Happy Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, everyone!
As I write this, I am reminded of a pilgrimage to Europe I was gifted with a few years ago (gifted because, as a parish worker, I was underpaid, overworked, and poor, as all parish workers are who are not independently wealthy or married to someone who is).
During the trip I had been reading the book of Romans. As it happened, the pilgrimage ended in Rome just as I as nearing the end of the book. I will never forget the feeling, on the afternoon we visited the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, as I stood next to his tomb in the basilica, knowing that his very bones lay so close to me, while his words, written to the very Rome in which I stood, were so fresh in my mind.
The next morning we visited the Basilica of St. Peter, in the Vatican, where our group, with our priest, had our own private mass in one of the side chapels. I will never forget the feeling of having mass so close to the tomb of St. Peter, being so close to his bones.
Tradition has it that when Peter was condemned to death by crucifixion, he expressed a desire to be crucified upside down, for he felt he was not worthy to be crucified right side up, as Christ was. The tradition was long discounted as mere legend, until recently when, during renovations to the levels beneath the main level of the basilica, a tomb was discovered bearing the symbols of Peter. Inside? The skeleton of a tall, broad-shouldered man, as Peter was reputed to be, with marks in the bones indicating that he had been crucified upside down.
It is traditional that churches are built over the tombs of martyrs, and the altar is placed directly above the tomb. When the current basilica of St. Peter was built, they did not know the exact location of the tomb, as it had been buried and lost to memory. So they approximated. When the tomb was rediscovered, they found they were just a few feet off - and so they moved the altar.
Traditionally, the altar is also placed directly under the center of the dome. If you go to St. Peter's Basilica, look up, and you will realize that the altar is slightly off-center. This is because the reverence due to the bones of a martyr, especially those of Peter, is more important than any architectural detail.
One other very moving experience: visiting one of the catacombs in which Christians hid during the centuries of Roman persecution. This particular catacomb was a honeycomb of twisting layers that, if laid straight, would stretch for ten miles. We walked through several hundred feet of the dark, musty, red dirt tunnels, the walls filled with niches for bodies. Some of the niches had ancient frescoes painted above them of Christian images. One was an image of the Last Supper. I imagined crowds of Christians huddling along the walls by candlelight, hiding for their very lives. I ran my fingers across the soft dirt in the niches, and imaged I was running them through the dust of martyrs.
There, too, underground, was a small chapel, in which mass is still said today. It was from such a chapel that, in the third century, a 12-year old boy named Tarcisius was sent out, hiding the Holy Eucharist under his cloak, to carry it to prisons for Christians condemned to die. He was stopped in the street by non-Christian boys who knew he was a Christian, and was beaten to death rather than reveal what was under his cloak.
The ground of Rome is soaked with the blood of martyrs, who fertilized the growth of the Church. Peter and Paul were both martyred there, and are buried there. Because of their fidelity, we have faith today.
Happy Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul! Thank you, Peter and Paul!
