Saint Peter’s Basilica: The Largest Church in the World

Hello everyone, hope all are doing well! First of all, before starting with today’s blog, I would like to wish all my readers Eid Mubarak! Now, let’s dive into knowing more about the largest church in the world, Saint Peter’s Basilica.

St. Peter's Basilica

Saint Peter’s Basilica, also known as the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, which surprisingly is the smallest country in the world. St. Peter’s is known to be one of the most renowned works of Italian Renaissance architecture and is the largest church in the world based on interior measure with an area of 15,160 square meters. Regarded to be one of the holiest Catholic shrines, it holds a unique position in the Christian world.

This church has a beautiful history to it that dates back to 4th CE. During this time, Rome was ruled by Emperor Constantine who had decided to build a basilica where the apostle, Saint Peter had been buried. An apostle (comes from the Greek word, Apostolos, which means “person sent”) is any of the 12 disciples chosen by Jesus Christ. Saint Peter was the chief among the 12 disciples.

Saint Peter

This church was initially used for the celebration of the cult (a person popular among a certain group of people), as a covered cemetery and a funeral banquet room. During the Middle Ages, the old St. Peter’s Basilica flourished and slowly came to be one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Western world. In the year 1505, the church was demolished under the orders of Pope Julius II, who decided to build a new church to replace the old one, and thus, the construction of the new St. Peter’s Basilica began and only got completed nearly 120 years later.

The uniqueness of this church is its’ marvelous architectural design that attracts a lot of visitors annually. Built by many master architects of the Renaissance era like Michelangelo and Raphael, artists like Donato Bramante and many others, the church is mostly what it is today because of the amazing creation of these architects and artists. The exterior of St. Peter’s Basilica is decorated with sculptures and consists of a long forecourt, known as the St. Peter’s Square.

St. Peter's Square

Present on the facade, are the statues of Jesus’ apostles including two huge statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. The church has five entrances, all of which are made using Bronze. Of all the entrances, the Holy Door is considered to be very sacred by the pilgrims and many believers stop at the door to pray. It is said that the Holy Door, opens only once in 25 years. The other doors are the Door of Good and Evil, the Door of death, the Central Door, and the Door of Sacraments.

Holy Door

St. Peter’s houses multiple masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque art, including the Michelangelo’s Pieta. It also has the baldachin (a cloth canopy fixed or carried over an important person or a sacred object) over the main altar, and the Statue of St. Longinus in the crossing, and the bronze cathedra (a roman chair of heavy structure) of St. Peter.

Interiors of St. Peter's Basilica

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter welcomes about 10 million visitors yearly and about 40,000 to 50,000 daily, making Vatican City a very religiously famous and important country in the world. This was all about the Saint Peter’s Basilica, and I would like to end this blog with a beautiful quote by Matthew 16:18, where he says, “And so I say to you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” Thank You!

Credits

www.rome-museum.com, stpetersbasilica.info, en.wikipedia.org, and other sources for information and images.