St. Peter's Basilica: A Look at the Grandest Church in the World

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• published: 29 Nov 2010
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I did just about everything there is to do at St. Peter's Basilica, and it was fabulous. I explored the church itself, which is jaw-dropping. I climbed to the top of Michelangelo's dome and looked out over the city of Rome. I visited the Grottoes underneath the church, where all the popes are buried. I even went down into the excavated levels below the Grottoes, courtesy of the Vatican's own "Scavi Tour". There I walked on the original slope of Vatican Hill, from around the time of Christ (1st century). I saw ancient tombs, of both pagan and Christian origin, complete with mosaics, frescoes on the walls, and stone "caskets" with elaborate reliefs. I also saw underground remnants of "old" St. Peter's, the first church that stood in this place for about 1,200 years. I wish they had allowed photography down there. In a few other places I took videos even where they weren't allowed, but it felt too "wrong" here, and I'm not even Catholic! It has always been said that St. Peter's Basilica was built over Peter's ("the rock" on which Christ's church would sit) final resting place. 2,000 years ago, when Emperor Nero's circus (chariot racetrack)cut through the very area of today's church, they killed Christians in this place. Peter was crucified upside-down in about 65 A.D., and buried in a cemetary near the racetrack. Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 A.D. and built the first iteration of St. Peter's Basilica directly over the place where Peter was buried. Then, in 1506 A.D., the aging church was thought to be out of date, so construction began on the "new" St. Peter's Basilica, completed in 1626. In 1941, Pope Pius XII began excavations under St. Peter's Basilica. Originally, the intention was merely to lower the floor of the Vatican Grottoes, but an ancient mausoleum was discovered in the process. After that, there was probably a lot of excitement at the Vatican. Could they actually prove the foundation of their religion to be true? Could they make fact out of nearly 2,000 year old stories? Well, in addition to finding plenty of beautiful, fantastic mausoleums, they did find the bones of a first century man wrapped in purple and gold cloth, lying directly under Michelangelo's dome. The remains were found behind a wall with a Greek inscription that read: "Peter is within". Of course, even the Vatican won't say the man is definitely Peter, only that they believe him to be Peter. After all, about 250 years passed between Peter's death (65 A.D.) and Constantine's first basilica over his resting place (313 A.D.). The bones could have been moved in the intervening years, for example. All I know for sure is that I saw the bone fragments of the man believed to be St. Peter, and several Catholics in my tour group were moved to tears. An American Catholic priest on our tour said a prayer there, and it was quite special to see. What we do know to be absolute fact is that these amazing mausoleums under St. Peter's Basilica are the real deal. They have existed many centuries, some from the 3rd century, others as far back as the 1st century. And each of these rooms tell a story. One of the caskets held a little girl, and her parents had themselves sculpted into the stone, mourning for her. You can also see the difference in the mausoleums between the families with a lot of wealth, and those who had less financial means. It was incredible.