![The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican | photo by Fczarnowski / Statue of Saint Paul in front of the facade of the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Wall, Rome | photo by Berthold Werner](https://www.franciscanmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/SOD-1118-DedicationoftheChurchesofSaintsPeterandPaul-790x480.jpg)
Posted on 11/18/2018 2:41:27 PM PST by Salvation
St. Peters is probably the most famous church in Christendom. Massive in scale and a veritable museum of art and architecture, it began on a much humbler scale. Vatican Hill was a simple cemetery where believers gathered at Saint Peters tomb to pray. In 319, Constantine built a basilica on the site that stood for more than a thousand years until, despite numerous restorations, it threatened to collapse. In 1506, Pope Julius II ordered it razed and reconstructed, but the new basilica was not completed and dedicated for more than two centuries.
St. Pauls Outside-the-Walls stands near the Abaazia delle Tre Fontane, where Saint Paul is believed to have been beheaded. The largest church in Rome until St. Peters was rebuilt, the basilica also rises over the traditional site of its namesakes grave. The most recent edifice was constructed after a fire in 1823. The first basilica was also Constantines doing.
Constantines building projects enticed the first of a centuries-long parade of pilgrims to Rome. From the time the basilicas were first built until the empire crumbled under barbarian invasions, the two churches, although miles apart, were linked by a roofed colonnade of marble columns.
Peter, the rough fisherman whom Jesus named the rock on which the Church is built, and the educated Paul, reformed persecutor of Christians, Roman citizen, and missionary to the gentiles, are the original odd couple. The major similarity in their faith-journeys is the journeys end: both, according to tradition, died a martyrs death in RomePeter on a cross and Paul beneath the sword. Their combined gifts shaped the early Church and believers have prayed at their tombs from the earliest days.
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Feast of the Day Ping!
Was just there a couple weeks ago—a pilgrimage with a Franciscan Friar/Priest. Wonderful experience. Wish I had a way to post some of my pics of this beautiful church.
St. Gabriel-Possenti.
https://gunowners.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/st-gabriel-possenti-patron-saint-of-gun-owners/
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