Simon and Saul

Today the Church celebrates one of her oldest feasts, commemorating the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul.

I prayed at the tombs of these apostles during my time in Rome in 2005.

With the body of Blessed John Paul II mere feet from me, I knelt near Peter’s tomb at the high altar of the dark and nearly empty Vatican Basilica of Saint Peter. I prayed for the soul of the late Pope, and I prayed that these two great Popes would pray for me.

Peter was crucified during the reign of the Emperor Nero at the Circus Maximus. His last wish was that if he were to be crucified, that he be crucified upside down. He thought it presumptuous to die in the same manner as his Saviour.

Be was buried in a nearby graveyard. Most of the Circus Maximus is underneath the Vatican now.

At the Basilica of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls, I knelt at Paul’s tomb. I prayed for him to give me guidance and the strength to follow where ever God would call me. I asked him to pray for my soul and the conversion of my children.

Paul was also executed during Nero’s reign. Being a Roman citizen, he was mercifully beheaded, traditionally at Aquæ Salviæ, about three miles from Rome near to where the Basilica now stands.

After the persecutions stopped, great churches were built over the tombs of the apostles, and over the centuries millions of pilgrims have prayed at these spots.

They pray for the intercession of a bluff Galilean fisherman and a balding tent maker from Tarsus, enemies who became friends and co-workers for the Truth, an unlikely pair and a reminder that God calls all of us to be saints.

Today is also the 60th anniversary of the ordination to the priesthood of the brothers Georg and Joseph Ratzinger.

Ad multos annos!

The Pope has asked for 60 hours of adoration in parishes throughout the world to mark these 60 years. I don’t know of a local parish that has heeded this call.

How about you?

Finally, today is also the day that the new metropolitan archbishops receive their pallium from the Pope. Our new Archbishop is there right now to receive his.

I find the entire process of these palliums (pallia?) fascinating. They are made of white wool supplied by two lambs presented annually as a tax by the Lateran Canons Regular to the Chapter of St. John on the feast of St. Agnes. “Agnes” of course is a cognate of agnus, Latin for “lamb”, reminding us both of the source of the wool and of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

After the lambs are shorn on Holy Tuesday, the palliums are woven by the nuns of the Benedictine convent of St. Cecilia in Trastevere and presented to the Pope. They are then placed over Peter’s tomb, becoming themselves second-class relics of the apostle and pope.

The rich symbolism of the pallium is generally something you don’t think about when you see one, but it points back to Peter and, especially, to Christ.

 

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