Day 3 - Friday - Sts. John and Paul al Celio

John and Paul were brothers who had served as officers in the army under Constantine the Great.  Constantine held them in high regard, so much so that they were assigned as a security detail, to the household of his daughter Constantina.  Largely as a result of their witness, her husband was converted to the Catholic faith, and to these brothers she left her great wealth when she died.  With their inherited wealth they maintained their home as a house church and sustained the poor.  

 When Constantine and his sons died, a cousin of Constantina, Julian the Apostate (so called because he denied the Christian faith of his youth and reverted to pagan worship), became emperor.  He was envious of the wealth the two brothers had inherited, and sought to confiscate their money.   He said to them, “In the Gospel your Christ states that he who does not give up all his worldly goods cannot be His disciple”. Julian attempted to justify the confiscation of the brothers’ wealth.  The easiest way to force the issue was to follow the path of a number of previous pagan emperors.  

Julian revived the edicts requiring all residents of the Empire to take an oath to serve the Roman gods, and offer sacrifice.  Although Julian was successful in persuading many Christians, even some priests, to make such sacrifices, using flattery or bribes,  when John and Paul were invited to pledge loyalty to the Emperor, the two Christians refused: “You have abandoned the faith to follow ways which you know very well have nothing to do with God. Because of this apostasy, we have refused to have anything to do with you”.   They were resistant to both gifts and threats.  They replied, “We do not place another human being in front of you, therefore wronging you. But only God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea and all things contained therein. Men attached to earthly things can thus fear your ire. We fear only the wrath of the eternal God. So we want you to know that we will never adhere to your cult nor will we frequent your palace”.      They were given ten days to reconsider.  

After the 10 days, they were placed under house arrest by a captain of the guard, Terentianus.   When Crispus and their other friends received the news, they rushed to the house, but were denied entry. Terentianus (who later converted and is the narrator of the story) and his guards were the only ones who were allowed to enter. He found the brothers in prayer and warned them to worship the pagan gods or perish by the sword. The two answered: “We have only one Master, the only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit whom Julian had no scruples in repudiating; and since God has rejected him, he wants to drag others down into ruin with him.”  A few hours later the two Christians were executed. The execution was kept secret, including the site of their burial in their home, and a rumor was started that they had been sent into exile because Julian did not want to encourage a cult of martyrs. One year after their execution, however, Julian died in battle and was succeeded by Jovianus who embraced the Catholic faith. He allowed a basilica to be built over their home where their graves were, and that place of martyrdom soon became a pilgrimage site. 

It was the Roman senator Byzantius and his son St. Pammachius (who was a close friend of St Jerome, the translator of the Bible into Latin, known as the Latin Vulgate), who obtained the home, as well as several other properties on the Caelian hill, and erected a great Christian basilica. It was anciently known first as the Titulus Bizantis, and later as the Titulus Pammachii.  On the ground floor lies the tomb of the martyrs John and Paul. 

The devotion to SS. John and Paul grew and remained strong due to two primary reasons. First, because their names were  inserted into the Roman Canon of The Mass (That's right - when in the Roman Canon of the Mass, during the Commemoration  of the Living,  you hear the list of saints that ends - John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian - well,  John and Paul are these 2 saints!), and also because the church on the Caelian Hill, which was eventually renamed the Church of SS. John and Paul, became one of the ‘stational churches' of Lent. So every year, on the Friday after Ash Wednesday, the attention of the entire church throughout the world, was focused on this church, remembering the holy martyrs entombed beneath the basilica.  

In the past the Church’s Breviary (Liturgy of the Hours) used an image from the Book of Revelation for this day.  The brother martyrs were compared to the two olive trees and the two candlesticks or lampstands, which “stand in the presence of the Lord” (Revelations 11:4). The Magnificat antiphon for evening prayer on their feast day added “these just men have stood before the Lord and have not been separated from one another,” referring to how their natural relationship as brothers in life was magnified by sharing the same faith and same martyrdom.The exact date of their martyrdom is not actually known but 362 A.D. is the usual year given. Their feast day is June 26th.  The Basilica is home to the Passionist Fathers, and is the burial place of their founder, St. Paul of the Cross. 

The Pilgrimage: 

The Home of Sts. John and Paul

Below, for a very special surprise, you can visit the excavated home of John and Paul under the basilica, and the site of the original Domus Ecclesia, or house church.

Video with Rome Reports at the bottom!

Sadly, the collect church for the station at Sts. John and Paul was demolished and no longer exists.

Beloved John and Paul, Martyrs and Saints of the Roman Canon of the Mass, join us on our journey and encourage us to strengthen our Faith, so that we may also stand strong, as you did, when our Faith is tried.

Tomorrow we will call on St Augustine and his mother, St Monica, and invite them to join us on our journey.

Optional activities, videos, music, etc.::