DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71133#0096
CHAPTER III.
To St. John Lateran and the Holy Places on the
Ccelian.
40.—ST. JOHN LATERAN, THE MOTHER AND HEAD OF
ALL CHURCHES.1
On reaching the Eternal City the visitor first directs his steps
to St. Peter’s, and feels that he has at length reached the goal
of his pilgrimage when kneeling before the Apostle’s tomb
beneath Michael Angelo’s wonderful dome. On leaving the
basilica he is surprised to learn that St. Peter’s, with all its
stateliness, is not the most important of the churches in Rome,
that St. John Lateran, the Pope’s Cathedral, ranks first in
dignity among all the churches of the Eternal City and of the
world. Its chapter takes precedence over that of St. Peter’s,
and every Pope, when elected, comes here to be crowned and
to be solemnly enthroned as the successor of St. Peter.2 The
inscription on the faqade proclaims it to be, “ The Mother and
Head of all the churches in the city and in the world.” In one
of the corridors leading to the sacristy is a marble tablet with
the Bull of Pope Gregory XI inscribed on it, recording the
foundation of the basilica by Constantine, and describing it as
the first and chief of all the churches in Urbe et Orbe.
Popes Paschal II, Callixtus II, Honorius II, Innocent II,
and others, speak of it in their Bulls as the “ Mother, Head
and Queen of all the churches.”
The Lateran is the Cathedral of the Pope, as Bishop of
Rome. Here, till September, 1870, he officiated on the first
Sunday in Lent, on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Holy
Saturday, Easter Monday, Whit Sunday, the feasts of St.John
Baptist, the Exaltation of the Cross, the dedication of the
basilica and the anniversary of his election.
1 An electric car runs from the Piazza di Venezia to the Lateran
about every ten minutes.
2 This has been impossible since the Italian occupation of Rome in
1870.
To St. John Lateran and the Holy Places on the
Ccelian.
40.—ST. JOHN LATERAN, THE MOTHER AND HEAD OF
ALL CHURCHES.1
On reaching the Eternal City the visitor first directs his steps
to St. Peter’s, and feels that he has at length reached the goal
of his pilgrimage when kneeling before the Apostle’s tomb
beneath Michael Angelo’s wonderful dome. On leaving the
basilica he is surprised to learn that St. Peter’s, with all its
stateliness, is not the most important of the churches in Rome,
that St. John Lateran, the Pope’s Cathedral, ranks first in
dignity among all the churches of the Eternal City and of the
world. Its chapter takes precedence over that of St. Peter’s,
and every Pope, when elected, comes here to be crowned and
to be solemnly enthroned as the successor of St. Peter.2 The
inscription on the faqade proclaims it to be, “ The Mother and
Head of all the churches in the city and in the world.” In one
of the corridors leading to the sacristy is a marble tablet with
the Bull of Pope Gregory XI inscribed on it, recording the
foundation of the basilica by Constantine, and describing it as
the first and chief of all the churches in Urbe et Orbe.
Popes Paschal II, Callixtus II, Honorius II, Innocent II,
and others, speak of it in their Bulls as the “ Mother, Head
and Queen of all the churches.”
The Lateran is the Cathedral of the Pope, as Bishop of
Rome. Here, till September, 1870, he officiated on the first
Sunday in Lent, on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Holy
Saturday, Easter Monday, Whit Sunday, the feasts of St.John
Baptist, the Exaltation of the Cross, the dedication of the
basilica and the anniversary of his election.
1 An electric car runs from the Piazza di Venezia to the Lateran
about every ten minutes.
2 This has been impossible since the Italian occupation of Rome in
1870.