The via Francigena: the road to Rome

Ad limina apostolorum

Long before Galicia had its tomb, Western Christendom had only one destination for its journeys, and within that destination two tombs. That of Peter, on the Vatican hill, at the edge of the circus where tradition has him die under Nero; that of Paul, two miles from the Ostian Gate, along the road that runs down to the port. People spoke of going ad limina apostolorum, “to the thresholds of the apostles” — the expression has remained in the language of the Church to designate the visit that every bishop owes to the see of Rome. After 313, Constantine had a five-aisled basilica raised over Peter's burial place; over Paul's, a modest church which three emperors, Theodosius, Valentinian II and Arcadius, replaced from 386 onwards with an immense building, consecrated in 391 and completed under Honorius. Two sanctuaries at the two ends of the city, a single devotion: whoever has done both has made his pilgrimage.