHURCH."
A little further on, the Via Urbana intersects the Via
Panisperna. In the former street is the well-known Church
of S. Pudenziana, from which Cardinal Wiseman derived
his title in the Sacred College. An extraordinary degree of
interest attaches to this church. Originally the house or
senatorial palace of Pudens, where St. Peter lived and exercised
his sacred office for several years, it was converted into an
oratory by Pope St. Pius I, about the year 145, and known
as the Titulus 1 Pudentis and Titulus Pastoris. The tradition
connecting it with St. Peter dates at least from the fourth
century, and his presence and ministry within its walls justly
entitle it to be regarded as the Cradle of the Western Church.
It was first restored in the Pontificate of St. Siricius (385—395),
as appears from a tablet found in 1850, during some excava
tions on the Esquiline. The inscription informs us that the
facade was erected by the priests Ilicius, Leopardus, and
Maximus. The square brick campanile or belfry, with triple
arcades of open arches on every side, is of the ninth century.
1 Titulus, i.e. parish.
 S. PUDENZIANA 103
In 1 1 30 Innocent II presented the church to the Canons
Regular of the Lateran : about 1 568 St. Pius V transferred
it to the Dominican penitentiaries of St. Mary Major: in 1588,
Sixtus V gave it to the Cistercians. It now belongs to the
Canonesses of St. Augustine.
After several restorations in mediaeval times, it was finally
modernized by Cardinal Caetani, in 1 598. Portions, however,
of the earlier church exist, with considerable remains of a
large brick building of the first century, that forms the
substructure of the church. This old masonry is thought to
have been part of the house of Pudens, or of the baths built by
Novatus, son of Pudens.
We descend from the Via Urbana (the ancient Vicus
Patricius) by two flights of steps to the level of the church.
The facade has a modern painting representing St. Peter in
the centre with St. Pudentiana and St. Gregory VII on his
left, St. Pudens and St. Pius I on the right. The plan of the
church consists of a nave with aisles and a choir terminating
in an apse. The nave is divided from the aisles by seven ancient
columns of bigio marble, said to have belonged to the house
of Pudens. The first three spaces between the pillars on
each side have been filled up with a brick wall.
The right or east aisle (for the church faces north and
south) contains three side chapels. The left aisle has but one
side-chapel, that of the Caetani family, and one chapel at its
north end. The mosaics in the tribune or sanctuary vault
belong to the ninth century, and are magnificent specimens of
mosaic-work of that period.1 They represent our Divine Lord
seated in the centre on a rich throne : He has one arm
extended, with the other He holds a book open at the words,
Conservator Ecclesia Pudentiana. At His side stand
SS. Praxedes and Pudentiana with laurel crowns in their
hands : on a lower level and more in front are SS. Peter and
Paul, with eight other male figures : in the background are
various stately buildings, and in the air, above our Saviour's
head, stands a large cross studded with gems, between symbols
of the four Evangelists. Pictures of this kind being imperish
able are as fresh to-day as when seen by English and Irish
pilgrims of the ninth century.
Under the high altar are preserved vases, found by Pope
Paschal I in the tombs of SS. Praxedes and Pudentiana, and
believed to have been used by them to collect the blood of
martyrs.
Chapel of St. Peter at the end of the left aisle.— Upon the
1 Some think they are of the time of St. Siricius, 398.
104 THE FAMILY OF PUDENS
wall to the left of the entrance is a fragment of the monumental
slab belonging to the grave of St. Pudentiana, found in the
catacombs of St. Priscilla. Under the altar is preserved a
most remarkable relic, viz. : a portion of the wooden portable
altar upon which St. Peter offered the adorable Sacrif1ce
whilst he lived in the house of Pudens. The other part of
this precious relic is in the Lateran basilica. Above the altar
is a bas-relief, by G. B. della Porta, representing St. Peter
kneeling to receive the keys from our Saviour. In this same
left aisle will be noticed some remains of the original tessellated
pavement, also the opening of an ancient well or reservoir, in
which St. Pudentiana is said to have hidden the remains of
some three thousand martyrs. By lowering a lighted taper a
great quantity of bones and skulls may be seen.
The chapel off the left aisle, rich in marbles and sculptures,
belongs to the Caetani family.

82. THE FAMILY OF PUDENS.

Among the first of St. Peter's converts in Rome were the
senator Cornelius Pudens, his wife, the lady Priscilla, their son,
Cornelius Pudens (junior), the lady Pomponia Graecina, wife
of Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, Flavius Clemens,
Flavia Domitilla, Aurelia Petronilla, Nereus and Achilleus,
officers of the imperial household ; also some Roman Knights,
at whose request St. Mark put down in writing what St. Peter
had preached to them concerning the life and teaching of our
Divine Lord.1
A word must be said about the family of Pudens :
(a) Quintus Cornelius Pudens, the elder, was one of the
leading nobles of Rome and a member of the Senate. He gave
shelter to St. Peter in his house for several years, and is
thought to have presented to him the curule chair, which the
Apostle used as Bishop of Rome, and which is now preserved
in the Vatican basilica. Till the persecution of Nero there was
no restraint on the teaching and practice of the Christian
religion in Rome, except for a time under Claudius, when the
tumults of the Jews made it necessary to seek safety in secrecy.
It is supposed that Pudens suffered martyrdom under Nero,
but we have no record of the fact. The name in the Roman
Martyrology seems to be that of his son.
(b) St. Priscilla, the wife of Pudens, spent her ample means
in relieving the poor and the imprisoned, and caused the
famous catacomb that bears her name to be excavated on her
1 Clemens Alex. Patres Graci (Migne), torn. ix. p. 749.
 THE FAMILY OF PUDENS 105
own property near the Via Salaria. She displayed great zeal
and courage in procuring the bodies of martyrs and giving
them honourable burial.1 She was afterwards buried in the
catacomb she had prepared, with Pudens, her son, and all his
family. It is remarkable that among the inscriptions on the
tombs in this catacomb the name of Peter frequently occurs,
showing the devotion of the household of Pudens to the Prince
of the Apostles.
(c) St. Pudens (Quintus Cornelius Pudens, junior) was the
son of Pudens and Priscilla, and a convert and spiritual child
of St. Peter. Of him it is said that, after " having by the
Apostle's hand put on Christian baptism, he preserved the
robe of his innocence unspotted even to the end of his life."2
He married Claudia Rufina, by whom he had four children,
all saints, viz., Pudentiana, Praxedes, Timotheus and Novatus.
(d) Claudia Rufina, the wife of St. Pudens, junior, and the
mother of four saints, is said to have been a British lady. Some
think she was a daughter of the British chieftain Caractacus,
who, with his wife and daughters, was led captive to Rome, but
afterwards set at liberty. She and her husband are mentioned
by St. Paul : " Eubulus and Pudens and Linus and Claudia,
and all the brethren salute thee."3
(e) SS. Pudentiana and Praxedes, daughters of Pudens
and Claudia, are well known for their heroic charity to the
poor, and their zeal in rescuing the bodies and the blood of the
martyrs from desecration. They went forth fearlessly in days
of persecution to gather the relics of martyrs for Christian
entombment and their blood as a sacred memorial. They are
especially noted for their pious courage in collecting the blood
and mangled remains of St. Symmetrius and his twenty-two
companions in martyrdom. The well, where they hid these
remains, has been referred to above. 4
The Narration of Pastor (written in the second century)
says, that on the death of their father, " they sold their goods
and distributed the produce to the poor, and persevered
strictly in the love of Christ, guarding intact the flower of their
virginity, and seeking no glory but in vigils, fastings and
prayer." Pudentiana went first to her reward, and was buried
in the cemetery of Priscilla, near her parents. Eleven months
after, Novatus died. Praxedes survived two years, during
which time she asked Pope St. Pius to erect a titulus, or church,
in her father's house, or in the baths of her brother, Novatus,
1 Roman Martyrology, January 16.
3 Ibid. May 19.
8 2 Tim. iv. 21. 4 See No. 81.
io6 ST. PETER IN THE HOUSE OF PUDENS
adjoining the house (a.d. 145). At length, worn out with sorrow,
because of the persecution, she prayed for death as a release,
and so passed to God, her body being laid near her sister's, in
the cemetery of Priscilla. In the ninth century Pope Paschal I
conveyed the two bodies to the Church of St. Praxedes ; their
feasts are kept on May 19 and July 22.
(/) St. Novatus, son of Pudens, and his brother, St. Timo-
theus, are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, on June 20.
Novatus led a spotless life, like his father, Pudens, and, at his
death, left his goods to Praxedes, for charitable purposes. The
touching letter of Pastor to Timotheus, then in Britain, with
the account of Novatus' holy death, will be found in Father
Anderdon's Evenings with the Saints.1
(g) St. Timotheus was ordained priest, perhaps by St. Peter,
and laboured for some years as an apostle in Britain. On his
return to Rome he won the crown of martyrdom, with a
companion named Marcus.
Such was the holy and illustrious family with whom St. Peter
resided during his stay in Rome (a.d. 42 or 43 to 50)—a stay
frequently interrupted by apostolical journeys.

83. —ST. PETER IN THE HOUSE OF PUDENS.

The hospitality St. Peter found here was repaid by abundant
blessings of sanctity bestowed on that privileged family. Here
he is said to have first erected his Cathedra Romana, or
Episcopal throne, as Bishop of Rome. Here he celebrated the
sacred mysteries, presided at the synaxes or assemblies of the
faithful, approved the Gospel written by his disciple, St. Mark,
and consecrated St. Linus and St. Cletus, who were to be his
successors. From that sanctuary he sent forth his disciples to
preach the faith in Italy, Gaul, Britain, and probably Spain.
We may try to recall the scene which that blessed home pre
sented in those ancient days—St. Peter in a caracalla, or long
vestment, celebrated the holy mysteries in the atrium of
Pudens' palace. His altar was the rude wooden one, now
reverently preserved under the lofty baldacchino of St. John
Lateran. The Senator Pudens and his wife, Priscilla, kneel
there, side by side, with their young son, Pudens, whom St. Peter
had baptized. The lady, Pomponia Gracina, wife of Aulus
Plautius, is probably there also, for she, too, is a devout
Christian. They kneel or stand, with arms extended, that
1 P. 162.
 BASILICA OF ST. MARY MAJOR 107
being the attitude of prayer among the early Christians, as
represented in the frescoes of the catacombs.1
At a later date St. Paul also received hospitality in the
house of Pudens.2

84. —BASILICA OF ST. MARY MAJOR—" OUR LADY OF THE

SNOW."
This is one of the largest and noblest religions edifices of the
Christian world ; it is, also, probably the first church of our Lady
that was publicly consecrated in Rome (though some think this
distinction belongs to S. Maria Antiqua in the Forum),
and, after the basilica of Loreto, it is the greatest and most
important of our Lady's sanctuaries. Its ancient name was the
Liberian Basilica, because of its consecration by Pope Liberius
in A.D. 360. It is also known as Our Lady of the Manger,
from its possessing the relics of the Holy Manger, in which
our Infant Saviour was laid ; Our Lady of the Snow, because
of the miraculous event mentioned below, to which it owes its
origin ; St. Mary Major, because it ranks above all the
churches of our Lady in Rome, and (after Loreto) in the world.
The traditional story of its foundation is as follows : A
Roman patrician named John, who owned the property on the
Esquiline hill where the basilica now stands, had married a
pious lady, and, having no children, he and his wife resolved
to make our Lady heiress of all their property, and sought in
prayer for some intimation of her will as to its disposal. One
night both were bidden in their sleep to build a church on that
part of the Esquiline hill which they should find on the following
morning marked out in the snow. This happened on August
5, A.D. 358. As August is the hottest month of the year in
Rome, a fall of snow at that season could only happen by
miracle. John hastened next morning to acquaint Pope
Liberius with the purport of our Lady's expressed wish, and
found that the Pope had himself received a command from
our Lady to co-operate with the pious couple in the work
enjoined them. The Pope, accompanied by the clergy and
people, repaired to the Esquiline, and there found the ground
white with snow and a plan of the future church clearly traced
thereon. The basilica was begun forthwith and completed in
360.
Some recent writers think that this story rests on insufficient
evidence, and observe that it is not found in the long
1 See Anderdon, S.J. , Evenings with the Saints, p. 160.
2 2 Tim. iv. 21.
io8 POPE SIXTUS III AND THE BASILICA
dedication poem inscribed in marble by Sixtus III. It is,
however, retained in the lessons of the Feast of our Lady
of the Snow, August 5, and so is not without some authority.
In the Borghese chapel of the basilica the miraculous
snowfall is commemorated every year on August 5 by a
shower of white rose-leaves from the dome during High
Mass.
85.—POPE SIXTUS III AND THE BASILICA.
The first basilica proved too small for the crowds who
flocked to it. Enlargement became necessary, and Pope
Sixtus III (432—440) took the work in hand soon after his
election, intending thus to erect a memorial to the great Council
of Ephesus (held in 430), where our Lady's dignity of " Mother
of God" (Theotokos, Deipara) had been vindicated against the
blasphemies of Nestorius.
The nave, with its long lines of white marble pillars, is as
Sixtus III left it, in 432. Above the architrave and on the chancel
arch, is a series of mosaics ordered by him, representing scenes
from our Lady's life, also figures of her greatness and dignity,
drawn from the Old Testament. They were placed to comme
morate the triumph of the faith over Nestorianism and be a
perpetual reminder of Mary's incomparable dignity. Above
the chancel arch is the inscription in gold letters : Xysius
Episcopus Plebi Dei—" Bishop Sixtus to the people of God."
Over this is the throne of the Lamb, as described in the
Apocalypse, standing between the figures of SS. Peter and Paul
and the symbols of the four Evangelists. On either side are
displayed representations of the Annunciation, the Massacre
of the Innocents, the Presentation in the Temple, the Adoration
of the Magi, &c., and the usual mystical cities of Jerusalem and
Bethlehem, with a flock of sheep, type of the faithful, issuing
from them.
The mosaics of the Tribune and Apse were added by
Nicholas IV, in the thirteenth century.
Sixtus, moreover, assigned to the basilica an annual revenue
of sixteen hundred gold crowns, and enriched its treasury with
gold and silver chalices, patens, lamps, candlesticks, thuribles,
&c. He also encased the high altar in silver plates weighing
three hundred pounds.
His successors in the Papal chair emulated his zeal for our
Lady's basilica, adding to its revenues, executing various works
in porphyry, jaspar, agate, lapis lazuli and other precious stones.
Princes, cardinals, laymen, all contributed their offerings, till
the church shone with splendour and beauty, both in design and
material.
 EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR OF THE BASILICA ro>

86. —EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR OF THE BASILICA.

The present facade was built by Benedict XIV, in 174 r, as
also the Papal residence, which cumbers the sides of the
church and spoils its appearance Through the arches of the
gallery over the entrance porch may be seen the mosaics of
the old facade erected by Eugenius III (1145— 1153). The belfry
was added by Gregory XI, in 1376, on his return from
Avignon.
In the porch will be noticed the Porta Santa, closed except
in years of jubilee, and at the right end a bronze statue of
Philip IV of Spain, a generous benefactor of this church. As
the Lateran basilica was under the protection of the Kings of
France, St. Paul's basilica under that of the Kings of England,
so St. Mary Major had for centuries the Kings of Spain as its
patrons.
The interior is vast, rich and impressive. Two long rows of
white marble columns (twenty in each row) support an
entablature inlaid with mosaic (fifth century work), and a richly-
carved ceiling. "The first gold brought from America1 gilds the
profusely decorated roof ; the dark red, polished porphyry pillars
of the high altar gleam in the warm haze of light ; the endless
marble columns rise in shining ranks ; all is gold, marble and
colour."2
The nave, 280 feet long, 60 feet broad, has a mosaic pave
ment (thirteenth century work), of beautiful design and of rare
workmanship.
The high altar, a Papal one, has a rich baldachino resting
on four columns of red porphyry, the gift of Benedict XIV. The
mosaics of the Tribune, representing the Coronation of our Lady
and other subjects from her life, were executed for Nicholas IV
by Jacopo Turriti, in 1295.
The Confession, or crypt-chapel in front of the high altar,
has its walls and floors inlaid with beautiful and costly marbles.
Beneath the altar lies the body of St. Mathias, the Apostle.
The relic of the Holy Manger is kept in this chapel. In the
centre of the area is a kneeling figure of Pope Pius IX, of great
beauty, who first intended this as his place of sepulture ; but
after the invasion of Rome in 1870, he decided to be buried
among the poor at S. Lorenzo.
1 Presented to Alexander VI, by Ferdinand and Isabella.
1 Marion Crawford, Ave Roma Immortalis.
1 10 TWO PRINCELY CHAPELS

87.—TWO PRINCELY CHAPELS IN ST. MARY MAJOR.

The Sixtine Chapel. The large chapel off the right
aisle known as the Sixtine receives its name from Sixtus V,
who erected it in 1589, the architect being Fontana. The eye
is dazzled by its splendour ; the walls gleam with costly marbles
and noble sculptures ; the lofty cotnice is garnished with
figures of angels, and within the dome are frescoes of exquisite
finish.
In the centre of the chapel stands the altar1 of the Blessed
Sacrament, with a large bronze tabernacle shaped like a
temple, borne on the shoulders of angels. Beneath this altar
is the chapel of the Holy Crib, where the relic of the Sacred
Manger was preserved for centuries. It is interesting
to note that St. Ignatius of Loyola said his first Mass at this
altar on Christmas night, 1538. Bernini's statue of St. Cajetan,
embracing the Holy Child, in front of the altar, is a memorial
of the privilege granted to that Saint, who, on Christmas night,
1 517, received the Divine Infant in his arms on this spot.
The shrine of St. Pius V (1565— 1572) on the left side of the
Sixtine chapel, is rich with decorations of vercie antico and
gilded bronze. The Saint's body, still incorrupt, is exposed on
his feast day. On the wall opposite is seen the monument of
Sixtus V (1585— 1590).
The body of St. Jerome, the great Doctor of the Church,
translated from Bethlehem in 640, lies somewhere in this chapel,
but the exact spot is unknown. His death occurred in 420.
The Borghese Chapel—Madonna di San Luca. The chapel
in the left aisle fronting the Sixtine was erected by Paul V
(Borghese) in 1608, from the designs of Flaminio Pazio, and is
said to be the richest and most beautiful chapel in Rome. In
it "the splendour of the entire edifice is intensified and gathered
to a focus. Unless words were gems, that would flame with
many-coloured light upon the page and throw thence a
tremulous glimmer into the reader's eyes, it were vain,"
says Nathaniel Hawthorne, " to attempt a description of this
princely chapel."
Marbles of the rarest kinds, precious stones, sculptures,
bronzes, frescoes, shine from the walls and ceiling, presenting a
scene of splendour that seems almost visionary.
The centre of the reredos of a noble altar is occupied by one
of Rome's greatest treasures, the Madonna di San Luca, or
1 A Papal one, where the Pope alone, or a Cardinal commissioned
by him, says Mass. This basilica has two Papal altars.
 LA SANTA CULLA 111
miraculous painting of our Lady, attributed to St. Luke.1
How many saints have knelt before this picture—St. Francis
Borgia, St. Stanislaus Kostka, St. Philip Neri, St. Charles
Borromeo, St. John Berchmans, &c. Every night, before
retiring to rest, St. Stanislaus, in his room at St. Andrea,
prostrated himself with his face turned towards St. Mary Major,
and recited three Hail Marys as a mark of his love for her
whom he cherished as his mother. Mater Dei est mater mea.
During an epidemic of cholera, in 1837, when thousands
were smitten by the plague and whole families were swept into
their graves, this picture was carried through the streets of
Rome by Gregory XVI and exposed for veneration in the
Church of the Gesu.

88.—LA SANTA CULLA THE HOLY MANGER.

This is piously believed to be a portion of the manger in which
our Infant Saviour was laid, and, as above stated, it is now
preserved in the Confession beneath the high altar. It
consists of two rough boards enclosed in a silver reliquary six
feet high, adorned with bas-reliefs and statuettes. Every
Christmas Eve it is carried in procession round the church, and
throughout Christmas Day it is left exposed for veneration on
the high altar. The present silver reliquary was presented in
1830 by the Duchess of Villa Hermosa2 to replace the one
carried off by the French at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, the gift of Margaret of Austria, wife of Philip III of
Spain.
The proofs of the authenticity of this relic are considered
insufficient by some recent writers, who require convincing
documentary evidence which, if it ever existed, may have
perished in the length of ages. The venerable traditions of
Rome, and the example of the saints (v.g., SS. Ignatius and
Cajetan) and of the Popes, who greatly venerated this relic,
are enough for us. St. Cajetan, writing to a nun at Brescia,
who was a relative of his, says that on Christmas night (1517)
1 Some think it is a copy made in the fifth century of a very ancient
original painted by St. Luke. Theodoras Lector, writing in 518,
relates that such a picture drawn by that Evangelist was sent from
Jerusalem to the Empress Pulcheria in the fifth century. When the
Turks took Constantinople they dragged the picture through the streets
and destroyed it.
2 This noble Spanish lady also presented the costly shrines for the
heads of SS. Peter and Paul at the Lateran, the previous gold and
silver reliquaries having been plundered by the French.
112 SAINTS AT ST. MARY MAJOR
he went to St. Mary Major to kneel before the Holy Manger,
encouraged by the example of St. Jerome, and that while
praying there with great confidence, he received the Holy Child
into his arms.

89. —SAINTS AT ST. MARY MAJOR.

St. Gregory the Great's devotion to the picture of our
Lady, attributed to St. Luke, is attested by the following
fact : In 590, while the plague was making terrible ravages
in Rome, the Saint directed that there should be a general
procession of penance consisting of seven different bodies of
men and women, who were to meet at the Church of St. Mary
Major, there to implore God's mercy through our Lady's
intercession. The clerics were to start from the Church of
SS. Cosmas and Damian, the monks from that of SS. Gervase
and Protase, the nuns from SS. Marcellinus and Peter, laymen
from St. Stephen, widows from St. Euphemia, married women
from St. Clement's, children from St. Vitalis. These separate
detachments wended their way through the plague-stricken
city, reciting penitential prayers, while they carried the relics
of the saints and St. Luke's picture of our Lady. A mediaeval
tradition states that as the procession filed past Ara Cali,
St. Gregory heard angels singing the Paschal anthem,
" Regina cceli laetare, Alleluia," and that the Saint added, on
the inspiration of the moment, the words, " Ora pro nobis
Deum. Alleluia."
The tradition adds, that as the procession neared the
Vatican, an angel was seen on the summit of Hadrian's mole
(Castel S. Angelo), sheathing his sword.
Another tradition informs us that, while the same Saint was
singing Mass in this basilica one Easter Sunday, his salutation
" Pax vobis " was answered by an invisible choir of angels,
who sang in reply, "Et cum spiritu tuo." It is still the custom,
I think, whenever the Pope says Mass in St. Mary Major,1 not
to sing the response to the words " Pax vobis," but to leave it to
the angels.
St. Henry II, Emperor of Germany, while watching one
night in this church, is said to have been favoured with a vision
of our Divine Lord and His Holy Mother.
St. Bridget of Sweden, while praying here on the feast of
the Purification, fell into an ecstasy and had a vision of the

1 Till September, 1870, the Holy Father said Mass here on

Christmas Day, Easter, and the Assumption.
 TRAGIC OCCURRENCES AT ST. MARY MAJOR 113
mystery and of the homage paid to our Lady by the angels and
saints in Heaven.
St. Ignatius of Loyola (as already stated) chose St. Mary
Major, out of all the churches of Rome, as the one where
he would say his first Mass. This glad event, for which
he had prepared some eighteen months since his ordinatton,
took place on Christmas night, 1538, at the altar of the Holy
Crib.
St. Cajetan has been mentioned above.
St. Francis Borgia, third General of the Society of Jesus,
had a great devotion to the picture of our Lady, Madonna di
San Luca. With the special leave of Pope St. Pius V, never
granted before, he had an authentic copy of it taken, from
which other copies were made and spread through the houses
of the Society. One copy he gave to Blessed Ignatius of
Azevedo, S.J., the story of whose martyrdom will be referred to
when we visit the room of St. Stanislaus. Another copy is in
the room of St. Stanislaus, and a third at the Jesuit novitiate, at
Castel Gandolfo, near Rome.
St. Philip Neri, St. Charles Borromeo, St. John Berchmans
olten knelt with ecstat1c devotion before this same picture.
In the early mornmg, before the doors were opened, St. Philip
would occasionally be found on h1s knees m the porch.
St. Stanislaus Kostka, the Jesu1t novice, felt a special
attract1on to this sanctuary and picture. One day, as he was
leaving the basilica, his companion, Father Emmanuel Sa,
seeing his face flushed with holy fervour, said to him :
" Stanislaus, you seem to love our Lady very much." The
holy youth replied, with a heavenly smile : " Ah, yes, she is my
Mother ! The Mother of God is also my Mother ! "
Cardinal Francis Toledo (Toletus), of the Society of Jesus,
one of the Church's greatest theological lights, came every
Saturday morning on foot from the Vatican to say Mass at
St. Mary Major. At his death, he bequeathed all his property
to the basilica, and was buried at the foot of the left aisle near
the Porta Santa, where his monument, erected by the Canons,
may be seen.

90.—TRAGIC OCCURRENCES AT ST. MARY MAJOR.

In a.d. 366, a tumult took place here between the followers
of Ursinus (who declared the election of Pope St. Damasus
invalid, and wished to set up Ursinus in his place) and
the adherents of the true Pope. The schismatics took posses
sion of the newly-erected basilica, and barricaded themselves
1
H4 OUR LADY AND ENGLAND
within, so that the church had to be taken by assault like a
fortified castle.
About a.d. 649, Pope St. Martin I was here celebrating
Mass, when a guard sent by the Exarch Olympius appeared on
the threshold, with orders to seize and put him to death. It is
said that the assassin hired by Olympius was suddenly struck
blind as he approached the altar, which event led to the
conversion of Olympius and many others.
While Pope St. Gregory VII was here saying Mass, on
Christmas night,1 1075, he was suddenly seized by Cencius and
his fellow-conspirators, dragged violently from the altar amid
blows and bloodshed, and hurried off to the tower of the Cenci,
near the Tiber. The Roman populace, shocked at the outrage,
attacked the tower, released the Holy Father, and brought him
back in triumph.

91. —OUR LADY AND ENGLAND.

Among the more precious relics preserved at St. Mary
Major is one especially interesting to English pilgrims, viz. :
the dalmatic worn by St. Thomas of Canterbury, and stained
with his blood. This should be a reminder to us not to
leave the basilica without praying for England's conversion.
Multitudes of English pilgr1ms, both in Saxon and Norman
times, have come to kneel at the foot of our Lady's altar before
her picture in this church. After a visit made to St. Peter's
their thoughts at once turned to Mary's glorious basilica, and
thither they hastened kindled with enthusiasm, for devotion
to our Lady was ever a special characteristic of English
Catholicism since the introduction of Christianity into the
island. In no country in the world, outside Italy, were there
more numerous sanctuaries, more miraculous images, more
celebrated shrines of our Lady than in old Catholic England.
Glastonbury, Evesham, Tewkesbury, Worcester and . Coventry
in Saxon times, Walsingham and Ipswich in Norman, were
places of pilgrimage as well known as are now Genezzano
and Loreto in Italy, Lourdes and La Salette in France.
Devotion to our Lady filled the imagination of the architect,
inspired the hand of the painter, guided the chisel of the
sculptor, and welled up in the heart of every English Catholic,
so that England became known among the nations of the
1 It was customary for the Popes to say their first Mass on Christmas
morning at St. Mary Major, the second at S. Anastasia, the third at
St. Peter's.
r
 S. PRASSEDE "5
earth by the beautiful title of " the Dowry of Mary." The
numerous abbeys that dotted the land were nearly all dedicated
to her. Its saints, Thomas of Hereford, Richard of Chichester,
Hugh of Lincoln, Wilfrid of Ripon, John of Beverley, Bede of
Jarrow, Edmund and Thomas of Canterbury, Cuthbert of
Durham, Godric of Finchale, &c., were conspicuous for their
filial piety to the glorious Mother of God. Both Oxford and
Cambridge Universities possessed celebrated statues of our
Lady. It was before one at Oxford that St. Edmund, still a
boy, made his vow of perpetual chastity and solemnly conse
crated himself to his Immaculate Mother.
On the marble floor of St. Mary Major we kneel where
crowds of Anglo-Saxon pilgrims have knelt before us, to offer a
prayer for England. We beg that our Lady will once more
claim her dowry, will recover what has been one of the brightest
gems in her coronet, that she will dispel the darkness and
bring back the light, that she would take pity on the sheep
who wander without a shepherd, that she will guide them
gently back to the one true fold, and deliver them out of the
restlessness and darkness of unbelief into the sunshine and peace
of the Catholic Church.1

92.—S. PRASSEDE—CHURCH OF ST. PRAXEDES.

Of this holy virgin, daughter of St. Pudens, we have already
spoken.
This church, which stands close to St. Mary Major, is very
ancient, being mentioned in the acts of a council held in 490.
It was rebuilt by Pope Paschal I in 822, and remains practically
as he left it. It is entered by a side door opening into the right
aisle ; the front entrance through an ancient gateway in the Via
S. Martino and an atrium, or open cou1t, being now closed.
There is much to interest us both spiritually and artistically in
the interior.
1. The sanctuary is rich and picturesque, with a double
flight of steps of magnificent rosso antico1 conducting to it.
The baldacchino over the high altar rests on four columns of
porphyry. In the Confession beneath the high altar are pre-
1 Protestant poets even, Longfellow, Scott, Wordsworth, Edgar
Allan Poe and others, have written with enthusiasm of Mary's incom
parable beauty and spotlessness. (See Orby Shipley, Carmina Mariana,
Series II.)
2 Rosso Antico, a very rare kind of red marble found in Egypt, the
quarries of which have never been worked since ancient times. These
steps are the largest blocks of this marble known.
i16 S. PRASSEDE
served the bodies of the sister-saints Praxedes and Pudentiana.
These are enclosed in ancient sarcophagi, that were translated
from the Catacomb of Priscilla to this church by Paschal I in the
ninth century.
2. The splendid mosaics of the apse and chancel arch, the
work of Paschal I (817 —824), deserve especial notice. On the
chancel arch is represented the heavenly Jerusalem guarded by
angels, having our Lord in the centre, towards whom the saved
are hastening. On the arch of the tribune, over the high altar,
is represented the Lamb of God, with the seven candlesticks
and the symbols of the Evangelists at the sides. Lower down
the twenty-four elders stretch out their arms in prayer to the
Lamb. In the apse our Lord is represented between SS. Peter,
Paul, Praxedes, Pudentiana and Zeno. The figure of Pope
Paschal (still living at the time) is introduced on the left.
3. In the nave may be seen the head of the well (said to be
taken from the house of Pudens) where the remains of martyrs
were secreted by SS. Praxedes and Pudentiana. The former
Saint is represented by a figure holding a cloth in which she
has collected the blood of these heroic witnesses of the faith.
4. In the right aisle is the chapel Orto del Paradiso
(" Garden of Paradise "), its interior entirely covered with
mosaics on a gold ground. It was made by Paschal I in 822
to receive the bodies of SS. Zeno and companions, martyrs. At
the entrance are two columns of black granite with an ancient
entablature.
5. The Sacred Pillar of the Flagellation, at which our
Blessed Saviour was scourged, is preserved in the above chapel.
It is only half of the original pillar, the other portion being at
Jerusalem. The marble is a kind of oriental jasper known as
diaspro sanguigno. Cardinal John Colonna, Papal Legate in
Palestine, brought the relic from Jerusalem in 1223 and placed
it in this church, where St. Charles Borromeo often prayed and
meditated before it. In the sacristy is a fine painting of the
Flagellation by Giulio Romano, a pupil of Raphael.
6. In the chapel of St. Charles Borromeo, off the left aisle, may
be seen the Saint's arm-chair and the table at which he served
the poor.
At the foot of the left aisle is a marble slab let into the wall,
on which St. Praxedes is said to have slept.
7. In the chapel Orto del Paradiso are the remains of
St. Valentine, martyr, transferred from his cemetery on the Via
Flaminia in the thirteenth century.1
The church has some figures in fresco painted by Guercino.
1 See No. 336.
 . S. ALFONSO

93. —SHRINES AND SAINTS AT S. PRASSEDE—

S. ALFONSO DE' LIGUORI.
This church is rich in precious relics, the chief of which are :
The Holy Pillar of the Scourging ; the bodies of SS. Praxedes
and Pudentiana ; the bodies of St. Zeno and 2,200 martyrs,
transferred from the catacombs by Paschal I in the ninth
century;1 the bodies of SS. Valentine, Nicomedes, Candida,
Zoace, &c., martyrs : those of the Popes SS. Siricius and
Celestine I, translated from the cemetery of Priscilla. St. Celes-
tine, who died in 432, was the Pope who sent St. Patrick to
Ireland, St. Palladius to Scotland, St. Germanus of Auxerre to
England. A list of other remarkable relics will be found on
the marble tablets on the wall near the sanctuary, and on the
first pilaster.
In the Life of St. Bridget of Sweden it is stated that, during
the ravages of that terrible scourge, "the Black Death," which
spread throughout Europe (a.d. 1348), she devoted herself to
her suffering brethren with a charity that knew no bounds.
One day, when she was coming out of the Church of S. Prassede,
she found a poor woman lying unconscious at the entrance, and
with the aid of her chaplain, Magnus Peterson, carried her to
the neighbouring hospital of St. Anthony. When the patient
could be moved, she took her home with her, and nursed her
with the utmost tenderness.
St. Charles Borromeo's title in the Sacred College was taken
from this church (his first title having been of S. Martino,
changed afterwards to that of S. Prassede), and whenever he
was in Rome, he came to spend long hours in prayer in this
church, occasionally passing the night in the crypt, under the
high altar. Every day, before dinner, he distributed abundant
alms to the poor, in the court (now disused) in front of the
church. His rooms in the adjoining monastery (now a school)
used formerly to be visited on his festival.
While Pope Gelasius II was celebrating Mass in this church,
in 11 18, he was attacked by the hostile factions of the Leoni
and Frangipani, and was with difficulty rescued by his nephew,
Gaetano, after several hours' conflict. He fled to France, and
died at Cluny.
S. Alfonso.— Close to S. Prassede, at the entrance of the Via
Merulana, stands the Church of S. Alfonso (St. Alphonsus de
Liguori), a modern Gothic building belonging to the Redemptorist
1 Probably from a fear of their being desecrated by the Saracens,
as the catacombs are outside the city walls.
118 S. MARTINO AI MONTI
Fathers. Adjoining it is the residence1 of the Rev. Father General,
with a house of studies for the young members of the Congre
gation. The church was built in 1855 near the site of the ancient
Church of S. Matteo in Merulana belonging to the Austin Friars,
which was consecrated by Paschal II (about a.d. IIoo), and
reduced to a heap of ruins by the French in 1810. In the
Church of S. Matteo, the famous picture of Our Lady of
Perpetual Succour, brought from the East in the thirteenth
century, had been greatly honoured since the year 1499. An
Austin Friar named Brother Orsetti hid the picture when he
and his community were driven from S. Matteo, and at his
death in 1853 he bequeathed it to another. In 1866, with the
express will and consent of Pope Pius IX, the miraculous
picture was placed in the Church of S. Alfonso, where it is
greatly revered, and where numerous ex-votos attest the
miraculous favours received.2

94.—S. MARTINO AI MONTI—CHURCH OF ST. MARTIN AND

ST. SYLVESTER.
This church, the crypt of which dates from the time of
Constantine, is one of the most beautiful in Rome. It is served
by the Carmelites, and occupies the south side of the Piazza di
S. Martino, near S. Prassede. Its front entrance stands in the
Via delle Sette Sale, a quiet road leading to S. Pietro in
Vincoli.
An oratory is said to have been opened on this spot by
Pope St. Sylvester in the time of Constantine, among the ruins
of Trajan's baths. It bore the name of Titulus Equitii, "Church
of Equitius," a priest on whose property it was.
Pope St. Symmachus built a new oratory about a.d. 500, on
the level of the present church, and converted the original
edifice into a crypt. This erection was then dedicated to
St. Martin of Tours and St. Sylvester, and though restorations
were made by Sergius II in 844, and by St. Leo IV in 854, its
ancient columns and general plan were preserved. In 1650
Padre Antonio Filippini, General of the Carmelites, spent
350,000 lire of his private inheritance in restoring and decora
ting the interior, and in 1780 Cardinal Zelada spent a further
sum of 185,000 lire.
1 The former Villa Caserta.
2 Some interesting details on this picture will be found in Father
Magnier's Our Heiper in Every Need, and Father Berthe's Vie de
S. Alphonse de' Liguori, II. p. 609.
 HISTORICAL MEMORIES OF S. MARTINO nq
The original church (now the crypt) finds mention in the
Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great.
The more interesting features of the interior are: (1) the
nave with its twenty-four ancient columns, and its roof (restored
by St. Charles Borromeo) richly gilt ; (2) the landscape paint
ings by Poussin,1 in the right aisle, illustrating subjects from
the life of the prophet Elias ; (3) the frescoes of Old St. Peter's,
and of the old Lateran basilica in the left aisle ; where also is 1
a fresco of a council held in this church by Pope St. Sylvester
in 326 ; (4) the noble sanctuary with its double flight of steps,
its altar of costly marbles, and its apse with Cavalucci's frescoes ;
(5) the Confession or subterranean chapel, the descent into
which is made by a marble stair in front of the sanctuary ;
(6) the crypt, which was the original church opened by St.
Sylvester.
The church is rich in shrines of the saints, possessing the
body of St. Martin, Pope and martyr, under the high a'tar,
the bodies of Popes St. Sylvester, SS. Fabian and Scleras,
the two latter being martyrs, in the crypt. The remains of
SS. Sisinnius, Anastasius, Artemius, Victor I, and of a great
number of other martyrs, "whose names are known to God
alone," were translated from the catacombs of St. Priscilla by
Pope Sergius II (844—847).
The body of Blessed Cardinal Tommasi lies under a side
altar in the left aisle.

95.—HISTORICAL MEMORIES OF S. MARTINO.

Pope St. Sylvester here held two councils in 325, 326, at the
first of which the Emperor Constantine was present. In the
first, the heresies of Arius, Photinus, Sabellius were condemned:
in the second, the decrees of the Council of Nica;a (a.d. 325)
were confirmed.
Rich gifts, sacred vessels of great value, embroidered chasu
bles, &c., were presented to this church by Popes St. Symmachus
and Sergius II. The Emperor Constantine, besides chalices
of gold and silver, bequeathed to it landed property sufficient to
provide an annual revenue of 794 gold crowns.
St. Martin I, Pope and martyr (649 —655), whose body lies
beneath the high altar, has been already mentioned under the
tragic occurrences at St. Mary Major. The Pope, in a council
1 This admirable collection of landscapes, unique in churches, was
painted in fresco by Gaspard Poussin (1613— 1675) ; but the figures are
by Nicolas Poussin (1594— 1665).
120 S. PIETRO IM VINCOLI
held in the Lateran, had condemned the Monothelites with
their leaders, Sergius, Pyrrhus, and Paul. Thereupon the
Emperor sent the Exarch Olympius to seize him and put him
to death, but the assassin hired for the purpose was suddenly
struck blind. The Emperor then sent Calliopas, as Exarch,
who seized the Pope in the Lateran, treated him with the
greatest barbarity and dragged him prisoner to Constantinople.
There he languished for three months in a loathsome prison,
was exposed to public outrage in the streets, and finally banished
to Chersonesus, where he died of starvation and brutal ill-
treatment.
The English Cardinal Allen took his title in the Sacred
College from this church.
The Carmelite convent has been nearly all pulled down to
widen the piazza. In this convent was a night shelter for the
poor, where St. Benedict Joseph Labre is said to have occasion
ally passed the night, when it was too wet or cold to sleep on
the ground in the Colosseum.
Piazza1 says that Pope St. Sylvester was residing at this
church at the time of the conversion of Constantine.

96.—S. PIETRO IN VINCOLI—CHURCH OF ST. PETER

IN CHAINS.
This beautiful church was built in 442, during the Pontificate
of St. Leo the Great, by Eudoxia Licinia, daughter of Theo-
dosius the younger, and wife of Valentinian III ; hence it is
called the Eudoxian basilica.2 She here placed the chain with
which St. Peter had been bound in prison at Jerusalem, brought
from the East by her mother Eudoxia Athenais.3
Another chain of the Apostle was already venerated in
Rome, that with which he had been fettered in the Mamertine
prison. St. Leo the Great united the two, forming one continu
ous chain about two yards long. This precious relic is preserved
in a bronze safe under the custody of a special confraternity.
Some say that the two chains united miraculously in the Ponti
ficate of St. Sixtus III.
The church was rebuilt by Adrian I in the eighth century,
and restored, though not judiciously, by Baccio Pintelli, in
1 Le sacre Stazioni di Roma, p. 275.
2 An oratory is said to have existed here in 121, in which Pope
St. Alexander I placed the chain with which St. Peter had been bound
in the Mamertine prison.
3 Eudoxia Athenais was at one time a partisan of Eutyches and
exiled to Palestine. She died in Jerusalem, in 460.
 ST. PETER S CHAINS 121
1503, (or Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, who was afterwards
Julius II. The nave is striking, if 1t were not for the ugly
waggon roof. Two long lmes of antique marble columns,
twenty-two in each lme, present a noble appearance. The high
altar was richly restored in 1876, on occas1on of Pope Pius IX's
Jubilee. In the choir behmd che altar 1s an ancient marble
Episcopal throne, probably of the seventh century. In front
of the sanctuary stands the Confession, rich in precious marbles
beautifully inlaid, with an altar above which are preserved
St. Peter's chains. The picture of St. Margaret, by Guercino,
over the end altar of the right aisle, is considered a masterpiece.
The two side pictures of the same chapel, representing our
Lady and the Angel Gabriel, are by Annibale Carracci. In the
sacristy is Domenichino's Deliverance of St. Peter, painted in
his younger days.

97.—st. peter's cha1ns.

There in some controversy as to whether St. Peter's chains
were brought from Jerusalem by Eudoxia in 439, or by some
travellers sent to the East m search of them by the martyr
St. Balbina and her father, St. Qu1rinus, 1n 116. Gerbet1 defends
the latter opinion and says St. Balbina gave them to Theodora,
sister of St. Hermes, martyr, Prefect of Rome, from whom they
passed into the hands of Pope St. Alexander I (108— 117).
St. Bede the Venerable,a writing in the seventh century, speaks
of the chains in connection with St. Balbina and St. Alexander.
Such was the reverence paid to these chains in the fifth and
sixth centuries, that filings of them were considered precious
relics suitable for kings and patriarchs, these filings being
usually enclosed in a gold cross or key. Such a relic was sent
by Pope St. Hormisdas to the Emperor Justinian ; by St. Gregory
to King Childebert, to Theoctista, sister of the Emperor
Mauritius, to Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch, and others ; by
Pope Vitalian to Oswy of Northumbria ; by St. Leo III to
Charlemagne; by St. Gregory VII to Alphonsus, King of
Castile. These crosses and keys were often worn round the
neck as a preservative against dangers, spiritual and temporal.
St. John Chrysostom's words on St. Paul's chains apply
equally to St. Peter's : " No glittering diadem so adorns the
head as a chain borne for Christ. Were the choice offered me
either of heaven or of this chain (suffered for Christ), I would
1 Esquisse de Rome, iii. pp. 49, seq.
' Patres Latini, torn. 94, p. 498.
122 BODIES OF THE SEVEN MACHABEES
take the chain. If I might have stood with the angels above,
near the throne of God, or have been bound with Paul, I should
have preferred the dungeon. Had you rather have been the
angel loosing Peter, or Peter in chains ? I would rather have
been Peter. This gift of chains is something greater than
power to stop the sun, to move the world, or to command the
devils."1

98.—BODIES OF THE SEVEN MACHABEES, BROTHERS,

MARTYRS.
It was known by an old tradition that the bodies of these
glorious martyrs of the Old Testament2 had been brought to
Rome and deposited in this church ; but the exact spot was
unknown. In 1876, during the restoration of the high altar,
on occasion of Pope Pius IX's Jubilee, a Christian sarcophagus
of the fourth century was discovered beneath the altar. It was
divided internally into seven compartments, each containing
ashes and fragments of bones. Within were found two leaden
plates, with the inscription : In his septem locul (is) condita
sunt ossa et cineres septem fratrum Machabeor (um) et ambor
(um) parent (um) eor (um), ac innumerabilium aliorum
Sanctorum. The sarcophagus may be seen in a crypt chapel
under the high altar. Above it is a painting of the martyrdom
of the Seven Brothers by Capparoni.
Michael Angelo's statue of Moses at S. Pietro in Vincoli.—
This statue, said to be the greatest masterpiece of sculpture
since the time of the Greeks, is full of grandeur, power, and
expression. The figure is seated, with long, flowing beard
descending to the waist, with horned head and deep sunk eyes,
"which blaze, as it were, with the light of the burning bush and
with a majesty of anger that makes one tremble." Under his
right arm he holds the tables of the law, and casts a look of
anger on the people, whom he sees worshipping the golden
calf. Others are less enthusiastic about the figure. Gerbet
says : " C'est grand, c'est fort, c'est charnu et musculeux, mais
cette statue est peu religieuse ; ce n'est pas Mo1se, le plus doux
des hommes, mais c'est une espece de Jupiter tonnant et
remuant l'Olympe par le froncement de son sourcil."3 Some
think the head too small, while the beard seems enormous ; the
dress also scarcely suits the character of Moses. But the arms,
hands and feet, are admirable for their anatomical science, and
1 Homil. 8, in Ephes. iii. I. 2 2 Mach. vii.
8 Esqttisse de Rome, iii. p. 131.
Statue of Moses at S. Pietro in Vincoli. (Chap. IV, No. 98.)
 RELIGIOUS MEMORIES 123
rival those of the Laocoon. The four statues in the niches
are the work of Raphael da Montelupo, Michael Angelo's
pupil.
The statue was intended for the tomb of Julius II (della
Rovere). By a strange fatality, this Pope, who had planned
for himself the grandest monument in Rome, lies at St. Peter's
under a plain slab in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
The Mosaic of St. Sebastian.—At an altar in the left aisle
is a mosaic of St. Sebastian, who is represented as an old man,
contrary to the general tradition. It was placed here by Pope
Agatho in 680, to obtain the cessation of the plague. " This
terrible plague was," according to the legend, ushered 1n by
an awful vision of the two angels of good and evil, who
wandered through the streets by night side by side, when the
one smote upon the door where death was to enter, unless
arrested by the other. The people continued to die by
hundreds da1ly. At length a citizen learnt in a dream that
the sickness would cease when the body of St. Sebastian
should be brought into the city, and when this was done the
pest1lence was stayed." The subject is represented in a fresco
on the left of the entrance, the only one remaining of a series
of mural paintmgs illustrating the protection of St. Sebastian,
who is generally invoked in times of pestilence.
At the foot of the left aisle is a fine bas-relief of St. Peter
receiving the keys from an angel, executed in 1465, as a
monument to Cardinal de Cusa.
Under the fresco above-mentioned is the tomb of Antonio
Pollaiolo, to whose skill we owe the splendid bronze tombs of
Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII in the Vatican basilica.

99. —RELIGIOUS MEMORIES OF S. PIETRO IN VINCOLI AND

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.
John II was here elected Pope in 532 and here buried in
534. His epitaph, removed from the nave, may be seen on the
wall of the left aisle under the organ.
In 1073 St. Gregory VII (Hildebrand) was elected Pope in
this church.
Pope Pius IX was here consecrated Bishop in 1826. The
Jubilee of his episcopate was celebrated with great solemnity
in this church in 1876.
The conventual buildings of the Canons Regular of the
Lateran, who serve the church, have been appropriated by the
Government and converted into a college of engineers.
134 S. ANTONIO DI PADUA
Somewhere between the present church and the Via del
Colosseo, the ancient court of justice, or tribunal of the city
Prefect, is said to have stood. In front of this court-house
St. Laurence the martyr, when ordered by the Prefect Cornelius
Saecularis to deliver up for Caesar's use all the Church's
treasures, collected the poor, the infirm, the decrepit, the blind
and the lame, widows also, and orphans, saying : " These are
the Church's treasures ; she has no other riches but these."
The Prefect, transported with anger, then ordered the Saint to
be burned alive by a slow fire.
Between S. Pietro in Vincoli and the Colosseum are
extensive remains of the Baths of Titus, and some traces of
the Golden House of Nero. The entrance stands in the Via
Labicana, near the Colosseum. Raphael came to study the
exquisite arabesques in the Baths of Titus, newly discovered
in his time. Lanciani 1 remarks that " of the wonders of the
Golden House of Nero, with its park, one mile square, it is
enough to say that it contained waterfalls supplied by an
aqueduct fifty miles long—lakes and ponds shaded by ancient
trees— a vestibule with a bronze colossus 120 feet high;
porticoes 3,000 feet long ; thousands of columns with capitals
of Corinthian metal ; hundreds of statues brought from Greece
and Asia Minor ; walls inlaid with gems and mother-of-pearl ;
banqueting-halls having ivory ceilings, from which rare flowers
and costly perfumes fell gently on the recumbent guests. More
elaborate still was the ceiling of the State dining-hall. It is
described as spherical in shape, carved in ivory so as to
represent the starry skies, and kept in motion by machinery, in
imitation of the course ofthe stars and planets."

IOO. —S. ANTONIO DI PADUA SS. PIETRO

E MARCELLINO.
Following the Via Labicana eastward to its point of inter
section with the Via Merulana, we reach the Church of
SS. Pietro e Marcellino, which stands below the level of the
road. It is said to date from the fourth century, to have been
restored in 1256 and rebuilt in 1752. In 1707 the church and
convent were given to Maronite monks, who left in 1752 for the
monastery opposite S. Pietro in Vincoli. Since that time a
community of Carmelite nuns have owned the church. In the
sacristy is a beautiful picture of the Crucifixion, supposed to be
1 Ruins of Ancient Rome, p. 361.
 S. ANTONIO DI PADUA "5
miraculous. The eyes, it is said, were once seen to move, and
a hundred witnesses attested the fact.1
On the opposite side of the Via Merulana stands the new
church and monastery of S. Antonio di Padua, belonging to the
Friars Minor, who have here their novitiate, house of studies,
and residence of the Minister General.2 The church, built
after the type of the twelfth century, was consecrated in 1886.
Its exterior is imposing and picturesque ; the interior is
devotional, but wants more light.
Returning by the Via Merulana, in the direction of St. Mary
Major, we may conclude our day's pilgrimage by a visit to the
Church of S. Maria degli Angeli near the railway station.
The Via Merulana and the adjacent streets on the Esquiline
occupy the site of the Gardens of the Maecenas. Originally a
cemetery reserved for slaves, beggars, prisoners, and criminals
who had undergone the capital punishment, the place became a
hotbed of pestilence. Augustus gave the ground to his Prime
Minister Maecenas, who covered the surface with a mass of
earth six to eight metres high, and transformed the region into
a park.3 The gardens contained a palace and a tower or
"belvedere," which Horace describes as reaching the crouds.
Nero is accused by Suetonius of having watched from this lofty
observatory the progress of the flames in the fire of July, 64,
while singing the capture and burning of Troy in a theatrical
robe ; but the fact is contradicted by Tacitus.4
At the corner of the Via Merulana and Leopardi will be
noticed the conservatory of the Gardens of Maecenas discovered
in 1874. Its six niches on each of the side walls were painted
in with delicate landscapes, but these have faded. It deserves
a visit.
1 The Catacomb of SS. Peter and Marcellinus is at the Torre
Pignatara, about a mile and a half from the city gate, Porta Maggiore.
Here is an ancient church where formerly stood the tomb of St. Helena,
and beneath the church is a catacomb containing some well-preserved
frescoes, the most interesting of which is that of the Divine Lamb,
represented as standing upon a mound from which flow four rivers ;
along with figures of SS. Peter, Marcellinus, Gorgonius and
Tiburtius.
2 Till 1873 the General resided in the large monastery of Ara Cceli,
now destroyed.
8 See Horace, Sat. i. 8—14.
* Lanciani, Ruins ofAncient Some, p. 412.
126 S. MARIA DEGLI ANGELl

1 01. —S. MARIA DEGLI ANGELl OUR LADY OF THE

ANGELS.
There is much to interest us here. The church was formed
out of the ruins of the ancient Baths of Diocletian. In the year
109 1, Urban II made a present of these ruins to St. Bruno for
the establishment of a Carthusian monastery. For some reason
or other the Carthusians seem to have considered the place
unsuitable. About 1533, Cardinal du Bellay, Ambassador of
Francis I, purchased the property and laid out gardens among
the picturesque ruins. At his death, in 1560, it passed to
St. Charles Borromeo, who gave it to his uncle, Pope Pius IV.
This Pope took up the old project of Urban I I for the trans
formation of the baths into a Carthusian monastery and of the
tepidarium into a magnificent church. The work of transforma
tion, entrusted to Michael Angelo, was begun from his plans in
1563 and finished in 1566.1 He converted the great hall into a
cross, by adding to it the present vestibule and the choir, the
entrance being from the south-east side, opposite the present
railway station. In 1749 Vanvitelli changed Michael Angelo's
plan : the immense nave was altered into a transept, and a
new entrance made from the present piazza dei Termini.2
The circular vestibule contains the tombs of two great
religious painters, Carlo Maratta (d. 17 13) and Salvator Rosa
(d. 1673) ; also an admirable statue of St. Bruno by Houdon. The
great transept (the nave of Michael Angelo's plan) is 100 yards
long, 29 yards wide and 90 feet high.
The chief objects of interest are : (1) The high altar, one
of the richest in Rome, the marbles being all precious. (2) The
painting of Our Lady of the Angels, by Perugino, in the choir
behind the high altar. (3) Two large paintings of great value
on the walls just outside the sanctuary, viz. : the Martyrdom
of St. Sebastian, by Domenichino, and the Baptism of our
Lord, by Carlo Maratta. (4) The chapel of the relics on the left
of the sanctuary, where are venerated the remains of seven
hundred and thirty martyrs. (5) The large paintings in the
transept, brought here from St. Peter's, where they were replaced
by copies in mosaic. (6) The gigantic pillars in the transept, 53
feet high, 16 feet in circumference ; eight of these are granite
and of great antiquity, but the other eight are mere imitation.
(7) The marble pavement laid down by Gregory XIII, on
which is the meridian line made in 1703.
The interior is vast and impressive, the walls and arched
roof being as solid as in the days of Diocletian.
1 Michael Angelo died in 1 564.
2 Lanciani, Ruins of Ancient Rome, p. 435.
 S. MARIA DEGLI ANGELI 127

102.—THE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN, BUILT BY CHRISTIAN

PRISONERS.
An interesting description of the work done by Christian
prisoners in erecting these baths will be found in Fabiola.1
The Roman Martyrology makes mention on July 9 pf
the martyrdom in Rome of St. Zeno and 10,203 companions.
These were the Christ1ans condemned to labour in the erection
of this stupendous mass of buildings, and it is said that crosses
and other Christian marks have been found stamped on some
of the bricks. When the undertaking was completed, the
poor toilers were all dragged to the temple of Mars, outside
the present Porta S. Sebastiano, and there cruelly massacred
by order of Diocletian, A.D. 305. Their mangled remains
were afterwards buried at Tre Fontane and in the catacombs,
those of St. Zeno and 2,200 of the martyrs being transferred
to S. Prassede by Pope Paschal I in the ninth century, as
stated above. The church and adjoining ruins thus possess a
special and a holy interest. It is said that the baths contained
3,000 marble basins, and a swimming piscina of 2,400 square
feet ; and that a library, gymnasia, club-rooms, lecture-rooms,
dining-rooms and spacious gardens were attached to them.
Cardinal Baronius says that 40,000 Christians were
employed in the work. The baths are supposed to have
been partly destroyed during the Gothic invasion of A.D. 410.

103. THE GREAT CLOISTER OF S. MARIA DEGLI ANGELI —

RELIGIOUS MEMORIES.
Behind the church is the noble cloister designed by Michael
Angelo, transformed (since the departure of the monks in 1872)
into a national museum, in which objects of art and antiquities
discovered on Government land and in Government works are
preserved. The cells of the Carthusians, where so many holy
Religious lived and died, may be seen, each with a little garden
and fountain. Alas, they are now tenantless, used only as
receptacles for sarcophagi and fragments of ancient sculpture.
The objects exhibited are nearly all pagan ; though there are
a few Christian ornaments, chiefly of gold, made by the Goths
and Lombards. Of especial interest are the Anglo-Saxon coins
of the tenth century, four hundred in number, found in 1884 in
the Atrium Vestae, or Vestals' house in the Forum. This money
1 Part II. chap. xx.
128 S. MARIA DEGLI ANGELI
was probably brought to Rome as Peter's Pence, and concealed
to save it from plunder during one of the frequent tumults of
those stormy times.
This Carthusian monastery is connected with an event in
the life of St. John Berchmans. A fellow scholastic had asked
the Saint to accompany him to S. Maria degli Angeli. St. John
there discovered that the scholastic wished to leave the Society
and join the Carthusians. Returning home he reported the
matter to Superiors, and the words he repeated on his death
bed, " Let us go home, let us go home," are supposed to refer to
this incident.
One day as St. Philip Neri was passing the ruins of the
baths of Diocletian, he saw, as he thought, a young man sitting
on a low wall ; but on looking more closely and steadily at him,
he perceived that his face was constantly changing, at one
moment he looked young, and at the next old. Philip knew
it was an evil spirit, and, making the sign of the Cross, he went
boldly up to him and bade him depart.
Since the expulsion of the Carthusians and seizure of their
property by the Italian Government in 1872, the church has
been served by the Minims, or Religious of St. Francis de Paula.
In the piazza in front of the church is a large fountain,
where the municipality of Rome erected in 1901 some bronze
figures that are repulsive and scandalous in the extreme. No
good Christian would look at them, and even a pagan with any
self-respect would turn away disgusted.
 CHAPTER V.
To St. Paul's and Tre Fontane.
An electric car runs to St. Paul's from the Piazza di Venezia
every twenty minutes. If we prefer to go on foot, we can start
from the Piazza del Gesu and see one or two interesting places
on our way.

104;—TOR DE' SPECCHI.

Following the Via di Ara Cceli as far as the steps of the
Capitol, and turning down the narrow street on our right at the
foot of the steps, we reach the famous convent of Tor de'
Specchi, founded in 1433 by St. Frances of Rome for pious
ladies, who wish to live retired from the world in poverty,
obedience and self-sacrifice, but without binding themselves by
religious vows. They are called Oblates, because they make
an oblation of themselves instead of the usual vows but in
other respects they are like nuns, and are affiliated to the
Olivetans, or white Benedictines.
On the death of her husband Lorenzo Ponziano, St. Frances,
in spite of the opposition of her son, came to join this com
munity. For twenty-four years she had enjoyed the visible
presence of an angel ever at her side : he now took leave of
her with a benignant smile, and in his place another angel of a
higher choir, more refulgent still, was ordained to stand by her.
The interior of the convent is much as it was in the fifteenth
century, the old chapel and the cell of the Saint remaining
unchanged.
1 For the same reason this, their ancient home, was not appro
priated by the Italian Government, as they form a community not of
nuns, but of pious ladies. They are nearly all of noble birth, and
though each one retains her private property, nearly all the income
(beyond what is needed for a very poor maintenance) is devoted to
works of charity.
J
13° PIAZZA MONTANARA

105. PIAZZA MONTANARA.1

A little further on is a square near the Amphitheatre of
Marcellus, frequented by market people and agricultural
labourers, who stand or lie in picturesque groups, forming fit
subjects for artistic study. St. John Baptist de Rossi, the
apostle of the Roman poor, and a second St. Philip Neri, pitying
the ignorance of these country people, came regularly to teach
them catechism and prepare them for confession. St. Aloysius,
who often brought poor people to confession at the Gesi1,
probably found them in or near this square. In a house on the
west side of the square died Blessed Gaspar del Buffalo (1839).
Along the Via Bocca della Verita and through Piazza
Montanara, St. Frances of Rome might frequently be seen
dressed in an old green patched gown, leading an ass laden
with faggots which she had gathered in her vineyard near
St. Paul's to distribute at the homes of the poor. Her relatives,
friends, and even servants were annoyed that a lady of her rank
should thus demean herself ; but she heeded not what others
thought or said, and with her confessor's approval sought these
occasions of humbling herself.
The Forum Olitorium, whose site corresponds with that of
the Piazza Montanara, was in ancient days surrounded by
stately buildings, viz. : (1) the Theatre of Marcellus (Theatrum
Marcelli) begun by Julius Caesar, continued by Augustus, and
dedicated in 13 B.C. under the name of Augustus' beloved son-
in-law Marcellus, then recently deceased. The architecture
resembles that of the Colosseum. " On the dedication day the
ludus Troja was performed by the sons of illustrious patricians
in presence of Augustus ; and six hundred wild beasts from
Nubia were slain in the circus. The breaking down of the
sella curulis on which the Emperor sat caused him to fall on
his back, but the accident had no serious consequences ;"2
(2) the Temple of Apollo ; (3) the Porticus Minucia, the name
of which remains in the title Madonna del Portico ; (4) the
temples of Juno, Janus, Spes, Pietas.3 The two latter are
mentioned in the next paragraph.
1 The ancient Forum Olitorium, or vegetable market.
2 Lanciani, Ruins of Ancient Rome, p. 493.
s Ibid., p. 513.
 CHURCH AND HOSPITAL OF ST. GALLA 131

I06.— S. NICOLA IN CARCERE, IN THE VIA BOCCA DELLA

VERITA.
The Church of S. Nicola in Carcere (" St. Nicholas by the
Prison ") —so named from the Byzantine State prison of Rome,
which opened on the adjoining street of Porta Leone (Pierleoni),
was built on the remains of two temples of the time of the
Republic, viz., the temple of Pietas, erected by M. Acilius
Glabrio in 165 B.C., after his victory over Antiochus at Ther
mopylae, and the temple of Spes (or of Matuta, it is uncertain
which). The massive substructions of these ancient edifices
may be seen in the vaults on application to the sacristan. The
church is one of many in Rome dedicated to St. Nicholas of
Myra, and is first mentioned in the Liber Pontificaiis under
Adrian I, 772 —795. After restorations by Paschal II in 1106
and Honorius II in 1128, it was rebuilt by Cardinal Pietro
Aldobrandini in 1 599, the architect being Giacomo della Porta.
The high altar has a baldacchino resting on four handsome
columns of oriental alabaster ; and beneath the altar in a
splendid urn of dark green porphyry are the remains of
SS. Marcellinus, Faustinas and Simflicius, martyrs, and
St. Beatrice, virgin and martyr, sister of the two latter Saints.1
The second column on the right of the nave has an inscription
of the ninth century recording a donation by a wealthy steward
named Anastasius, of two yoke of oxen, five mules, thirty sheep, »
ten swine, and 27IDs. of copper. A chapel on the left side of the
church has a miraculous picture of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, the
eyes of which were seen to move in 1798. It was brought to
Rome in 1773 by some Jesuit Fathers, expelled from Mexico at
the suppression of their Order.

107.—CHURCH AND HOSPITAL OF ST. GALLA.

According to a time-honoured tradition, this was the site of
the noble mansion of St. Galla, of whom St. Gregory the Great
speaks in his Dialogues. She was daughter of Symmachus the
younger, the most learned and virtuous patrician of Rome,
whom Theodoric unjustly and barbarously put to death.2 Being
left a widow while still very young, the Saint renounced the
world and its honours to retire to a poor cell near St. Peter's,
1 Where the remains of several martyrs are in the same sarcophagus,
the interior is usually divided into compartments.
2 Alban Butler, Lives ofthe Saints, October 5.
 132 S. MARIA IN COSMEDIN
where she led a life of constant prayer and great austerity, her
immense revenues becoming the patrimony of the poor. At her
death she was favoured with a vision of St. Peter.1
Our Lady is said to have here appeared to her, and a
miraculous picture, supposed to have been brought by angels,
was found attached to the wall. A church, which bore the name
of S. Maria in Porticu,2 was built to honour a spot so sacred
soon after her death. The miraculous picture, belonging to it,
was together with the title of the church transferred by
Alexander VII to S. Maria in Campitelli. The Odescalchi
family then undertook to rebuild the ancient church and
hospital of St. Galla. In this hospital St. Leonard of Port
Maurice and Father Galluzzi, S.J., visited and nursed the sick,
and here, in answer to their prayers, St. Aloysius multiplied
some woollen stuff, sufficient to provide beds for a hundred
patients. St. John Baptist de Rossi also took a particular
interest in this hospital, and invited St. Leonard to come and
preach the Lenten sermons in the church.

108.—S. MARIA IN COSMEDIN, IN THE VIA BOCCA DELLA

VERITA.
This is " one of the gems of mediaeval Rome."
tf Marucchi informs us that it was built in the sixth century
on the ruins of a temple of Ceres, and of the " Ara maxima
Herculis," the latter being a monument older than Rome
itself.
In 782, Adrian I enlarged the church, using for the apse
the stones of the temple of Ceres, and decorated it so beautifully
that it received the title of Cosmedin (from Kosmos, ornament).
The crypt, which presents the form of a subterranean basilica,
is of this period and has long enshrined the remains of many
saints taken from the catacombs. Adrian seems to have
restored the church for the Greek refugees, driven from their
country by the persecution of the Emperor Constantine
Copronymus (775—780). They had a "Schola" or assembly
room here : hence early writers (e.g., Siric, Archbishop of
Canterbury in 990), sometimes speak of the church as Santa
Maria Schola Graecorum ; and it is also mentioned as Ecclesia
1 St. Gregory's Dialogues, bk. iv. c. 13.
2 Not from the " Porticus Octaviae," but from "Porticus Galla-
torum." (Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome), or from the "Porticus
Minucia." (Lanciani, Ruins of Ancient Rome, p. 513.)
 S. MARIA IN COSMEDIN 133
Graecorum in the Liber Pontificalis and the Itinerary of
Einsiedeln (ninth century).
The edifice probably suffered from the havoc caused by
Robert Guiscard, the Norman, in 1084. It was restored by
Callixtus II (11 19— 1124), and belonging to this restoration are
the present portico, the presbyterium or sanctuary, the " Schola
Cantorum" with its two ambones (pulpits), the high altar, the
graceful belfry and most likely the mosaic pavement : all these
works were executed under the direction of one Alfanus, whose
monument is in the portico. There are remains also of Biblical
paintings of this period. The busts of the prophets painted in
the apse are remnants of earlier work.
The interior gives a perfect idea of an early mediaeval
Roman church. The chief things to notice are : 1. The high
altar beneath a marble canopy of Gothic form inlaid with
mosaic, resting on four columns of red Egyptian granite. It is
the work of Diodatus Cosimati in the twelfth century. Below,
in a sarcophagus of red granite, lie the relics of St. Cyrilla,
virgin and martyr, and of SS. Hilarius and Coronatus, martyrs.
2. The marble Episcopal throne in the apse behind the high
altar, with supporting lions— twelfth century work. 3. The
picture of our Lady on the wall above the Episcopal throne is
said to have been brought from Constantinople by Greek
refugees when escaping the fury of the Iconoclast Emperor,
Leo the Isaurian (716—741). 4. The choir or "Schola
Cantorum" in front of the sanctuary, with its marble ambones
and balustrade, which is also twelfth century work.
The walls of the nave, now cold and bare, formerly glowed
with frescoes, the traces of which are still visible.
In the porch is preserved a large stone mask, that has no
connection with the church. This was probably the covering
of some ancient sacred well, possibly that of Mercury, which
Ovid 1 mentions as being not far from the Porta Capena. The
people call it " Bocca della Verita," implying that no one dares
to place his hand in the mouth and speak or swear falsely.
St. Augustine, the great Doctor of the Church, is said to have
taught rhetoric and philosophy somewhere in this neighbour
hood about a.d. 384, i.e., before his conversion by St. Ambrose.
In 1877, some excavations at the back of the church
brought to light the fragment of a glass cup of the fourth
century, bearing figures of St. Peter and another Saint (St. Linus)
engraved on it.
Cardinal Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury, who
died at Lambeth in 1588, took his title in the Sacred College
from this Church of S. Maria in Cosmedin.
1 Fasti, V. 673.
i34 ROOMS OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE ROSSI

100.—ROOMS OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE ROSSI AT

S. MARIA IN COSMEDIN.
St. John Baptist de Rossi, who has been mentioned above,1
was a Canon of this church and resided here for nine years
(1738— 1747). He then went to live at the hospital of
SS. Trinita dei Pellegrini, near Ponte Sisto, where he died in
1764. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1881. His
body lies under one of the side altars of SS. Trinita. His
rooms, adjoining the Church of S. Maria in Cosmedin, are open
to visitors on his feast-day, and in them are exhibited his
kneeling bench, confessional, writing-table ; also many articles
of clothing and objects of devotion belonging to him. He is
greatly revered by the Romans as a second St. Philip Neri.
The graceful round temple, surrounded by Corinthian
columns, which stands opposite the church, was the shrine of
Matuta2 (not of Vesta, though often so called) and is known to
have existed in the time of Vespasian. The columns, originally
twenty in number, are thirty-two feet high. It is now used as
a chapel dedicated to S. Maria del Sole.
A little to the right (i.e., north) of this edifice, stands the
Temple of Fortune (Fortuna virilis), originally built by
Servius Tullius about 5 57 B.C., but reconstructed after a fire
in 214. This is probably the most ancient temple now surviving
in Rome.3 In the ninth century it was opened as a chapel
of our Lady, but is now dedicated to St. Mary of Egypt,
and served by Armenian priests.
1 See No. 105.
a Mater Matuta, an old Italic goddess of the dawn (mane
matutina), worshipped also as a goddess of the sea and of harbours.
Servius, its supposed builder, chose this position for it on the bank of
the Tiber, and at the head of its harbour and quays. The temple was
rebuilt by the dictator Camillus after the capture of Veii, but the
present picturesque edifice dates probably from the time of Augustus.
It is peripteros, formed of twenty Corinthian columns, from which
only one is absent. As in the case of the Temple of Fortune, we owe
its preservation to its having been converted to Christian uses. (Lanciani,
Ruins of Ancient Rome, p. 518.)
3 The style, which is the purest and simplest example of the Ionic
order in Rome, proves the edifice to have been built at a time when
the Romans had not commenced to debase the fair proportions of Greek
orders by attempting to improve or to embellish them. It was con
verted into a church in 872 by a certain Stephen, who walled up the
open inter-columniations of the pronaos to increase its size. In the
time of St. Pius V (1566—1572) it was given to the Armenians, and from
that time has been called Santa Maria Egiziaca. (Ibid., -p. 517.)
 THE OSTIAM WAY 135
The electric car to St. Paul's passes near S. Maria in
Cosmedin, and we shall economize time by taking it.
We presently reach the suburb Testaccio, beyond which the
Monte Testaccio rises to a height of 115 feet in the very heart
of the region of the ancient horrea or grain-stores of the city.
It is formed of fragments of earthen jars (amphora, diota),
used in ancient times for conveying to the capital the agricultural
products of the provinces, especially of Bcetica and Mauritania.
This hill is said to have served as the Mount Calvary of the
mediaeval Passion play. In the street Bocca della Verita is an
inn known as the House of Caiphas, and the mediaeval building
( Torre de' Cenci) opposite the Temple of Fortune was formerly
called the House of Pilate, from their association with the same
play.

IIO. —THE OSTIAN WAY.

Along this road the two Princes of the Apostles were dragged
to martyrdom, and, according to a pious tradition, separated at
the spot where stands the little Chapel of the Parting.1 We
may picture to ourselves the sad, yet triumphal, procession of
the two Apostles going to meet the death they so ardently
desired, surrounded by soldiers and executioners, and followed
by a motley rabble such as Cardinal Newman describes in
Callista —"filthy beggars, who, fed on the offal of the pagan
sacrifices ; the drivers and slaughterers of the beasts sacrificed,
who frequented the Forum Boarium ; " (near S. Maria in
Cosmedin), " tumblers and mountebanks, who amused the
gaping market-people ; dancers, singers, "pipers from the low
taverns and drinking houses ; infamous creatures, young and
old ; men and boys, half-naked and not half-sober ; wild beast
keepers from the amphitheatre, troops of labourers from the
fields "—:all attracted by the excitement of the public execution
of the two heads of the Christians, and screaming, with ruffian
voices, " Christianos ad leones."
Close to the two Saints followed a little group of their faithful
disciples absorbed in prayer and silently weeping, wishful to
receive their last blessing, and to secure their remains, if
possible, for honourable interment.
The Ostian Gate.—The pyramidal monument near the gate
was erected a little before the Christian era to receive the ashes
of Caius Cestius. In mediaeval times it was known as the
tomb of Romulus, and was supposed to be one of the two
" metae " mentioned in the early account of St. Peter's martyr
dom.2 It was built of brick and faced with marble blocks.
1 See No. III. 2 See No. 2.
136 ST. PAUL'S MARTYRDOM
Near it is the Protestant cemetery where the heart of the poet
Shelley was buried (d. 1822) ; and where the tomb of John
Keats (d. 1821) bears the inscription, "Here lies one whose
name was writ in water."
Formerly a splendid portico, 2,000 yards long, connected
the Ostian Gate with St. Paul's basilica. It was supported by
a thousand or more marble columns, and its roof was covered
with sheets of lead. Adrian I is said to have restored it about
a.d. 772. Every vestige of it has long since disappeared.

III. —THE CHAPEL OF THE PARTING.

About midway between the Ostian Gate and St. Paul's, will
be noticed a little wayside chapel on the left of the road. It
marks the spot where, according to tradition, the two Apostles
took leave of each other on separating for their respective
places of martyrdom. Over the door is the following inscrip
tion : " In this place SS. Peter and Paul separated on their
way to martyrdom, and Paul said to Peter : ' Peace be with
thee, Foundation of the Church, Shepherd of the flock of
Christ.' And Peter said to Paul, ' Go in peace, Preacher of
glad tidings, Guide of the just to salvation.'"
Nearly opposite was the entrance to the vineyard of
St. Frances of Rome, where she used to come and gather
faggots of wood, occasionally carrying them into the city on
her head, or leading an ass laden with them, as a means of
self-humiliation.1

112.—st. paul's martyrdom at the salv1an spr1ngs,2

i.e., tre fontane.
The great Apostle of the Gentiles suffered martyrdom at
Aquae Salvia? (Tre Fontane), the road to which branches to the
left of the Ostian Way a little beyond St. Paul's. It is some
two miles from the basilica, and about six or seven miles from
the Roman Forum. St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom and
other early writers say that because of his dignity as a Roman
citizen, he was not crucified like St. Peter, but beheaded. From
certain words of St. Clement of Rome, who may possibly have
witnessed the martyrdom, it is thought that the Emperor Nero
was present.3 A small cell under the church Scala Cceli at
1 See No. 105. 2 Ad Aquas Salvias.
3 Tillemont, I. Art. 50.
 THE MEMOHIA ERECTED BY POPE ST. ANACLETUS 137
Tre Fontane is pointed out as having been occupied by the
Apostle for some hours pending Nero's arrival; and a bas-relief
in the same church represents Nero as present.
The head of the Apostle, when severed, is said to have
made three leaps, or bounds, and at each spot where it alighted
there burst up a fountain of clear water—whence the name Tre
Fontane.1

II3. —THE MEMORIA, OR SEPULCHRAL CHAMBER, ERECTED

BY POPE ST. ANACLETUS.
The Apostle's friends would have no difficulty in obtaining
his remains,2 as the law allowed in certain cases the bodies of
those put to death to be given to their friends for burial. They
wrapped the Saint's body in linen and spices according to
the Roman custom, and bore it reverently to a grave in the
vineyard of the Roman lady, Lucina,3 near the Ostian Way,
where a memoria, or mortuary chapel, was built in the first
century, probably by St. Anacletus, similar to the one he had
erected over the tomb of St. Peter. These memoria were
respected as inviolate by the Roman law, even in the case of
Christian Bishops. " Such a memoria was probably a very
tiny edifice, a room some 14 feet by 10, with the sarcophagus
in the centre. Over this, in many cases, an upper chamber
was constructed, in which the Holy Sacrifice was offered imme
diately over the body of the martyr."4
That simple chapel remained two and a half centuries, till
Constantine replaced it by his basilica, in a.d. 324 or 326.
1 See No. 125.
2 Allard, Histoire des Persecutions, vol. i. p. 315.
8 Several Christian ladies named Lucina are mentioned. A Lucina
buries St. Paul : a Lucina excavates and gives her name to some crypts
on the Appian Way : a Lucina gives shelter to St. Marcellus : a Lucina
buries St. Sebastian.
De Rossi (Roma Sotterranea, I. pp. 321—323, 340, 348, 351)
identifies the first Lucina with Pomponia Gracina, whose conversion to
Christianity is recorded with bitter words by Tacitus in A.D. 58, she
leading thenceforth a life lugubre et mcestum.
In the Crypto: Lncina, which are of the highest antiquity, there is
the tomb of a Pomponius Gracinus.
4 Thurston, S.J., Holy Year ofJubilee, p. 164.
138 THE THEODOSIAN BASILICA

114.—CONSTANTINE'S BASILICA OVER ST. PAUL'S TOMB.

A.D. 324 OR 326.
In the fifth lesson of the Office for the Feast of the Dedica
tion of the Basilicas of SS. Peter and Paul,1 we read that on
the Ostian Way Pope St. Sylvester consecrated St. Paul's
basilica, which the Emperor Constantine had erected with royal
munificence, and endowed with the grant of many lands and
other noble gifts.
In erecting the basilica, the Apostle's tomb was left undis
turbed, and the new building was so constructed that the tomb
should be in the centre of the apse. The edifice was much
smaller than St. Peter's, for the reason that it faced the east,
and the Ostian Way, which ran close by, prevented its exten
sion in that direction ; but it rivalled St. Peter's in richness and
splendour. The nave was separated from the aisles by two
rows of noble columns, which are said to have been taken from
the Basilica /Emilia in the Forum. The chancel arch and the
vault of the apse glowed with rich mosaics ; and in ornaments
of gold, silver and bronze the Emperor wished it to be not
inferior to St. Peter's. The Liber Pontificalis says that he
enclosed the body of the Apostle in a bronze sarcophagus,'£
and over it he placed a cross of solid gold, weighing 150
pounds, like the one he had laid on St. Peter's tomb.
The yearly income from the endowments assigned by
Constantine to this and the other churches founded by him in
Rome, amounted to some ,£13,000 sterling, a sum equal to
,£50,000 or ,£60,000 at the present day. The churches had
also a yearly income of over ,£6,000 on the spices furnished by
Egypt and the East, besides yearly contributions of spikenard,
frankincense, balsam, storax, cinnamon, saffron and other
precious drugs for the censers and lamps.3

IIS.—THE THEODOSIAN BASILICA, A.D. 388—OLD

ST. Paul's.
The basilica of Constantine lasted but a short period. It
was soon found to be too small for the numbers who resorted
to it, and contrasted unfavourably with St. Peter's.
In 386, Valentinian II, Theodosius and Arcadius submitted
1 Roman Breviary, November 18.
2 St. Sylvester, n. 40. "Corpus Sanctum ita recondidit in aere et
conclusit, sicut et Beati Petri."
3 Liber Pontificalis, Ibid. ; Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints,
November 18.
 DESCRIPTION OF THE THEODOSIAN BASILICA 139
to the Senate a plan for its reconstruction, so as to make it equal
in size to the temple on the Vatican. " To fulfil this project,
without disturbing either the grave of the Apostle or the road
to Ostia, there was but one thing to do ; this was to change
the orientation of the church from east to west, and to extend
it at pleasure towards the banks of the Tiber. . . . The new
basilica was thus raised so as to face in a direction opposite to
the usual one."1
It was begun in 388 and completed by Honorius in 395.
Prudentius, the great Christian poet, writing in a.d. 400,
thus describes the new basilica: "On the other side (of the
river) the Ostian Way marks the name of Paul, where the river
flows against the left bank. It is a place of royal grandeur ; a
good Sovereign (Theodosius) raised the fabric. The roof he
covered with golden plates, so that it flashes like the dawn ;
and underneath he placed four rows of pillars with carved
arches."2
This splendid building lasted till July 15, 1823, when it was
destroyed by fire.

Il6.—DESCRIPTION OF THE THEODOSIAN BASILICA.

The full length of the edifice was 411 feet; the transept
measured 279 feet ; the nave and aisles, 295 by 214 feet.
The interior consisted of a broad nave and four aisles,
divided by four rows of marble Corinthian columns, surmounted
by a fine roof of open woodwork, formed of immense beams
and rafters of pine. Altogether, there were one hundred and
thirty eight pillars of white marble, pavonazzo, and porphyry,
forming a collection that was unique in the world. The internal
walls were covered with marble. The central nave terminated
in the immense arch (still existing) supported by two colossal
Ionic columns of Greek marble, which Galla Placidia, sister
of the Emperor Theodosius, had decorated with mosaics
in a.d. 440. Beneath this arch was the Confession or
tomb of the Apostle, whose body lay enclosed in Constantine's
bronze sarcophagus within an outer one of marble.3 The walls
of the nave above the arches were covered with frescoes of the
fifth century, representing Biblical subjects. The pavement
was of marble, covered with inscribed monuments. There
were numerous chapels and shrines of the saints.
1 Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome.
a Marucchi, Basiliques de Rome ; Bussierre, Basiliques de Rome-r
Thurston, S.J., Holy Year ofJubilee, p. 168.
8 Piazza, Le sacre Stazioni di Roma, pp. 443, seq.
140 SAINTS AT ST. PAUL'S

117. —GIFTS OF ST. GREGORY THE GREAT AND OTHER

POPES.
The property of Aquae Salvia? (Tre Fontane), which belonged
to the family of St. Gregory and formed part of his inheritance,
was given by him to St. Paul's basilica (about a.d. 590), that
the rents might be applied to providing perpetual lights round
the Apostle's tomb. He also added other gifts of great value.
Popes St. Hormisdas (514), Adrian I (795), St. Leo III (795)
enriched the basilica with gold and silver chalices and statues.
Adrian I covered the Saint's shrine with plates of silver and
adorned it with statues of gold,1 and subsequent Popes added
to the splendour of the place.
Il8.—SAINTS AT ST. PAUL'S.
St. Gregory the Great had a great veneration for this
basilica, standing, as it does, on ground rendered sacred by the
great number of martyrs buried there.2
Pope St. Paul I (757— 767), who lived and died in the
adjoining monastery, often spent the night in prayer at the
Apostle's tomb.
St. Odo of Cluny, called to Rome by Leo VII in 936 to
initiate certain monastic reforms, resided in this monastery.
St. Odilo, sixth Abbot of Cluny, resided in this monastery
on his three visits to Rome, in 1014, 1017, 1022. He instituted
the annual commemoration of the faithful departed (A 11 Souls,
November 2). Even in his agony he insisted on being carried
into the church to assist at the Divine Off1ce.
St. Gregory VII, " Hildebrand," when a monk at Cluny, was
called to Rome and made Abbot of St. Paul's by Pope St. Leo IX,
about a.d. 1053. He restored the church, recovered the abbey
lands, which had been seized by powerful laymen, and made
religious observance flourish.
' St. Bridget of Sweden frequently came to pray at St. Paul's
tomb ; the miraculous crucifix that spoke to her may be seen in
the first chapel to the left of the apse.
St. Frances of Rome would come on feast-days and the
Lenten Station days and take her place among the poor beggars
at the church door ; whatever alms were given to her she
distributed among them at the end of the day.
St. Ignatius of Loyola and his companions here made their
1 Piazza, Le sacre Stazioni di Roma, pp. 442, 443.
2 Regist. I. iii. ep. 30, ind. xii.
 REVERENCE OF BARBARIANS FOR ST. PAUL'S 141
profession on April 20, 1 541, soon after the solemn approval of
the Institute by Paul III. The picture of our Lady in the
chapel of the Crucifix, the first chapel to the left of the apse,
stood over the altar before which they took their vows.
St. Charles Borromeo in the Jubilee of 1575 came on foot
with the whole of his household to visit this and the other
churches the prescribed number of times.
St. Philip Neri's delight was to bring bands of young men to
visit St. Paul's and the six other churches, singing hymns,
reciting the Rosary and other prayers on the way.

119.—REVERENCE OF BARBARIANS FOR ST. PAUL'S—

DESECRATION BY LOMBARDS AND SARACENS.
The respect shown by Barbarian invaders for St. Peter's was
extended also to St. Paul's.
In 455 the Vandals under Genseric, who plundered every
other church, spared these two basilicas.
The Goths, in their several invasions under Vitiges and
Totila, left the treasures of St. Peter's and St. Paul's untouched,
and allowed the privilege of sanctuary to all who fled there for
protection. Neither the clergy nor the faithful at either basilica
were molested.
In 410, the Visigoths, led by Alaric, plundered Rome.
St. Marcella, whom St. Jerome styles the glory of the Roman
ladies, was scourged by them to force her to give up the
treasures she had long before distributed among the poor.
Regardless of her own sufferings, she trembled only for her
dear spiritual daughter, Principia, and falling at the feet of the
cruel soldiers, she begged with tears that they would offer no
insult to that child. God moved the fierce Northerners to
compassion. They conducted both to St. Paul's basilica, to-
which (as well as to St. Peter's) Alaric had granted the right
of sanctuary, and told them they would be safe there.1
Other fierce marauders showed no respect for these
sanctuaries.
In 739, during the Pontificate of St. Gregory III, the
basilica was plundered by the Lombards, under Luitprand.
In 773 it was again pillaged by them, but on this occa
sion Adrian I had time to hide its treasures within the
city.
In 846 it was seized and plundered by the Saracens, but
Pope Sergius III had masked the entrance to the Confession
1 Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, January 31.
I42 THE BURNING OF ST. PAUL'S
or crypt so cleverly that the spoilers never found the Apostle's
tomb.
Under St. Gregory VII (1073— 1087), the basilica was
desecrated and sacrilegiously occupied by Henry IV of
Germany.

120.—ENGLAND CONNECTED WITH ST. PAUL'S.

It is a tradition among English people that the basilica and
abbey were under the protection of England up to the time of
the Reformation, that the King of England was a member of
the Chapter, that the Abbot was a Prelate of the Order of the
Garter, and that hence the insignia of the Garter were always
part of the arms of St. Paul's. In 1884 the inscription
" Magister