Text and Illustrations taken from UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
who reproduce Text and Illustrations from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 1952 Edition,
with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press.
The Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Saviour.
9 November.
Double of the Second-Class.
White Vestments.
The Basilica of Saint Saviour, Rome.
(The Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome)
"Terribilis est locus iste".
The Introit for the Mass of
the Dedication of a Church.
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Among the rich and splendid Roman Basilicas where the Ceremonies of Christian worship were celebrated in great pomp, after the Era of Persecution, there is one of First Rank whose Dedication is Solemnised on this Anniversary.
The Palace of the Lateran, on the Coelian Hill, belonged to Fausta, the wife of Emperor Constantine. The Emperor, after his conversion, gave it to the Pope as his private residence, and founded there the Church of the Lateran, which became the mother and mistress of all the Churches of Rome and of the world.
On 9 November 324 A.D., Pope Saint Sylvester Consecrated it under the name of the Basilica of Saint Saviour. This was the first public Consecration of a Church. A long time after, under Pope Lucius II, in the 12th-Century, it was Dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, whose name had been given to the adjoining Baptistry, Wherefore, it has been given nowadays the Title of Saint John Lateran.
In this Basilica and the adjoining Palace were held, from the 4th- to the 16th-Centuries, more than twenty-five Councils, five of which were Ecumenical. On the most Solemn days, the Station was held there. Holy Orders were Conferred there, Penitents were reconciled, Catechumens were Baptised on Easter Day, and, as Neophytes, they came there in procession during the whole Easter Octave.
At Saint John Lateran is inaugurated, on the First Sunday in Lent, the great Liturgical Season Consecrated to Penance; there is held the Assembly on Palm Sunday and that on Rogation Tuesday; there are carried out the Ceremonies of Maundy Thursday and Easter Eve; and Mass is Celebrated on Saturday in Albis and on the Eve of Pentecost.
The Church, which had been destroyed, was rebuilt and Consecrated anew by Pope Benedict XIII, in 1726, and the Commemoration of this Consecration was fixed, as that of the first Church, on 9 November.
Mass: Terribilis.
In Low Masses, Commemoration is made of Saint Theodore.
First and Second Vespers: As in the Common.
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