Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Beheaded under Nero, the apostle Paul was buried along the Ostian Way, and over that grave Constantine raised a basilica that emperors enlarged into the greatest church of Rome after Saint Peter's. Around the year 600, Gregory the Great, whose feast falls today, rebuilt the high altar so that Mass would be celebrated directly above the apostle's tomb, where a fourth-century slab still reads Paulo Apostolo Mart, to Paul, apostle and martyr. The ancient basilica kept its character for 1,435 years until a fire in July 1823 destroyed it in a night; the world's Catholics, and even the Tsar of Russia, helped rebuild it on the same plan, reconsecrated in 1854. Under its 80 granite columns runs the famous band of mosaic medallions portraying every pope from Peter onward, and legend murmurs that when the last empty medallion is filled, history itself will close.