If Those Stones Could Speak

Yesterday was the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. Pope Sylvester dedicated the Lateran on November 9, 324 AD. The emperor Constantine had given the Lateran palace to the church in Rome around 311. Why is this such a special church? Isn't Rome full of churches? Why does this one have a feast day?

St. John Lateran is the oldest and most important of the patriarchal basilicas in Rome, and is actually the seat of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope). In fact, the popes lived here until they went to Avignon, France, roughly a thousand year stretch. The Lateran is the mother church building for the entire world, It is the cathedral church of Rome in the same way that Holy Name is the cathedral church of Chicago.

The Vandals stripped the basilica of its riches in 455, but Pope Leo I restored it in 460. In 896 it was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake. After it was replaced, it survived around 400 years before fire destroyed the building. Clement V and John XXII rebuilt it, but fire destroyed it again in 1360. Urban V rebuilt it during his pontificate. In the latter part of the 17th century, a renovation provided the basilica with more or less its current form.

What a lot of activity in one location! What could those stones tell us if they could speak? What a sweep of Western history just this one building represents. I always imagine the generations of people who have worshiped on this site. After all, over 1700 years have passed since Constantine gave his gift. Most of those who worshiped here through the centuries were ordinary citizens of Rome. This was their parish church in just the same way that Holy Name is the parish church of a particular part of Chicago. Just as Chicago's Cardinal Archbishop celebrates Mass at Holy Name for visitors and parishioners alike, so did the Bishops of Rome (the popes) celebrate Mass at the Lateran for their flock. The stones of the Lateran witnessed terror and vandalism (!) and catastrophic destruction and natural disaster and abandonment and ruin. My goodness. Yet every time, someone rebuilt or restored the basilica.

Whenever I visit a place like the Lateran, the pageant of history sweeps me up. Those stones really do speak!