Dedication of the churches of Saints Peter and Paul, feast of November 18

Saint of the day for November 18

The history of the dedication of the churches of Saints Peter and Paul

San Pietro is probably the most famous church in Christianity. Massive in size and a true museum of art and architecture, it started on a much humbler scale. Vatican Hill was a simple cemetery where believers gathered at St Peter's tomb to pray. In 319, Constantine built a basilica on the site which remained for more than a thousand years until, despite numerous restorations, it threatened to collapse. In 1506 Pope Julius II ordered its razing and reconstruction, but the new basilica was not completed and dedicated for more than two centuries.

San Paolo fuori le mura is located near the Tre Fontane Abbey, where St Paul is believed to have been beheaded. The largest church in Rome until the reconstruction of St. Peter, the basilica also stands on the traditional site of his eponymous tomb. The most recent building was built after a fire in 1823. The first basilica was also the work of Constantine.

Constantine's construction projects attracted the first of a centuries-old parade of pilgrims to Rome. From the moment the basilicas were built up to the collapse of the empire under the "barbarian" invasions, the two churches, although kilometers apart, were connected by a colonnade covered with marble columns.

Reflection

Peter, the coarse fisherman whom Jesus called the rock on which the Church is built, and education Paul, the Reformed persecutor of Christians, Roman citizen and missionary of the pagans, are the strange original couple. The greatest similarity in their journeys of faith is the end of the journey: both, according to tradition, died martyrs in Rome: Peter on the cross and Paul under the sword. Their combined gifts shaped the early Church and believers have prayed at their graves since the earliest days.