Basilica of Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Along the Via Tiburtina, outside Rome's ancient walls, the Basilica of Saint Lawrence guards the tomb of the deacon Lawrence, one of the seven deacons of Rome, martyred in 258 under Emperor Valerian. Emperor Constantine raised the first basilica by his tomb in the fourth century, Pope Pelagius II built a new church over it around 580, and a thirteenth-century church was joined to it, forming today's unusual double basilica, one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome. Gravely damaged in the bombing of 19 July 1943 and restored, it also holds relics of Saint Stephen the first martyr and the tombs of five popes, including Blessed Pius IX; the feast of Saint Lawrence is kept on 10 August.