ETERNAL ARK OF WORSHIP
by June Hager
Any visitor arriving for the first time before St. Peter's
immediately feels a sense of overwhelming power and grandeur. For
this is Western Christendom's largest basilica and most important
shrine. The immense proportions, wealth of artistic treasures, and
timeless quality of the superb architecture aim to inspire awe and
joy in all Christian believers. This majestic church, built over the
tomb of the Apostle chosen by Christ to be the visible head of his
Church, triumphantly proclaims the continuity and preeminence of the
Pope and the papacy.
Even the British nineteenth-century poet, Lord Byron-who was not
particularly known for his piety-was moved enough to write of St.
Peter's (in <Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV>): "Majesty,
Strength and Beauty all are aisled, in this eternal ark of worship
undefiled."
The two-millennia tradition of the Catholic Church tells us that
Peter, the first Apostle, came to Rome, capital of the Empire, to
preach the Gospel, that under Nero he suffered martyrdom in the area
known as the <ager Vaticanus,> and that later the Emperor Constantine
built over his tomb the first church in his honor, demolished in the
sixteenth century to give rise to the present basilica.
PRINCE OF THE APOSTLES
What would be the reaction of Simon, the simple fisherman from
Galilee, were he to stand under the vast dome and classical portico
of the basilica built in his name, dwarfed by a statue of himself
more than twice his lifetime size?
The New Testament tells us that Simon was a native of a small village
(Bethsaida) on the Sea of Galilee, earning his living by fishing with
his brother Andrew. From the Gospels, we can sense his amazement and
reverence, as Jesus summoned him along with Andrew, James and John -
from his humble boat on the Judaean shore, to follow Him in His
spiritual mission. His warm-hearted and impetuous nature prompted
Peter to disagree with the necessity of his beloved Master's
rejection and death. In fact, it is Peter's very human qualities, his
alternating weakness (denial of Jesus during the Passion) and
spiritual strength (recognition of Christ as the Messiah, Son of the
living God) which endear him to us, and make him the ideal leader of
the visible Church.
Upon Peter, Christ himself bestowed the Aramaic title of <Kepha>,
Peter in Greek, meaning "rock," with the words: "And on this rock I
will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven." According to
St. John, Peter received from the Lord three times the pastoral
charge to be the shepherd of his sheep.
It was in fulfillment of this mission that Peter came to Rome.
Reliable historical sources relate that he was martyred during Nero's
persecutions after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD in Nero's Circus
in the Vatican. (Declaring himself unworthy of suffering Christ's
same martyrdom, the apostle was crucified upside down.) He was
apparently buried by pious Christians in an area-already used as a
pagan and Christian necropolis- just beyond the arena.
According to tradition, Peter had a simple earthen grave. The site
was the object of special care and veneration from the beginning, and
around the saint's tomb an extensive Christian burial ground sprang
up in the second and third centuries. It seems that a small funerary
monument-consisting of walls, niches, small columns and a red wall
covered with pious graffiti-was built around Peter's grave in the
second century. The "trophy," or "glorious tomb," was described
around the year 200 by a Christian presbyter called Gaius, in reply
to a heretic's refutation of early Church teaching. Furthermore, St.
Jerome wrote that the saint's relics were "transferred" to the
catacombs outside Rome in the early fourth century, for safekeeping
during a period of persecutions, and returned in 336, when
Constantine restored peace to the city.
Excavations carried out beneath St. Peter's Basilica between
1939-1951 uncovered first a pagan, then Christian graveyard, and
finally a semi-circle of graves surrounding a central cavity-directly
below the present altar. The central grave was covered with coins and
other votives from the first and second centuries, and the wall above
was engraved with graffiti-surnames and funeral invocations to
Christ. In the grave, human bones, encrusted with Roman dirt and
possibly from the early years AD, suggested a male of 60-70 years,
broad shouldered and short of stature. No great leap of faith was
needed to convince the diggers-or those of us who visit the <scavi>
(excavations) today-that this was the burial place of Peter of
Galilee, the Prince of Apostles.
A continuous historical tradition thus establishes the link between
St. Peter and his successors, the Roman Popes, who carry out their
divinely mandated service above the very burial place of the First
Apostle. And any visitor who glimpses the red wall and remains of
"Gaius' trophy" behind a grating below the main altar, or descends to
the evocative underground <scavi>, will be profoundly touched by the
spiritual memories of this site.
A SPIRITUAL CONTINUITY
Continuity. On the eve of the third millennium, we are struck by the
Basilica's unbroken link with its spiritual past.
In 312 Constantine became Roman Emperor, legalized Christianity, and
decided to build a great church on St. Peter's burial site. First, a
marble, porphyry and bronze "memorial" was constructed around the
saint's grave. Next? Constantine's workers filled in a large area of
the Vatican necropolis. Finally, around 320-329 the Constantinian
basilica was raised, with its great nave and four aisles. "The
basilica was a source of inspiration to pilgrims for its sacred
character and its wealth of decoration, with its pavement of colored
marble slabs, stained glass windows, hanging lamps of gold and
silver, bas-reliefs and statues, oriental draperies and Flemish
tapestries" (<Libreria Editrice Vaticana>, "Introduction to St.
Peter's"). Some of these decorations and monuments can still be seen
in the Vatican grottoes, one level below the present church.
In the following centuries, three new altars were built over
Constantine's memorial to St. Peter: by Gregory the Great (590-604),
Calixtus II (1119-1124), and Clement VIII (1592-1605). In the Middle
Ages, pilgrims flocked to the basilica, sometimes seeking indulgences
by climbing the front 35 stairs on their knees. The Pope crowned
kings and emperors before St. Peter's altar, notably Charlemagne on
Christmas Eve in the year 800. The church was sacked by Goths,
Vandals and Saracens, and finally declared unfit, due to serious
decay and disintegration, and torn down in the early sixteenth
century.
The new St. Peter's, without skipping a beat, continued to be a
protagonist in every era of Church history -and a showpiece for the
artistic genius of each age. It was the great Renaissance Pope Julius
II who laid the first stone in 1506. "His" church, conceived by the
father of Renaissance architecture, Bramante, was continued by-among
other artists- the age's premier painter, Raphael. The original Greek
cross design (with nave and transept of equal length) was later
modified, but the classical harmony and humanist symmetry, so admired
in the Renaissance, are prevalent even today.
By the time the 72-year old Michelangelo had taken over construction
of St. Peter's under Paul III in 1546, Luther had launched the Reform
Movement in 1519, and in 1527 the Emperor's Protestant soldiers had
sacked Rome. Returning to the plan of a Latin Cross, with the longer
nave riveting attention on the altar and the presiding Pope, and
insisting on the concept of the dominant dome, the church of St.
Peter joined the battle ranks of the Counter Reformation.
With Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who lavishly decorated St. Peter's inside
and out under the seventeenth-century Barberini, Chigi and Pamphili
papacies, we find the Baroque in full swing. Bernini and his
contemporaries did not hesitate to appeal to all the senses in order
to attract followers from the somber and narrow paths of
Protestantism.
A mournful tomb and monument to the "last of the Stuarts" attests to
the sad exile and end of this family of eighteenth-century Pretenders
to the British throne. Lifelike portraits and funerary memorials to
twentieth-century pontiffs such as Pius XI, Pius XII and John XXIII,
remind of us the important role played by the Popes in our own era.
ST. PETER'S SQUARE
We reach St. Peter's by Mussolini's broad thoroughfare, Via della
Conciliazione. The avenue, named after the "conciliation" between
Church and State achieved in 1929, is anything but conciliatory in
its coldly pompous sweep.
To build this, <Il Duce> tore down much of the Vatican's picturesque
<Borgo>, that is the "village" of shops, inns and cottages which had
grown up around the Vatican since the Middle Ages.
The off-putting effect of this first approach is soon overcome by the
welcoming "embrace" of Bernini's graceful curved colonnade. Two arms
of classical columns (four rows on each side) enclose the spacious
piazza. In one of Bernini's architectural sketches, he portrayed God
the Father rising from the basilica dome, with his arms extended
along the parapet (where now perch 140 statues of gesticulating
saints and martyrs) of both branches of the colonnade. Bernini's
clear intent is realized almost every Sunday, when the Pope addresses
from his window in the Apostolic Palace the crowds of faithful in the
square below.
The centerpiece of the piazza, a lofty obelisk first raised in
Heliopolis by the Egyptian Pharaohs, was later dragged to Rome by the
imperial legions, and set in the middle of Nero's Circus. Constantine
topped it with a relic from the True Cross brought from the Holy Land
by his mother, St. Helena. Finally, as part of a great urban renewal
scheme, Sixtus V moved it to the square in 1586. Before this obelisk,
we are again overwhelmed by that sense of historical and spiritual
continuity. As the Vatican guidebook notes: "The very obelisk which
looks down on us today, witnessed the martyrdom of St. Peter, and in
all probability, the exodus of Moses and the Jews, as they fled
Pharaohs Egypt."
The basilica's massive classical facade is a monumental example of
human vanity. Although many Popes patronized St. Peter's
construction and decoration, it was the Counter Reformation Pope,
Paul V Borghese (1605-28), who emblazoned his name in huge letters
across the entrance architrave.
A VISIT TO ST. PETER'S
Upon entering St. Peter's, we are first struck by the "classical"
harmony of the colors, proportions and light, just as the original
Renaissance architects intended us to be. The immense structure is
yet pure and simple in design. The colors are few-marbled whites, and
gleaming gold and bronze. A central light source spreads an even
luminosity over the vast interior. Between the nave's Corinthian
columns, or under Michelangelo's dome, we sense the influence of
imperial Roman monuments, such as the Pantheon, or the Basilica of
Maxentius and Constantine.
Yet, because of the splendor of Bernini's decorations, St. Peter's is
known as a Baroque church. And perhaps no other monuments of the
period can match the lavish exuberance of Bernini's bronze (taken
from the Pantheon) Baldacchino, towering over the altar and St.
Peter's grave, and of the Papal Throne, upheld by huge saints and
angels beneath a great golden sunburst. Bernini and his
contemporaries were products of the Counter Reformation spirit. They
used all their theatrical talents to impart Catholic doctrine-and all
their sensual gifts to stir impassioned devotion.
Volumes have been written on the art and architectural treasures of
St. Peter's. Here, just a few comments. Michelangelo's most beautiful
statue, the Pieta (now behind glass to the right of the entrance),
was carved when the artist was only 24 years old, and is the only
sculpture he ever signed.
Tradition has it that the Barberini Pope Urban VIII commissioned
Bernini's Baldacchino as a thanksgiving offering for the safe
childbirth of his favorite niece. Close inspection of the plaques on
the canopy columns show the face of a women in various stages of
labor, and finally, a tiny baby's head.
Perhaps the Basilica's most moving monument is the bronze statue of
St. Peter. in the nave near the main altar. Although created by
Arnolfo di Cambio in the thirteenth century, the work breathes the
spirit of an even earlier age. Peter, seated upon a simple throne, is
solemnly imparting his blessing, and his right foot has been worn
smooth by the kisses of pilgrims down through the centuries. There is
something so appealing and so humble about this figure, that we
immediately conjure the image of Galilean fisherman buried below, in
whose honor this magnificent temple has been built and enriched
throughout two millennia of Church history.
This article was taken from the December 1994 issue of "Inside the
Vatican."
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