We continue Luisella Scrosati’s series on the orientation of Christian worship with her fifth part, “Le singolarità della basilica costantiniana di San Pietro”, originally published in Italian on the website of La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana on November 30, and reproduced here by permission of the editors. (Read Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4)
The rule of praying towards the east, which determined the orientation of churches, had some exceptions. This is neither surprising nor scandalous. It has already been mentioned that the east-west axis was sometimes not feasible, either because the buildings already existed and were converted for religious use, or because new buildings had to take into account the presence of roads and other factors that made traditional orientation impossible.
Karl Otto Nußbaum argued (see Part 4) that Italy, and Rome in particular, had no traces of oriented prayer, at least until the eighth century. On the contrary, Monsignor Stefan Heid has shown that evidence of such exists both archaeologically and literarily.
The churches of Rome deserve special attention, particularly the Constantinian Vatican Basilica. Guillaume Durand (1230-96), bishop of Mende, who lived for many years in Rome in the service of Clement IV and Gregory X, stated in his Rationale Divinorum Officiorum (V, 2, 57) that “although God is everywhere, nevertheless the priest at the altar and in divine offices must pray towards the east, by order (ex institutione) of Pope Vigilius.”
He explained more precisely that in those churches where the entrance was located to the west, and therefore the priest celebrated facing the apse, he had to turn towards the faithful for the liturgical greeting (Dóminus vobiscum); if, on the other hand, the entrance was located to the east, it was not necessary for him to turn towards the faithful, since he already had them in front of him.
The reference to Pope Vigilius indicates that, as early as the sixth century, prayer in Rome was also directed towards the east. The expression ex institutione does not necessarily indicate that he was the first to establish this rule. According to Heid, it is possible that the provision arose from the fact that this rule was not universally followed, not so much because someone celebrated “towards the people,” but rather because some priests celebrated facing the apse, and therefore with their backs to the faithful, even when the entrance was to the east. It is also unclear whether Pope Vigilius’ provision was addressed to the churches of Rome or the churches of Gaul.
It seems clear, however, that Vigilius wanted prayer to be directed towards the east, regardless of where the entrance (and therefore the nave) was located; and it seems rather unlikely that he gave this instruction in opposition to a previous tradition, rather than to restore a practice that was no longer understood and was partly disregarded, in Rome or in Gaul.
In fact, in the wooden door (5th century) of the early Christian basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, we find a panel depicting the Parousia. The woman, placed between Saints Peter and Paul, symbolizes the Church in prayer, recognizable by the position of her hands, awaiting her Lord and facing the sun, the east. This important relief testifies that the orientation of prayer and its meaning were also well established in Rome.
Complicating the understanding of liturgical orientation in the ancient basilicas of Rome is the fact that they contained a singular “pole” of orientation, namely the tombs of the martyrs. Churches had to be built in such a way as to combine the orientation of prayer with the possibility of celebrating super corpora martyrum.
If we consider the basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican from the Constantinian era, we can note some peculiarities. It is well known that the basilica had (and has) its façade facing east; on the western side there was a mosaic apse, with the traditional depiction of the Traditio legis in the center, that is, Christ, between Saints Peter and Paul, offering the scroll of the new law to the former. A few meters from the apse, where the altar is normally located, was the Trophy of Gaius, a small funerary aedicule indicating the location of the tomb of the Apostle Peter, protected by a marble structure with a pergula, almost a sort of early Christian canopy. The structure was about 3 meters wide and high and 1.80 meters deep. The aedicule appeared lower because the new flooring had raised the level by 35 centimeters, thus incorporating part of the Trophy, which now rose just over a meter above the floor.
It is not at all clear where the altar was located, nor whether it was fixed, but it is more than likely that, due to the extreme importance of the presence of Peter’s tomb in the basilica, celebrations were held not towards the east but towards the monument, thus ending up accidentally facing west. To hypothesize a celebration towards the east, in the architectural context of Constantine’s basilica on Vatican Hill, would have meant turning one’s back on Peter’s tomb; it is therefore understandable that the focal point of the liturgical celebration was the tomb of the Apostle.
There is no shortage of evidence to support the idea that the travertine slab of the first aedicule was used as an altar; the celebration would thus have taken place inside the shrine that incorporated the Trophy, right above the tomb of the Apostle. The importance of the celebration super corpus should not be underestimated, as evidenced by the clash between the presbyter Vigilantius and St. Jerome. Among the practices in use in the fifth century that were challenged by the presbyter was the custom of offering the Holy Sacrifice over the bones of the martyrs. In Contra Vigilantium 8, Jerome asks rhetorically whether perhaps the popes were wrong to offer sacrifices to the Lord above the venerable bones of Peter and Paul – thus supporting the hypothesis that, at the time, in the Vatican basilica, the celebration took place inside the shrine itself and not simply in its vicinity.
Whatever the case, in the fifth century it was not possible to celebrate towards the east in St. Peter’s because of the location of the Confession. It was only with the elevation of the altar that both the super corpus celebration and the correct orientation could be preserved.
An interesting hypothesis is that Pope Vigilius’s decision, mentioned above, may have been motivated by the need to correct incorrect prayer orientations, which arose from the fact that the pope himself celebrated facing west in the Vatican basilica. The misunderstanding of why, in St. Peter’s, the pope had to celebrate in the opposite direction to the traditional one may have led others to celebrate towards the west in churches with an east-facing façade.
Karl Otto Nußbaum argued (see Part 4) that Italy, and Rome in particular, had no traces of oriented prayer, at least until the eighth century. On the contrary, Monsignor Stefan Heid has shown that evidence of such exists both archaeologically and literarily.
The churches of Rome deserve special attention, particularly the Constantinian Vatican Basilica. Guillaume Durand (1230-96), bishop of Mende, who lived for many years in Rome in the service of Clement IV and Gregory X, stated in his Rationale Divinorum Officiorum (V, 2, 57) that “although God is everywhere, nevertheless the priest at the altar and in divine offices must pray towards the east, by order (ex institutione) of Pope Vigilius.”
He explained more precisely that in those churches where the entrance was located to the west, and therefore the priest celebrated facing the apse, he had to turn towards the faithful for the liturgical greeting (Dóminus vobiscum); if, on the other hand, the entrance was located to the east, it was not necessary for him to turn towards the faithful, since he already had them in front of him.
The reference to Pope Vigilius indicates that, as early as the sixth century, prayer in Rome was also directed towards the east. The expression ex institutione does not necessarily indicate that he was the first to establish this rule. According to Heid, it is possible that the provision arose from the fact that this rule was not universally followed, not so much because someone celebrated “towards the people,” but rather because some priests celebrated facing the apse, and therefore with their backs to the faithful, even when the entrance was to the east. It is also unclear whether Pope Vigilius’ provision was addressed to the churches of Rome or the churches of Gaul.
It seems clear, however, that Vigilius wanted prayer to be directed towards the east, regardless of where the entrance (and therefore the nave) was located; and it seems rather unlikely that he gave this instruction in opposition to a previous tradition, rather than to restore a practice that was no longer understood and was partly disregarded, in Rome or in Gaul.
In fact, in the wooden door (5th century) of the early Christian basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, we find a panel depicting the Parousia. The woman, placed between Saints Peter and Paul, symbolizes the Church in prayer, recognizable by the position of her hands, awaiting her Lord and facing the sun, the east. This important relief testifies that the orientation of prayer and its meaning were also well established in Rome.
Complicating the understanding of liturgical orientation in the ancient basilicas of Rome is the fact that they contained a singular “pole” of orientation, namely the tombs of the martyrs. Churches had to be built in such a way as to combine the orientation of prayer with the possibility of celebrating super corpora martyrum.
It is not at all clear where the altar was located, nor whether it was fixed, but it is more than likely that, due to the extreme importance of the presence of Peter’s tomb in the basilica, celebrations were held not towards the east but towards the monument, thus ending up accidentally facing west. To hypothesize a celebration towards the east, in the architectural context of Constantine’s basilica on Vatican Hill, would have meant turning one’s back on Peter’s tomb; it is therefore understandable that the focal point of the liturgical celebration was the tomb of the Apostle.
There is no shortage of evidence to support the idea that the travertine slab of the first aedicule was used as an altar; the celebration would thus have taken place inside the shrine that incorporated the Trophy, right above the tomb of the Apostle. The importance of the celebration super corpus should not be underestimated, as evidenced by the clash between the presbyter Vigilantius and St. Jerome. Among the practices in use in the fifth century that were challenged by the presbyter was the custom of offering the Holy Sacrifice over the bones of the martyrs. In Contra Vigilantium 8, Jerome asks rhetorically whether perhaps the popes were wrong to offer sacrifices to the Lord above the venerable bones of Peter and Paul – thus supporting the hypothesis that, at the time, in the Vatican basilica, the celebration took place inside the shrine itself and not simply in its vicinity.
Whatever the case, in the fifth century it was not possible to celebrate towards the east in St. Peter’s because of the location of the Confession. It was only with the elevation of the altar that both the super corpus celebration and the correct orientation could be preserved.
An interesting hypothesis is that Pope Vigilius’s decision, mentioned above, may have been motivated by the need to correct incorrect prayer orientations, which arose from the fact that the pope himself celebrated facing west in the Vatican basilica. The misunderstanding of why, in St. Peter’s, the pope had to celebrate in the opposite direction to the traditional one may have led others to celebrate towards the west in churches with an east-facing façade.
