DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71133#0025
PILGRIM-WALKS IN ROME.
CHAPTER I.
To St. Peter’s on the Vatican.
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 Paztlo.
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.
CHAPTER I.
To St. Peter’s on the Vatican.
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 Paztlo.
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.