Seven pilgrimage churches of Rome

In Rome, a lot of Christian shrines , relics , relics of the apostles , Christian saints and martyrs , miraculous icons are concentrated. In addition, for many centuries, the Eternal City was the residence of the popes with the center in the Vatican . It is for these reasons that Rome throughout the history of Christianity was the center of pilgrimage for believers from around the world, along with Jerusalem . Already in the first centuries of the new era, pilgrimages were decided to end by visiting the graves of the apostles Peter and Paul in Rome - traditionally the first pilgrims carried from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to the place of martyrdom and rest of the holy first apostles to the Eternal City a palm branch (from the word “palm” and the word "pilgrimage" ). And so it went on for centuries.

This tradition of visiting Rome with a pilgrimage mission was largely consolidated by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300 by the approval of a Jubilee - a special “Holy Year”, which was to occur once every hundred years (now once every 25 years), starting a new century. This year, papal indulgence was bestowed on Catholics who repented and confessed their sins and visited the cathedral of the Apostle Peter and the Basilica of the Apostle Paul beyond the walls ^[5] .

Among the first people who took part in such a pilgrimage of the very first Jubilee Year (1300) are Cimabue , Giotto , Carl Valois , Dante Alighieri , who mentions this in “Divine Comedy” in Chapter XXXI “Paradise” ^[6] . Pope Clement VI added the Lateran Basilica of St. John to the pilgrimage route in 1350, and Pope Gregory XI added Santa Maria Maggiore in 1390, bringing the number of temples in the list to four. These four basilicas became the main papal basilicas in Rome (the Great Basilica ). In each of them, next to the main door, special “Sacred Doors” ( Santa Porta , or Holy Gates ) were installed, which open only when the official Jubilee year begins.

Currently, all Catholics can receive indulgence when they visit one of the four patriarchal (Great Papal) Basil of Rome ^[3] .

In addition, Catholics who have passed through any open , opened throughout the Jubilee Year in the Papal Basilica and other important Catholic churches around the world, have the opportunity to receive a jubilee indulgence ^{[7] [8]} . Before making a pilgrimage to Rome, a believer must necessarily repent of all his sins, the blame for which must be forgiven in the sacrament of confession .

Extraordinary jubilee year - 2016 ^[9] . Of course, visiting the seven holy basil can be carried out in other, not Jubilee years.

The name of Philip Neri , a Catholic saint, founder of the congregation of the Oratorians , the history of visiting seven Roman churches is directly connected. Neri was just the person who established the tradition of visiting seven churches in the XVI century with the aim of pilgrimage, and not only in the Jubilee years, but throughout the twelve months of the usual, not holy year ^[10] .

Philip was born in Florence in 1515, received an excellent education there in the monastery of San Marco , after which he was sent to his uncle in the town of Cassino (then San Germano), located at the foot of Mount Montecassino with the famous monastery of the same name near Naples . There he experienced and experienced a certain mystical spiritual experience , which he himself called "conversion." After that, he completely lost interest in wealth and inheritance, and in 1533 went to Rome, wishing to devote his further life to preaching the Gospel . He tirelessly preached among beggars, for which he received the nickname "Apostle of Rome . " Philip Neri attracted those who responded to his sermons to caring for the sick and infirm, as well as to his prayer practices, among which he had one particularly beloved one: around about 1553, he began to conduct regular prayer collective tours of seven large Roman basilicas. He believed that believers could thus become involved, receive and share some extremely valuable common religious experience through communion, communion and contact with the heritage of early Christian saints - their relics , relics and other shrines stored in these churches. He chose not 7 by chance - seven churches on his way were personified by the seven churches of John the Theologian in the world from the Apocalypse .

Neri built a route that included visiting St. Peter’s Cathedral , then St. Paul’s Basilica outside the walls , St. Sebastian ’s Church, St. John’s Lateran Church , Holy Cross of Jerusalem and St. Lawrence’s Basilica outside the walls, and finally St. Mary’s “Maggiore” Cathedral . He regularly gathered friends, acquaintances, and everyone who wanted them early in the morning at dawn, and they all set off on their pilgrimage route through Rome ^[10] . Taking into account the fact that all these basilicas are at a sufficient distance from each other, and it was necessary to go all the way only on foot - this was not an easy task and took a considerable amount of time. In each church, they prayed, sang church hymns , and Neri gave a brief sermon to the crowd ^[10] .

Pilgrims along the way used to stop at the gardens of (now Villa Chelimontana ). The aristocratic devout family of Mattei was extremely supportive and respectful towards Neri and his pilgrims. The members of this family saw in that the fulfillment of their honorable mission , therefore they always offered such groups rest in their possessions. During the holidays, concerts were held for travelers there — musicians played, and the singers delighted their ears with melodious songs and showed whole performances. In the gardens of the villa everything was very beautiful and benevolent - the owners did not stint. Thus, several goals were simultaneously achieved at once - attracting believers to prayer practice and at the same time entertaining and nurturing their culture and aesthetic taste in order to distract them from noisy carnivals , which were then accompanied, as a rule, by very free songs and dances, drunkenness and fights. , not too compatible with the behavior of a pious Christian.

In the spring of 1553, Pope Julius III allowed the resumption of such festive street carnivals on the occasion of the onset of spring, and soon repented of it. Thus, Saint Philip offered the Christian alternative to semi-pagan carnival traditions. Gradually, from small groups that once consisted only of his closest acquaintances and those to whom he preached, Neri moved on to organizing mass processions, in which he attracted several thousand pilgrims simultaneously ^[10] .

People loved and respected Philip, and therefore the Romans of various classes , from homeless beggars to the richest aristocrats and representatives of the higher clergy , were happy to unite and participate in such processions with “picnics” at the Villa Mattei. Among his great admirers and followers was his close friend and student, a representative of the Medici aristocratic family - his fellow Florentine Alessandro Ottaviano Medici , who later became the Pope under the name Leo XI . Alessandro, not yet a priest, along with his friends, also participated in the processions of St. Philip, and thanks to him, he firmly decided to become a minister of the Church ^[11] .

A few years later, carnivals were again banned, but the tradition of pilgrimage to the seven churches was preserved, united with the tradition of pilgrimage in the Jubilee years. The list of the seven churches of Neri was subsequently approved by the Pope and as a route for the anniversary pilgrimage of Christians. In Jubilee 1575, pilgrims visited seven churches from the list of Neri instead of four ^[12] . Thanks to Saint Philip, over the next centuries, believers began to conduct regular rounds of the main basilicas of Rome along its route all year round.

The practice of visiting seven Roman basilicas over the years has only been consolidated, going far beyond Rome and spreading throughout Europe and to the East, to Constantinople (now Istanbul , Turkey ). There, pilgrims usually began to attend all seven Christian churches mentioned in the Book of Revelations , including the churches in Ephesus . This tradition is well adopted in Orthodoxy .

In Russia, pilgrimage has always been in high esteem. Therefore, this practice quickly reached and found its admirers on Russian soil - starting around the time of Peter I , among believers who did not have the opportunity to make a “big pilgrimage” (to Jerusalem and Rome), and often a “little pilgrimage” (to the shrines of Russia ), also established the tradition of visiting seven churches or monasteries at a time. In rural areas, churches were often located at a sufficiently large distance from each other, in neighboring villages and villages, so pilgrims had to travel tens of kilometers on foot to get to the next temple of seven. Thus, they paid tribute to the tradition and made their pilgrimage. This practice exists in Russia and other countries to this day.

• Catholicism. - M .: Politizdat, 1991. with. 303 ISBN 5-250-00779-1
• Neri, San Filippo // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 add.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Kish, George (1978). A Source Book in Geography. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 21. ISBN 0-674-82270-6 .
• Antonio Sicari Portraits of the saints. Volume III. Milan - Moscow, "Christian Russia", 1998.
• The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome . - New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982. - 398 p.
• Donatella Cerulli. Il giro delle sette chiese . - Edizioni Mediterranee, 1999. - 160 p. - ISBN 8827213171 .
• Guido Sacchi, La visita alle Sette Chiese: cenni storici.
• Alberto Venturoli, Visita alle sette chiese: la liturgia di San Filippo Neri, Roma 2006.

• Seven pilgrimage basilicas of Rome (Neopr.) . The appeal date is June 30, 2016.
• St. Philip Romolo Neri. Catholic Encyclopedia (eng.)
• Saints Dictionary
• Calendar of the Saints (English)