Musings from Rome… pt. 2
Last Summer, my wife and I went on pilgrimage to Rome for the Jubilee Year. Here is our story…
The next day we had our audio tour of St. Peter’s Basilica. I strongly encourage you to do the audio tour. It is extremely well done, a good mix of history, art, and spiritual.
We also climbed St. Peter’s dome. Again, I highly recommend the event. It isn’t physically easy, but the view is worth it and gives a view that most don’t often get. Not only that, but it gives you a better perspective of the architecture of St. Peter’s: how big it is and the work that the builders had to go through to create this magnificent building.
While St. Peter’s is neither the Catholic Church’s mother church, nor is it the Diocese of Rome’s cathedral (those two honors belong to St. John Lateran… in fact, since it is not the seat of a bishop, St. Peter’s isn’t technically even a cathedral), it is often considered to be the home of Catholics. Since it is the tomb of St. Peter, my Confirmation Saint, it holds a special significance for me. It’s also the largest church in the world interiorly (15,160 square meters compared to #2’s Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba at 13,000). For comparison, you could fit more than 2 Basilica of the Immaculate Conceptions in Washington D.C. in there (7,097 square meters).
These first few images are from pictures I wasn’t able to take the evening before. I love the light streaming into St. Peter’s, like the light of Christ streaming and giving enlightenment to the Church.
While I took a picture with it the day before, I managed to come to the tomb and statue of St. Longinus, the Confirmation saint for one of my dear kids I sponsored for Confirmation. My other newly-confirmed kids chose St. Peter (without knowing it was mine as well). I prayed for them both.
I took a closeup of all the porta sancta panels. I assume you can guess the theme? I put them in the order found commonly in the Latin Rite.
The view from the dome inside is wonderful, and gives you the impression of gazing as if from Heaven.
The Tetramorphs are shown as well (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, along with the symbol commonly associated with them of a man/cherubim, lion, ox, and eagle, respectively). For more on this symbolism, see Jimmy Akin’s wonderful podcast episode here. These aren’t paintings. These are mosaics, little pieces put together to make a beautiful image (you can see that in the closeups). Much like the Church: many tiny pieces (priests, laity, bishops, popes, religious) which make a whole.
Along with the Tetramorphs, there are also mosaics of Jesus, flanked as per tradition by Mary and St. John the Baptist.
The view from outside at the top is likewise breathtaking. It isn’t an easy climb, but it’s worth it. Please note that the Vatican’s groundskeepers already had Pope Leo’s coat of arms in floral arrangement.
