The golden heads of Saints Peter and Paul are in the reliquary above the
altar at St John Lateran and displayed on their feast. The Lateran, before
the Avignon Captivity, was seen as a kind of Christian continuation of the
Jerusalem Temple, Constantine having given it the Treasures of the Ark
enshrined there in a Holy of Holies, all destroyed in earthquake and fire
later, but which the Pope, like Aaron, only entered one day a year. Dante is
still aware of that meaning to the Lateran, speaking of it as the Tempio of
a pilgrim's vow. Even the mosaic portrait of Christ in the apse is said to
have magically come there entering through the Golden Doors. Then the Roman
propaganda shifted to the Vatican and St Peter in a big way. Even the doors!
But that wasn't always the emphasis, the Lateran having been the Pope's
Basilica and residence for centuries prior to the Vatican. Urban V is part
of that shifting. For when he returned to Rome the Lateran was in ruins and
it was easier setting up housekeeping across the Tiber. I don't know if this
is helpful. It especially could be if it was this Pope who set that
reliquary in place.
#At 12.08 11/10/97 +0100, you wrote:
>Dear Julia
>
>I thank you very much for your interesting suggestion about Pope Urban's
>work for peace in Europe; in fact, it is paralleled by Sacchetti's
>explanation of Urban's widespread cult, referring to the 'concordia' between
>the Papacy and the Empire (F. Sacchetti, Sermoni evangelici e lettere, ed.
>O. Gigli, Florence 1857, pp. 214-5). His favour to St. Birgitta is also
>deserving the historian's attention, but I think that the Invention of the
>apostles' heads was also of a great importance. In fact, a lot of late XIVth
>and XVth central Italian panels and frescoes represent this Pope as holding
>a reliquary containing the two heads or a dyptych portraying Sts. Peter and
>Paul. I would like to know what you and our co-mailers think about this
subject.
>Thank you again
>
>Michele Bacci
>Scuola Normale Superiore
>Pisa (Italy)
>
>
>At 06.45 11/10/97, you wrote:
>
>>>
>>Could it not be that he really was an ideal Pope, having his enthronement
>>and coronation be without the customary pomp and circumstance, living simply
>>in his black Benedictine habit, in prayer and study, as well as papal
>>administration, establishing bursaries for hundreds of poor students,
>>founding three universities, curbing curial greed, working with the Emperors
>>Charles IV of Bohemia and John V Paleologus for peace, heeding St Birgitta
>>of Sweden's pleas for peace-making between the Kings of England and France
>>and that he return the Papacy to Rome. Pope Urban V granted Birgitta the
>>Bull for the Order of the Most Holy Saviour (the Brigittines of Vadstena),
>>with the Augustinian Rule, her own Rule as supplement. In the end,
>>discouraged by the mercenaries in Italy, he went back to Avignon, despite
>>Birgitta's warning that he would soon die if he did so. Her prophecy took
>>place. Earlier she had warned Clement VI that if he did not obey her and go
>>to Rome, lightning would strike the bells of St Peters and melt them and he
>>would die and those two events occurred, December 2, 6, 1352. Birgitta in
>>turn gave to St Catherine of Siena the model of a woman who persuaded a Pope
>>to return to Rome, both being instrumental in Gregory XI's return.
>>Birgitta's Canonization was embroiled in controversy and carried out during
>>the reigns of Grogory XI, Urban VI, Boniface IX, Martin V. Connected with
>>the Brigittines were the Hieronymites, their founder being the brother of
>>Bishop Hermit Alfonso of Jaen, Birgitta's director; likewise the Norwich
>>Benedictine Cardinal Adam Easton (which later brings about the Syon Abbey
>>founding); thus creating a network of Scandinavian, English, and Spanish
>>support for the Popes in Italy. If one looks at the illuminations and
>>woodblocks of Birgitta's Revelationes it is to see her giving the text to
>>Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Emperors, Kings, and the Laity, the Pope most
>>favourable to her having been Urban V.
>>____
>>Julia Bolton Holloway, Hermit of the Holy Family
>>via del Partigiano 16, Montebeni, 50014 FIESOLE, ITALY
>
>
>
>
>
____
Julia Bolton Holloway, Hermit of the Holy Family
via del Partigiano 16, Montebeni, 50014 FIESOLE, ITALY
[log in to unmask]
http://members.aol.com/juliansite/Juliansite.htm
'Lord, of your goodness, give me yourself: for you are enough to me.
I may not ask anything that is less, that is so worthy of you. If I ask
anything less, ever I want, for only in you I have all.'
Julian of Norwich, Westminster Manuscript
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