The Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul

Panini stands us at the door of Saint Peter's and lets the nave run away beneath its gilded vault to the bronze canopy over the altar, and on the floor, very small, the people of Rome walk and kneel: clergy in black, ladies in pink and green, pilgrims on their knees at the right. The apostle is under that altar. Saint Peter, the Catholic Encyclopedia says, was executed on the Vatican and received his burial there; a Roman named Gaius, writing in the time of Pope Zephyrinus (198–217), put it so: “If you care to go to the Vatican or to the road to Ostia, thou shalt find the trophies of those who have founded this Church.” Over those two graves Constantine built two basilicas in the time of Pope Sylvester. Saint Paul's on the Ostian Way was enlarged between 384 and 395 under the emperors Theodosius, Valentinian II and Arcadius, and burned on the night of 15 July 1823; it was rebuilt as it had been, and Piranesi's etching shows the nave before the fire. The new Saint Peter's, begun by Julius II in 1506, was consecrated by Urban VIII on 18 November 1626, the day of this feast. The two churches are the goal of every pilgrimage to the threshold of the apostles, and both doors stand open to us.

Johann Peter Kirsch, “St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11 (1911): newadvent.org

Holy See Press Office, “Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls: History”: press.vatican.va; Hannah Brockhaus, “St. Peter's Basilica at 400”, National Catholic Register (19 April 2026), for the consecration of 1626