2023-11-09 13:59:56
Celebrating the dedication of the mother church of all churches is an invitation to Christians of the universal Church to live the unity of faith and love, to be living stones in the construction of the celestial Jerusalem
Lateran Basilica, Basilica of the Savior, Basilica of Saint John Lateran…, Cathedral of Rome, »mother of all the churches of the City and the World»…, are the most significant names of the most venerable church of Christianity, initially dedicated to Jesus Christ the Savior and later to Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist. Consecrated in the year 324, since the 12th century the entire Church, united with the Pope, has celebrated the dedication of the Church’s first cathedral on November 9.
From the historic Edict of Milan of the year 313 – a rescript granted by the emperors Constantine and Licinius, in favor of religious freedom and the presence of Christianity in public life – with the Constantinian peace an era of prosperity began for the Church. following the terrible persecutions that had preceded.
One of the favors that the Church received from Emperor Constantine, son of Saint Helena, was the donation of the Lateran Palace, which became the apostolic see. […] Through the centuries, the Christian life of the City—and the World—has been linked to the Lateran Basilica, initially dedicated to the Savior of the world, and, in the time of Saint Gregory the Great (540-604), to the saints Johns of the Gospel: John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. Hence the popular name »Saint John Lateran». The Chair of Peter in Rome was initially located in the Lateran. Five ecumenical councils were held in the Lateran: the first to be held in the West, in the years 1123, 1139, 1179, 1215 and 1512. In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the first Holy Year of Christianity in the Lateran. In the Lateran Innocent III received the great founders Francis of Assisi and Domingo de Guzmán and approved the orders of the Minors and the Preachers, which according to the pope’s dreams, would be the spiritual forces that would strengthen the weakened situation of the Lateran basilica, a symbol of the church. The undisputed preeminence of the Lateran in ecclesial life lasted until the French Pope Clement V moved the papal see to Avignon in 1309. The popes would remain there until 1378, when Gregory XI, following the advice of Saint Catherine of Siena, returned to Rome. . Echoing the sentiments of the Christians of Rome—and the world—Petrarch wrote to Pope Clement VI in 1350: Merciful Father, with what tranquility can you sleep softly on the banks of the Rhône, under the coffered ceiling of your golden rooms, while Lateran is crumbling, and the mother of all churches, lacking a roof, is at the mercy of rains and gales?
Visitors and pilgrims arriving at the Lateran can read on the frontispiece of the great basilica: By papal and imperial right, I was ordained to be the mother of all churches. When my construction was completed, they determined to dedicate me to the Divine Savior, giver of the heavenly kingdom. For our part, O Christ, we turn to you with humble supplication to ask you to make this illustrious temple your glorious residence.
As important as the art and history treasures of the Lateran Basilica are, the celebration of its dedication is not intended to be enthralled by the temple of stone and gold. Celebrating the dedication of the mother church of all churches is an invitation to Christians of the universal Church to live the unity of faith and love, to be living stones in the construction of the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church without spot or wrinkle, whose temple, altar and victim is Jesus Christ, the immaculate Lamb.
Jose A. Martinez Puche, OP
Text taken from: Martínez Puche, José A. (director),
New Christian Year Collection from EDIBESA.
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