We’re celebrating the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica today. The Lateran Basilica was the parish church of Rome and the actual residence of the popes for many centuries. A magnificent baptistery was an essential part of Constantine’s church, dedicated in 325.  As the reading from Ezekiel for the feast of its dedication indicates the church was a place of baptism for Rome’s Christians. Waters from this church – and all other churches, in fact–  bless the world. 

The Lateran Basilica has been an important destination for pilgrims to the Holy City since the 4th century.  It was on the route early pilgrims took to pray at the shrines of martyrs buried on Rome’s outskirts, beginning with the place where Peter was buried, the Vatican Basilica. The pilgrim route ended in the church where the Apostle Paul was honored on the other side of Rome. 

Pilgrimage to Rome’s shrines began shortly after Constantine brought freedom to the Christian church in 315. We know some of them. The popular shrine church of St. Lawerence, north of the Lateran Basilica, was part of the pilgrim route.  Nearby Helena, the mother of Constantine, enshrined relics of the Cross from the hill of Calvary in the great hall of her residence. 

Pilgrims came to Rome in great numbers to celebrate their faith and visit the Roman martyrs’ shrines. In the late 4th century, Pope Damasus placed about 40 inscriptions in Rome’s shrines, guiding pilgrims on their journey. St. Jerome was among the early pilgrims. He found faith and was drawn to being baptized on his journey.

Early sources say that Constantine built a palace for the pope and a royal staircase leading to the papal quarters and his personal chapel at the Lateran site. The chapel was known as the Sancta Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies. An earthquake in the 1277 leveled the palace and chapel with its many relics.

 The chapel was rebuilt in magnificent style by Pope Nicholas III in the 13th century. Pope Sixtus V demolished most of the papal buildings in the 16th century but left the chapel alone in a free standing building, reached by a staircase of 28 steps. He claimed the stairs were from Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem on which Jesus walked to be judged. Historians and archeologists today say the stairs may be the stairs from the pope’s residence built by Constantine.

The site, known today as the Scala Sancta, the Holy Stairs, was restored in 2019. It is a UNESCO site. Pilgrims traditionally ascend the stairs on their knees.  Pope Pius IX entrusted the shrine to the Passionists in 1853. 

Two friends of mine ascended the stairs recently. Here they are.