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Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls
Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura — also known in the English
language as the Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls — is one of
five churches considered to be the great ancient basilicas of Rome in
Italy. The Roman Catholic Church counts among them Saint John Lateran,
Saint Mary Major, Saint Peter and Saint Paul outside the Walls.
The basilica is the shrine tomb of the church's namesake, Saint
Lawrence, one of the first seven deacons of Rome martyred in 258. Pope
Pius IX, awaiting canonization into sainthood, is also buried at the
basilica. Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, a founding father of
the European Union rests in the basilica.
Before the present-day basilica was constructed, the estate upon which
it sits was once home to a small oratory built by Emperor Constantine.
The emperor, a Christian convert, built it over the site on which it was
believed that Saint Lawrence was executed. In the 580s, Pope Pelagius II
commissioned the construction of a church over the site, in honor of the
martyr. In the 13th century, Pope Honorius III commissioned the
construction of another church in front of the older structure. It was
adorned with frescoes depicting the lives of Saint Lawrence, and the
first martyred deacon Saint Stephen, who is interred with Lawrence in
the confessio under the high altar. The two structures were united as
part of a program of urban renewal. Excavations have revealed several
other crypts of various people, buried below street level.
In relatively more recent history, the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le
Mura was home to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1374 to 1847. In
1943, the church was bombed during World War II. Restoration lasted
until 1948, allowing some 19th century accretions to be removed;
however, the frescoes on the facade were lost.
From: www.wikipedia.org
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