Pope Stephen II
(714 – 757)
Rome was facing invasion by the Kingdom of the Lombards. Pope Stephen II traveled all the way to Paris to seek assistance against the Lombard threat from Pepin the Short. Pepin had been anointed a first time in 751 in Soissons by Boniface, archbishop of Mainz, but named his price. With the Frankish nobles agreeing to campaign in Lombardy, the Pope consecrated Pepin a second time in a lavish ceremony at the Basilica of St Denis in 754, bestowing upon him the additional title of Patricius Romanorum (Latin for "Patrician of the Romans") in the first recorded crowning of a civil ruler by a Pope. Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift (called the Donation of Pepin) of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope, eventually leading to the establishment of the Papal States.
Stephen declares St. Petronilla the patroness of the Franks.
Saint Petronilla
Petronilla is traditionally identified as the daughter of Saint Peter.
She was so beautiful that Saint Peter had locked her up in a tower to keep her from eligible men; that a pagan king named Flaccus, wishing to marry her, led Petronilla to go on a hunger strike, from which she died [one story]. Her remains originally found in...
Catacombs of Domitilla
In 757 the coffin containing the mortal remains of Saint Patronilla was transferred to an old circular building (the mausoleum of Emperor Honorius dating from the end of the 4th century) near St. Peter's. This building was altered and became the Chapel of St. Petronilla.
Her chapel became the burial place for French kings. Her association with the French crown stems from the fact that Charlemagne and Carloman were considered Saint Peter's adopted sons after 800. Petronilla, as the supposed daughter of Peter, became their patroness and of the treaties concluded between the Holy See and the Frankish emperors.
Her feast falls on 31 May. Mass on this day in St. Peter's is offered for France and attended by French residents of Rome.
She is patroness of the dauphins of France because a dolphin (in French, dauphin) was reputedly found carved on her sarcophagus.
Fountain by Bernini with dolphins and a papal coat of arms.
 |
| St. Peter Preaching the Gospel in the Catacombs by Jan Styka
In a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples (Mat. 16:19), Jesus asks, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" The disciples give various answers. When he asks, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answers, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus then declares:
|
Margherita Guarducci with a photo of a niche in a grotto of St. Peter's Basilica where she found bones which are thought to be those of St. Peter
La verità della tomba di San Pietro - Intervento di Margherita Guarducci
[archeological theater...]
The Chair of St. Peter
Cathedra Petri, Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor
Reign: 25 December 1046 – 5 October 1056
First mention of Emperor's procession in St. Peter's basilica carrying a cross and the Holy Lance of St. Maurice.
Henry had a silver band bearing an inscription mention St. Maurice added, later removed.
 |
| Fresco by Fra Angelico, Dominican monastery at San Marco, Florence |
Lance of Longinus (named after Saint Longinus), the Spear of Destiny, or the Holy Spear is legendarily known as the lance that pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross.
One of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance (λόγχη), and immediately there came out blood and water.
The Lamb
Eastern Orthodox liturgy of the Lamb, with leavened bread. The Lamb is cut is a loaf of leavened bread, formed in two layers to symbolize the hypostatic union of the human and divine natures of Christ...stamped on top with a seal forming a Greek cross and the Greek letters IC, XC, and NIKA (which stand for, "Jesus" "Christ" and "Victory"), indicating that through the Cross and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has gained the victory over sin and death. The portion of the loaf demarcated by the seal will be cut out as the Lamb.
 | ||
| prosphora seal, for five small identical loaves. When the priest cuts the Lamb from the prosphoron, he uses a liturgical knife called a "spear", with a blade shaped like a spearpoint to recall the spear used at the crucifixion to pierce Jesus' side. "Sacrificed is the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sins of the world, for the life of the world, and the salvation thereof."He then stands the Lamb upright again, and pierces it with the tip of the spear on its right (the priest's left) below the seal, saying, "One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and straightway there came forth blood and water. And he that saw it bare witness, and his witness is true." (John 19:34-35) ...blood and water as emanating from the pierced heart and body cavity of Christ, also acknowledge the allegorical interpretation: it represents one of the main key teachings/mysteries of the Church, and one of the main themes of the Gospel of Matthew, which is the homoousian ("same in being") interpretation adopted by the First Council of Nicaea, that "Jesus Christ was both true God and true man." The blood symbolizes his humanity, the water his divinity.Catholic priest says Mass: The priest pours a small amount of water into the wine before the consecration, an act which acknowledges Christ's humanity and divinity.  the liturgical spear  The Holy Lance, displayed in the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria, said to have St. Maurice's name carved on it.  Liber pontificalis (Latin for 'pontifical book' or Book of the Popes) is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century...traditionally attributed to Jerome.  Frederick Barbarossa, first mention of St. Maurice's alter in the description of Frederick's coronation in 1155. Here he was invested as canon of St. Peter's.   Santa Maria in Turri was an ancient church in the city of Rome, demolished in the Renaissance. It adjoined the outside atrium of the ancient Basilica of St. Peter, one of a complex of small churches or oratories that grew up around the site... in turri ("in the tower")
...but it had special importance in the coronations of the Holy Roman Emperors. During the coronation, the king about to be crowned would greet the pope in the square standing above the steps, would go into the church, and, with his hand on the book of the Gospels, would take a personal oath of fidelity. Afterward, in the same place, the canons of St. Peter's "greeted him like a brother," which is to say, accepted him to their chapter, and dressed him in imperial vestments. After the completion of that rite, they proceeded with him to the silver door of the basilica, accompanied by the chant Petre amas me.
Alongside the church of S. Maria the emperor established the palatinus Caroli, which was an imperial residence. It was constructed in the time of Pope Leo III (795–816). The emperor lodged there and erected and operated a tribunal at the location. Otto II used it as his residence in the city, and, notably, died there.
front of the ancient Vatican Basilica shows the atrium off of which the church of S. Maria in Turri was located.
Tiberio Alfarano (Gerace, 1525 – Roma, 1596) plan of Old St. Pete's
Here, at the alter of St. Maurice in the oratory of Santa Maria in Turri, the emperor was anointed and blessed by the cardinal bishop before his coronation at the main alter of St. Peter's basilica.
In its more developed form during the High Middle Ages, before the coronation proper the Emperor and went in procession first to the Church of St. Mary in Turri, where the emperor took an oath to protect the Roman Church, "In the name of Christ, I, Frederick, the Emperor, promise, pledge and guarantee in the sight of God and the blessed Apostle Peter that I will be the protector and defender of this holy Roman Church in all ways useful to her, however many, in so far as I am supported by divine assistance according to my knowledge and ability." The imperial party then proceeded to the Basilica of St. Peter.
The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was a conflict between church and state in medieval Europeover the ability to install high church officials through investiture. By undercutting imperial power, the controversy led to nearly 50 years of civil war in Germany. It began as a power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV in 1076.
The alter of St. Maurice was demolished in the early 1500's to make way for the new basilica. A new altar of St. Maurice was erected in the New St. Peter's Basilica in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, purely as a memorial.
Once seated in this chair, a canopy of golden cloth is held over the monarch's head for the anointing. (The duty of acting as canopy-bearers was performed in recent coronations by four Knights of the Garter, in the English coronation ceremony). This element of the coronation service is considered sacred and is concealed from public gaze.
 
At right, two of the Solomonic columns brought to Rome by Constantine, in their present-day location on a pier in St. Peter's Basilica. In the foreground at left is part of Bernini's Baldacchino, inspired by the original columns.
Pope John VII
Pope John VII (650 – 707) was Bishop of Rome from 1 March 705 to his death in 707. Like his predecessor, John VI, John VII was an ethnic Greek. He is one of the popes of the Byzantine Papacy.
John VII constructed an Oratory dedicated to the Theotokos, located within the old basilica of St. Peter. Fragments of the mosaic decoration can be found in the Vatican grottoes.
Santa maria in trastevere, roma, madonna theotokos
Theotokos is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations, Dei Genetrix or Deipara (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"), are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer".
Sketch of the interior of St. Peter's during its reconstruction, showing the temporary placement of some of the papal tombs, by Giacomo Grimaldi, Vatican archivist, who lived in the early 17 the century. [Much of what we know of the purported Oratory of St. John VII, comes from the antiquarian Grimaldi]
  
(credit: Ann van Dijk)
The Solomonic white columns from the donation of Constantine.
The Donation of Constantine or Donation of Rome is a painting by assistants of the Italian renaissance artist Raphael.
The painting depicts an apocryphal historical event: Emperor Constantine kneels before Pope Sylvester I and offers the Pope and his successors control of the city of Rome and the entire Western Roman Empire. The painting (anachronistically) shows the interior of the original Saint Peter's Basilica, which was in the process of being rebuilt at the time the painting was made. In the center background of the painting is the altar with its twisted, Solomonic columns. These columns were a gift from Constantine who supposedly took them from the ruined Jewish temple.
The Donation of Constantine is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope. Composed probably in the 8th century, it was used, especially in the 13th century, in support of claims of political authority by the papacy. Lorenzo Valla, an Italian Catholic priest and Renaissance humanist, is credited with first exposing the forgery with solid philological arguments in 1439–1440
The text, purportedly a decree of Roman Emperor Constantine I dated 30 March, contains a detailed profession of Christian faith and a recounting of how the emperor, seeking a cure for his leprosy, was converted and baptized by Pope Sylvester I. In gratitude, he determined to bestow on the seat of Peter "power, and dignity of glory, and vigour, and honour imperial", and "supremacy as well over the four principal sees, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, as also over all the churches of God in the whole earth". For the upkeep of the church of Saint Peter and that of Saint Paul, he gave landed estates "in Judea, Greece, Asia, Thrace, Africa, Italy and the various islands". To Sylvester and his successors he also granted imperial insignia, the tiara, and "the city of Rome, and all the provinces, places and cities of Italy and the western regions".
Peter Paul Rubens (designer), Tapestry showing the Baptism of Constantine,
The cathedra of the Pope in the apse of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome (note the white Solomonic columns)
A former papal cathedra in the cloister of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome.
Pope Sylvester I
...liturgical feast of Saint Sylvester is on 31 December, the day of his burial in the Catacomb of Priscilla.
[First...a little history of the "basilica" ]
The Latin word basilica is derived from Greek: βασιλική στοά, Royal Stoa, the tribunal chamber of a king. Originally, the word was used to refer to an ancient Roman public building, where courts were held, as well as serving other official and public functions. It usually had the door at one end and a slightly raised platform and an apse at the other, where the magistrate or other officials were seated.
The Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in the Roman Forum
Remains of the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine at Trier. [It's simply poured concrete, a recent structure.]
Fragments of the Colossus of Constantine found at this basilica. [Hilarious!]
The west apse of the Basilica of Maxentius — the original location of the Colossus — is indicated in red.
Circus of Maxentius in ancient times
Saint Catherine of Alexandria with a breaking wheel as her attribute [Maxentius's martyr]
 
The college shield of St Catherine's College, Oxford, depicting four breaking wheels
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge by Giulio Romano
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge took place between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius on 28 October 312. It takes its name from the Milvian Bridge, an important route over the Tiber. Constantine won the battle and started on the path that led him to end the Tetrarchy and become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Maxentius drowned in the Tiber during the battle; his body was later taken from the river and decapitated, and his head was paraded through the streets of Rome on the day following the battle.
According to chroniclers such as Eusebius of Caesarea and Lactantius, the battle marked the beginning of Constantine's conversion to Christianity.
Eusebius of Caesarea recounts that Constantine and his soldiers had a vision sent by the Christian God. This was interpreted as a promise of victory if the sign of the Chi-Rho, the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek, was painted on the soldiers' shields.
Labarum of Constantine I, displaying the "Chi-Rho" symbol above.
The labarum (Greek: λάβαρον) was a vexillum (military standard) that displayed the "Chi-Rho" symbol ☧, a christogram formed from the first two Greek letters of the word "Christ" (Greek: ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, or Χριστός) — Chi (χ) and Rho (ρ)...the crossbar of a cross was ideally suited to symbolize the crucifixion of Christ.
[Looks quite similar, no?]
Lactantius states that, in the night before the battle, Constantine was commanded in a dream to "delineate the heavenly sign on the shields of his soldiers". Obeying this command, "he marked on their shields the letter X, with a perpendicular line drawn through it and turned round thus at the top, being the cipher of Christ".
A coin of Constantine (c. AD 337) showing a depiction of his labarum spearing a serpent.
Constantine with his army was marching somewhere (Eusebius) when he looked up to the sun and saw a cross of light above it, and with it the Greek words Ἐν Τούτῳ Νίκα. The traditionally employed Latin translation of the Greek is in hoc signo vinces— literally "In this sign, you will conquer."
Arch of Constantine
Coin of Emperor Constantine I depicting Sol Invictus with the legend SOLIS INVICTO COMITI, c. 315
Mosaic in the Beth Alpha synagogue, with the Sun in the centre, with quadriga.
 
A sun dog or parhelion
Also visible are parts of the 22° halo (the arcs passing through each sundog), a sun pillar (the vertical line) and the parhelic circle (the horizontal line).
A 22° halo is an optical phenomenon that belongs to the family of ice crystal halos, in the form of a ring with a radius of approximately 22° around the Sun or Moon. Light is refracted in millions of hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere.
The halo is large; the radius is roughly the size of an outstretched hand at arm's length...(Latin radius, meaning ray but also the spoke of a chariot wheel.)
A parhelic circle is a halo, an optical phenomenon appearing as a horizontal white line on the same altitude as the sun, or occasionally the Moon. If complete, it stretches all around the sky, but more commonly it only appears in sections.
Pathway of light through a hexagonal prism in the optimal angle resulting in minimum deviation.
As light passes through the 60° apex angle of the hexagonal ice prisms it is deflected twice resulting in deviation angles ranging from 22° to 50°. The angle of minimum deviation is almost 22°
Christ Helios, Ceiling Mosaic from the Tomb of Julli, necropolis
(Mausoleum "M") survives in the Vatican Necropolis beneath St. Peter's Basilica. The serendipitous discovery near the crypt has a vaulted ceiling bearing a mosaic depicting Helios(Roman Sol Invictus) with an aureole riding in his chariot, within a framing of rinceaux of vine leaves, which are not given their usual pagan Dionysiac reading in this context but are related to the True Vine imagery of Gospel of John 15.1. The mosaic is dated to the late 3rd century to early 4th century. Other mosaics in this tomb depicting Jonah and the whale, the good shepherd carrying a lamb (the kriophoros motif), and fishermen have encouraged its interpretation as a Christian tomb.
This tomb was first discovered in 1574 AD when workmen accidentally broke through the ceiling while conducting some floor alterations in the basilica. The inside was briefly explored and documented before the opening was sealed over once more. [yeah, right...]
According to historians about Christmas, it was set to 25 December because it was the date of the festival of Sol Invictus.
"Constantine’s victory gave him total control of the Western Roman Empire paving the way for Christianity to become the dominant religion for the Roman Empire and ultimately for Europe."
One of the two right hands of the Colossus of Constantine
Parts of a basilica.
 
Old St. Peter's
In the 4th century, once the Imperial authorities had decriminalised Christianity with the 313 Edict of Milan, and with the activities of Constantine the Great and his mother Helena, Christians were prepared to build larger and more handsome edifices for worship than the furtive meeting-places.
Peter Preaching in the Catacombs, by Jan Styka
Architectural formulas for temples were unsuitable due to their pagan associations, and because pagan cult ceremonies and sacrifices occurred outdoors under the open sky in the sight of the gods, with the temple, housing the cult figures and the treasury, as a backdrop. The usable model at hand, when Constantine wanted to memorialise his imperial piety, was the familiar conventional architecture of the basilicas.
The first basilicas with transepts were built under the orders of Emperor Constantine, both in Rome and in his "New Rome", Constantinople:
Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople [in center, Hippodrome to the right]
the Constantinian Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople was the first to point to its resemblance of a cross. Because the cult of the cross was spreading at about the same time.
Reconstructed image Church of the Holy Apostles - Istanbul, Turkey ...
Hippodrome of Constantinople [columns and obelisks]
The first great Imperially sponsored Christian basilica is that of St John Lateran, which was given to the Bishop of Rome by Constantine right before or around the Edict of Milan in 313. Lateranus family of the Roman Empire. The Laterani lost their properties to Emperor Constantine who gave them to the Roman Catholic Church in 311.
Façade of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
...is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Rome in the city of Rome and serves as the seat of the Roman Pontiff. The Lateran Palace fell into the hands of the Emperor when Constantine I married his second wife Fausta, sister of Maxentius. Known by that time as the "Domus Faustae" or "House of Fausta," the Lateran Palace was eventually given to the Bishop of Rome by Constantine I. Pope Sylvester I presided over the official dedication of the archbasilica and the adjacent Lateran Palace in 324, changing the name from "Domus Fausta" to "Domus Dei" ("House of God") with a dedication to Christ the Savior ("Christo Salvatori").
Papal basilicas
The four major basilicas, together with the Minor Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls, all of which are in Rome, were formerly known as "patriarchal basilicas", along with a few other churches outside of Rome. Upon relinquishing the title of "Patriarch of the West" in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI officially renamed the "patriarchal basilicas" as "Papal basilicas". The five, formerly styled "patriarchal basilicas" of Rome, were previously assigned to and associated with the five ancient patriarchates of the Latin Church, or the Pentarchy:
As indicated, the title of "patriarchal basilica", now replaced with "Papal basilica", was also officially given to two churches associated with St. Francis of Assisi and situated in or near his home town of Assisi, Italy:
Thus there are four papal major basilicas and three papal minor basilicas.
the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome
Saint Paul Outside the Walls
Apse mosaic in St. Paul's
Façade of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
The Blessed Virgin Mary overlooking Pope Liberius as the Pontiff scrapes the foundation of the basilica into the snow. By Italian artist Masolino da Panicale. circa 15th-century.
Dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Nives (Dedication of Saint Mary of the Snows). This name for the basilica had become popular in the 14th century."During the pontificate of Liberius, the Roman patrician John and his wife, who were without heirs, made a vow to donate their possessions to the Virgin Mary. They prayed that she might make known to them how they were to dispose of their property in her honour. On 5 August, at the height of the Roman summer, snow fell during the night on the summit of the Esquiline Hill. In obedience to a vision of the Virgin Mary which they had the same night, the couple built a basilica in honour of Mary on the very spot which was covered with snow."
Pope Liberius
The earliest building on the site was the Liberian Basilica or Santa Maria Liberiana, after Pope Liberius (352–366).
A map of Emperor Justinian's Pentarchy.
The Christian church is governed by the heads (patriarchs) of the five major episcopal sees of the Roman Empire: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
Reliquary of the Holy Crib, Mary Major.
The Latin Patriarch of Antioch was a religious office of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church created in 1098 by Bohemond, founder of the Principality of Antioch, one of the crusader states. When the Great Schism took place in 1054, the four Greek Patriarchs of Antioch, Jerusalem, Constantinople and Alexandria "formed" the Eastern Orthodox Church, while the Pope of Rome "formed" the Roman Catholic Church.
In Judaism and Christianity, the concept of the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year(Hebrew: יובל yūḇāl) is mentioned to occur every fiftieth year, during which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.
Leviticus 25:10 reads, "Thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee."
The same concept forms the fundamental idea of the Christian Jubilee. The number 50 was specially associated in the early 13th century with the idea of remission. The translation of the body of Thomas Becket took place in the year 1220, 50 years after his martyrdom. The sermon on that occasion was preached by Cardinal Stephen Lantron, who told his hearers that this coincidence was meant by Providence to recall "the mystical virtue of the number fifty, which, as every reader of the sacred page is aware, is the number of remission."
In Western Christianity, the tradition dates to 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII convoked a holy year...he instituted the Holy Year and set the conditions for its indulgences... "great remissions and indulgences for sins" which were to be obtained "by visiting the city of Rome and the venerable basilica of the Prince of the Apostles".
These four major basilicas are distinguished by their having a holy door and for being prescribed destinations for visits as one of the conditions for gaining the Roman Jubilee. Only the Pope and his delegates may celebrate Mass at the high altar.
the northernmost entrance of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It is cemented shut and only opened for Jubilee Years.
...the ritual passing over the threshold of the holy door to symbolise the passing into the presence of God. At the same time, remission of the temporal punishment for the pilgrims' sins is granted, known as an indulgence.
The Solomonic column, is a helical column, characterized by a spiraling twisting shaft like a corkscrew.
...an eastern motif taken into Byzantine architecture.
In the 4th century, Constantine the Great brought a set of columns to Rome and gave them to the original St. Peter's Basilica for reuse in the high altar and presbytery; The Donation of Constantine, a painting from Raphael's workshop, shows these columns in their original location. According to tradition, these columns came from the "Temple of Solomon". These columns, now considered to have been made in the 2nd century CE, became known as "Solomonic".
Probably, the most ancient example of such a column is the Serpent Column, from Delphi, Greece, (478 BC), relocated to Constantinople by Constantine the Great in 324 .
The Serpent Column (Τrikarenos Οphis "Three-headed Serpent") also known as the Serpentine Column, Plataean Tripod or Delphi Tripod, is an ancient bronze column at the Hippodrome of Constantinople
Hippodrome
It is part of an ancient Greek sacrificial tripod, originally in Delphi and relocated to Constantinople by Constantine the Great in 324. It was built to commemorate the Greeks who fought and defeated the Persian Empire at the Battle of Plataea (479 BC).
The serpent heads of the 8-metre (26 ft) high column remained intact until the end of the 17th century.
After the Battle of Plataea, the last battle of the Greco-Persian Wars, the Greeks erected a bronze column of three intertwined snakes,[1] whose bodies formed the column, to commemorate the 31 Greek city-states that participated in the battle. According to Herodotus, the bronze column was built using the bronze from the melted-down Persian weapons. A golden tripod topped the column, made by Persian weapons, and the whole monument was dedicated to the god Apollo and was placed next to the altar of Apollo at Delphi.
Depiction of the Hippodrome in 1536
"The Circus or Hippodrome was a stately building about 400 paces in length and 100 in breadth. The space between the two metae or goals was filled with statues and obelisks; and we may still remark a very singular fragment of antiquity, the bodies of three serpents twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple heads had once supported the golden tripod which, after the defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, by the victorious Greeks." -- History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1789), Edward Gibbon
The twisted column is known to be an eastern motif taken into Byzantine architecture and decoration. Twist-fluted columns were a feature of some eastern architecture of Late Antiquity.
In the 4th century, Constantine the Great brought a set of columns to Rome and gave them to the original St. Peter's Basilica.
Some of these columns remained on the altar until the old structure of St. Peter's was torn down in the 16th century. While removed from the altar, eight of these columns remain part of the structure of St. Peter's. Two columns were placed below the pendentives on each of the four piers beneath the dome. Another column can now be observed up close in the St. Peter's Treasury Museum. Other columns from this set of twelve have been lost over the course of time.
If these columns really were from one of the Temples in Jerusalem, the spiral pattern may have represented the oak tree which was the first Ark of the Covenant, mentioned in Joshua 24:26. These columns have sections of twist-fluting alternating with wide bands of foliated reliefs.
 
Baldacchino and Choir of St. Peter's Basilica
The best-known Solomonic columns are the colossal bronze Composite columns by Bernini in his Baldacchino at St. Peter's Basilica. The construction of the baldachin, actually a ciborium required that the original ones of Constantine be moved.
Raphael and workshop, "Healing of the Lame Man," one of the Raphael Cartoons for a tapestry of Peter healing the lame man (Acts 3). The Solomonic columns in St Peter's Basilica used as models for the columns of the Jewish Temple
|
Pompey in the Temple of Jerusalem by Jean Fouquet, 1470–1475
Pope benedict XVI sits between two Solomonic Columns at Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome.
According to legend, spiral columns ornamented the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. However, if Solomon's Temple existed, it was destroyed more than 500 years BC. In 333 AD, Constantine, the first Christian emperor, used spiral columns in a basilica dedicated to St. Peter.
Giulio Romano (1499?–1546), c. 1520–25. The Circumcision of Christ. Paris, Musée du Louvre
‘Desiderio Monsú’, King David in the Temple
Michelangelo (Buonarroti) - Fall of Man and expulsion from the paradise.
Anonymous, 4th century, Early Christian medal of Gaudentianus, with martyrium.
(the martyrdom of St Lawrence is shown on
the obverse)
Comments
Post a Comment