San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains)

[I know, I know... it has been several days since I posted. But I have a good excuse. After the kids got their colds, Celia came down with a stomach virus. I'll say it is very stressful to have sick children when you are living overseas. First, you aren't close to your local doctor. Second, the Farmacia's aren't the same as American drug stores. While you can get prescription drugs from the pharmacist (in many cases) without a prescription just by describing your symptoms, you can't browse OTC racks to find what you want (even if you could speak Italian to read the labels). Nonetheless, we fortunately didn't need a doctor this time, and the kids are getting over their ailments].

Since everyone felt a little more like themselves yesterday, we decided to brave the rain for an afternoon of church hopping. Since the kids love the public transportation system, we rode the light rain and then a bus to the main train station in Rome - Termini station - which also happens to be on the top of a hill. This allowed us to walk back down into the center of Rome and admire a few churches along the way.

We first stopped at Santa Maria Maggiore. We have actually been to Santa Maria already, but decided to make this our first stop partly because it was along our route, and partly because it is open all day. As I think I've mentioned before, many shops, restaurants, and churches (i.e. pretty much anything you go into) close during "lunch" which can be anywhere from 12:30 - 4:30. It was about 2:30 at this point, and the church we wanted to visit - San Pietro in Vincoli didn't open until 3:30, so we decided to spend some time at Santa Maria first. This is an amazing basicila and you see something new every time you go. After Augustine reached his breaking point inside, we spent 20 minutes outside so Augustine and Celia could race in the piazza behind the basilica.

After the racing ended, we headed down to San Pietro. One of the things I love about Rome is the stories behind everything. Every building, has a story about why it was built and how the special elements of the structure came to be placed there. San Pietro is no different.

San Pietro is a minor basilica. It was built in the 5th century for the purpose of housing the chains that held Saint Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem.

Here is the story of the chains from Acts 12:1

Peter’s Arrest and Deliverance
1 Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. 2 And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. 3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. 5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. 6 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

Early Christians who knew of this miracle were able to get the chains and hid them for centuries in Jerusalem. (During this time the faithful came to the chains for healing). On July 2nd Patriarch Juvenal presented the chains to Eudokia, wife of the emperor Theodosius the Younger, and she in turn transferred them from Jerusalem to Constantinople in either the year 437 or 439. Eudokia then sent one chain to Rome to her daughter Eudoxia (the wife of Valentinian). Empress Eudoxia gave Pope Leo I the chains as a gift. Pope Leo I compared the chains to those that were used to hold St. Peter during his first imprisonment in the Mamertine Prison in Rome and the two chains miraculously fused together.

The chains are now kept in a reliquary under the main altar of the basilica.

Amazingly, the church today is more often visited for a Michelangelo sculputre which dates to 1515. Michelangelo's Moses was supposed to be part of a 40-statue funeral monument for Pope Julius II. However, only 6 statues ended up being constructed and this monument ended up becoming a major disappointment for Michelangelo. (It is unclear what all the causes of the scaling back were, but it is likely the rebuilding of Saint Peter's Basilica played a big part in this). Either way, the original plan of a three level, freestanding structure with 40 statues was completed as a wall with six statutes.

The central figure of Moses, holding the tablets after just coming off the Mount is remarkable. Interestly, he is depicted as having two horns coming out of his head due to an error in translation of Exodus 34:29-35 by St. Jerome. In this part of the bible, Moses is described as coming off of Mount Sinai with the skin of his face shining because he had been talking to God. St. Jerome incorrectly translated the Hebrew word Keren as horns instead of its other meaning light.

On Moses' left side is Rachel, and his right is Leah. Rachel is the 2nd wife of Jacob, and younger sister to Leah - Jacob's first wife. The story of Leah and Rachel and Jacob is fascinating. I would encourage you to read more about them: GEN 29-33; 35:16-26; 37:10; 46:22,25; 48:7; 49:31; RTH 4:11; 1SA 10:2; JER 31:15; MAT 2:18

Of course, Celia loved that we had seen her church (Santa Cecilia), Augustine's church (Sant Augustino) and now a statue of mommy (because of course each of these churches and this statue are us personally, not the saints or figures they are in honor of).

We ended up making one more church stop on our way home. And despite the rain, it was a very interesting day.

I will definitely say that one of the keys for getting kids to enjoy the churches - and this probably applies to a lot of adults too - is to know the stories behind the church. Celia was fascinated by the chains and the sculpture after I told her a little more about both. (I know this because she remembered the stories and told CJ about them during dinner).