Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome

As the home of the Pope and the Catholic curia, as well as the locus of many sites and relics of veneration related to apostles, saints and Christian martyrs; Rome had long been a destination for pilgrims. The Via Francigena was an ancient pilgrim route between England and Rome. It was customary to end the pilgrimage with a visit to the tombs of Sts Peter and Paul. Periodically, some were moved to travel to Rome for the spiritual benefits accrued during a Jubilee. These indulgences sometimes required a visit to a specific church or churches. Pilgrims need not visit each church.

The tradition of visiting all seven churches was started by Saint Philip Neri, around 1553 in order to combine conviviality and the sharing of a common religious experience through discovering of the heritage of the early Saints. Neri drew up an itinerary that included visits to St. Peter’s Basilica, then St. Paul Outside-the-Walls, St. Sebastian’s, St. John Lateran, Holy Cross-in-Jerusalem, St. Lawrence-Outside-the Walls and finally St. Mary Major. He and a few friends and acquaintances would gather before dawn and set out on their walk. At each church, there would be prayer, hymn singing and a brief sermon by Neri.

A simple meal was pre-arranged at the gardens of the Villa Mattei. The Mattei family opened their grounds for pilgrims to rest in and provided them with bread, wine, cheese, eggs, apples and salami. During these “picnics”, musicians would play and singers would perform. These pilgrimages were designed to be a counterpoint to the raucous behavior of Carnival.

There are seven Holy Year churches in Rome:

St. Peter's Basilica and the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls were designated as pilgrim churches by Pope Boniface VIII for the first Holy Year in 1300. Pope Clement VI added the Basilica of St. John Lateran in 1350 and Pope Gregory XI added Santa Maria Maggiore in 1375. These are the four major Papal Basilicas in Rome. Each contains a Holy Door, opened only during official Jubilee years.Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love was added by Pope John Paul II for the Great Jubilee of 2000, replacing St. Sebastian Outside-the-Walls. However, many pilgrims still prefer the pre-2000 seven basilicas and so also attend St. Sebastian's in addition to the ones required for the indulgence.

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