Anniversary of the First-Ranking Church

Today the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Anniversary of the Lateran Basilica of St. John. The inscription translates: Sacred Lateran Church, Mother and Head of the Churches of the City and the World. This is the cathedral of Rome, the building where the chair of its bishop, the pope, is located.


The Lateranus family once owned the land before it was ceded to Emperor Constantine. The Lateran Basilica became the cathedral of Rome. This feast, once celebrated only in Rome, extended to the western Christian world. In a sense it is a festival of Christian people, who are living stones arranged as the Lord's temple.
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