Day 29 - Wednesday, 4th week of Lent - St Paul Outside the Walls

Here we can enter into the life of St Paul in a very special way.  I have been to this basilica twice.  It has not been an easy church for me to fall in love with.  But then St Paul has always seemed a little "prickly" to me as well.  Not all saints appeal to us in the same way.  Some seem to especially reach out to us, personally.  Others are more reserved.  Don't ever give up on the saints, however; some of those who seem rather distant, eventually come to be our most treasured friends. It is often more about our own state of mind and soul, than it is about the saint!  For me, having been raised in a Protestant environment, our Blessed Mother was a difficult Holy One to get to know.  Yet, how patient she is — after all, she has all the time in the world!  I have come to treasure and bless the gift of the Rosary, because it is through these prayers, that she has most often taken me by the hand and taught me things I had missed or misunderstood.

Statue of St Paul in front of the Facade of St Paul Outside the Walls

As it stands today, this church of St Paul Outside the Walls is the closest approximation to a Constantinian basilica to be found in Rome.  Yet it is less than 2 centuries old.  And why is that, you ask?  Well, my dear pilgrims, because tragedy struck in 1823, when a workman repairing the roof caught the roof on fire, and the former church burned to the ground.  It was a great loss, because for 1435 years, alone of all the churches of Rome, great care had been taken to preserve its ancient primitive character. The 19th century was a time of great difficulty for the Church, impoverished by the demands of secular government and revolutionary politics.  No longer in possession of the Papal States and other assets, which were being chipped away in the unification of Italy, there were simply no financial resources to rebuild the great basilica.  Pope Gregory XVI sent out a distressed appeal for help with reconstruction, and the whole world responded.  Egypt sent alabaster columns and windows, malachite altars came from Russia.  The world opened its coffers to restore the great loss.  The result is a lavish but tasteful display of the finest of craftsmanship and materials, carefully reconstructing the ambience of ancient Christian Rome.  

Statue of St Paul in front of San Paolo fuori le Mura

Above: Detail of the Timpano mosaics

Colonnade in front of St Paul Outside the Walls

Arches of the Colonnade of St Paul Outside the Walls

Above : Entrance

The Holy Door - opened only in Jubilee Years

Alabaster Window from Egypt

Typical of a Constantinian basilica, the interior is vast, like the open spaciousness of other paleo-Christian basilicas.  There is an almost overwhelming sense of transcendence, other-worldliness.  One wanders in awe among the great pillars and columns, the exquisite mosaics, the richly crafted altars and tombs,  and the massive statuary.  It is difficult to wrap one's mind around the sheer immensity of the structure.  In the 5th century, this church was even larger than Old St Peter's in the Vatican.  

Interior - San Paolo Fuori le Mura

Let me tell you, pilgrims, this place is a bit deceptive.  Just to give you a perspective on size . . . . .  the second visit I made here, they were picking up chairs after an event — IN A TRUCK that they had driven right inside the basilica ! ! !   Also, I'm not sure we could find the high altar from the back of the nave, if there were not an apse pointing the way. Even the ciborium or baldacchino hardly helps us locate the altar from far away.  In other words, this place is MASSIVE ! ! !  Check out the statues at the base of the triumphal arch.  The heads of those tiny little insignificant looking personages rise around 30 feet above us when we stand at the base.. 

Statue of St Peter

Statue of St Paul

Triumphal Arch

All that remains of the ancient basilica are the interior portion of the apse and the triumphal arch. The mosaics of the apse were, for the most part, lost in the 1823 fire; only a few traces could be used in the reconstruction. However, the 5th-century mosaics of the triumphal arch are original: crafted at the time of Leo I. The bust of Christ in the middle is flanked by 24 doctors of the church, and the flying symbols of the four Evangelists. St. Peter and St. Paul are at the right and left of the arch.

View from the transept

Even now, much closer, the ciborium and altar still look relatively small, dwarfed by the triumphal arch and the apse mosaic.

Take a look at this HUGE Paschal candlestick ! ! ! ! !  It stands 18 feet high!

Triumphal Arch and Apse

Ciborium of St Paul Outside the Walls by Arnolfo di Cambio

Rear View of Ciborium and altar with Nave behind

Above: Apse

Apse mosaic of St Paul Outside the Walls 

Christ is flanked by the apostles Peter, Paul, and Andrew, as well as Luke, the evangelist

Detail of Pope Honorius III who ordered the mosaic

Don't you just LOVE this tiny little Pope almost in a fetal position at the feet of his Lord ? ! ? ! ? !

Portraits of all the Popes ring the basilica - there are not too many spaces left.  What then?

Above:  See the succession of portraits of all the Popes that ring the nave just above the columns?

The view of the Triumphal Arch below is taken from the Transept:

Ceiling detail

Around AD 67, according to tradition, Paul was martyred by beheading on the road to Ostia, the ancient port of Rome.  Here on the Ostiense Way, his body was buried about 2 miles from the site of his martyrdom, in an area reserved for internment since Rome did not allow burial within the city walls.  The cemetery was owned by a Christian woman named Lucina, and she had a tropaeum erected at the site of Paul's tomb.  It soon became a place of pilgrimage.

In the 4th century, Constantine erected a basilica on the tropaeum's site, and Theodosius I extended the basilica in 386, into what is now known as Saint Paul Outside the Walls. At that time, Paul's remains, excluding the head, were moved into a sarcophagus. (According to tradition the head is preserved at the Lateran.) Paul's tomb is below a marble tombstone in the Basilica's crypt, 4.5 ft below the altar. The Latin inscription PAULO APOSTOLO MART ("to Paul the apostle and martyr") marks the site.  The sarcophagus is below the tombstone.

The Chains of St Paul in front of  the high altar

The Confessio with St Paul's tomb

Looking back down the nave at the back of the church.  

Yessiree, pilgrims ! ! !  They just drove that truck right in that door and loaded up the chairs ! ! ! ! !  Keep in mind the massive size of this church.

The St Lawrence Chapel - the very ubiquitous St Lawrence ! ! !

The St Benedict Chapel

Cloister of the Monastery of San Paolo Fuori le Mura

As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also does the Son give life to those who he chooses.  Here at the site of the ancient cemetery where Paul was buried, and where this great basilica marks the spot, today's Gospel reading for Mass gives us an appropriate meditation about resurrection:

Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation."

In this awesome basilica, with its gold, and richly crafted finishings, which was "resurrected" from the ashes of the old basilica, as we ponder the life of St Paul, and the assurance of resurrection given by our Lord, we have great hope.  What do we need to fear in the face of this promise from our Lord?  As we walk with Him in the lives of His saints, we are shepherded toward our eternal home, and fed daily by the Eucharistic sacrifice, which collapses Time into the One Eternal Now of God.  

That moment in which Our Lord, on the cross, paid the bride-price for his Eternal Spouse, the Church, and the moment in which we sit down with Our Lord at the marriage supper of the Lamb, are both made mystically present in our own time, as we are fed with the very Bread of Angels.  Praise to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ!  Our hearts overflow with gratitude, that we, though unworthy in our own right, are made worthy by Your great Sacrifice.  No words suffice to tell you of our love for you.  More precious than diamonds, more lovely than pearls or sapphires, more costly than gold, You are exquisite in Your Glory, O Lord.  May we sing forever in praise of your Majesty, "Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! The Lamb who was slain, but now reigns eternal. Eternal High Priest and King!"  

John records for us in Revelation 21 - "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done!  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.  The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son."

As the deer pants for water, so our souls pant for You, O God!   Lord, give us this Water of Life, that we may never thirst again!  

The collect church for today was Sancti Mennae, but it has long since been demolished.

Tomorrow's station is Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti, and there we will be able to invite Pope St Sylvester and Saint Martin of Tours to join our pilgrimage. They are truly awesome saints!

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