San Paolo fuori le Mura

We are directed to St. Paul's outside the Walls passing the modern FAO building on our left, (Food and Agricolture Organization of the United Nations) and then we pass St. Paul's gate, which is another gate of the Aurelian Wall. By the gate is the Pyramid of Caius Caestius Epulone, a Roman tomb built in the style of the Egyptian pyramid, in II B.C. Almost three hundred years later the pyramid was included in the defensive wall built by Aurelianus. Behind the wall and the pyramid lies the Protestant cemetery of Rome where the two English poets, Shelley and Keats, are buried. Then we continue on the old Ostiense Way, the road leading to Ostia, the ancient seaport of Rome. It was the commercial and military harbour of Imperial Rome, at tha time Ostia had a population of one hundred thousand people. Ancient Ostia is the best preserved Roman city, after Pompei, and modern Ostia is the beach of the Romans.

Emperor Constantine built the Basilica of St. Paul's without the Walls, over the grave of this Saint as a memorial church, as he did over the grave of St. Peter. St. Paul was beheaded at a place called ad Aquas Salvias, known as le Tre Fontane (the Three Fountains). These three fountains welled up where St. Paul's head had touched the ground and where three churches, tended by the Trappist monks, now stand. After the martyrdom, the Saint was buried near the Ostia road and the church which Constantine built in the IV century was rebuilt more magnificently in 386 and was almost totally destroyed by fire in a few hours on July 15th, 1823, during restoration works of the wooden ceiling. The present basilica was rebuilt as a perfect reproduction of the old one with contributions from different countries. The front of the church is not facing the rising sun, and this is the only one of the patriarchal churches which does not. The present church has a quadriportico which the old one did not have, in the middle of which stands the modern statue of Saint Paul, by Obici. St. Paul is holding a sword in his hand, which is the symbol of the fight he fought for Christianity. You will recall the second letter to Timothy, his last farewell to the Christians: For I am ready to be offered, my course is finished, I fought a good fight; I have kept the faith... . The front of the church is decorated with a resplendent mosaic work by the artists of the mosaic studio of the Vatican. The door at the extreme right is the Porta Santa (the Holy Door).

Entering this church you would almost believe it to be the interior of an Imperial Roman basilica, miraculously survived from the past and perfectly preserved through the centuries; it really gives an exact idea of the basilicas of Imperial Rome. Over the main altar and the Apostle's grave, at which only the Pope celebrates Mass, is the beautiful 13th century altar canopy, by Arnolfo di Cambio, which was rescued from the fire by the triumphal arch over it. This arch had been donated to the church by Galla Placidia, queen of the Goths in the fifth century. The arch, the canopy and the apse, with the 13th century mosaic, are the only remaining parts of the old church. You will also notice the roundels, with the mosaic portraits of all the 264 Popes, including the present one. All the alabaster of the windows was donated by the Viceroy of Egypt. Mohamed Ali, and Czar Nicholas I of Russia contributed the malachite altars at the end walls of the transept.

From the church we pass into the lovely cloister garden in the adjoining monastery. The Benedectine monastery was rebuilt, but the 13th century colonnade in its rich Cosmatesque style is original. All around are the remains of the church which burned and tombstones from the Catacombs and other graves.

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