The Roman basilica of St. John Lateran marks the 1,700th anniversary of its dedication on Saturday, Nov. 9. It’s a feast day for the universal Church, because it is the seat (the cathedra) of the bishop of Rome, the supreme pontiff. The Lateran — not St. Peter’s in the Vatican — is the cathedral of Rome. 

Here are seven things to know about the Lateran on its 1,700th anniversary.

Constantine, Cathedral and Council

“The Lateran” takes its name from the family historically associated with land; the complex of buildings on the site was known as the palace of the Laterani family, a high-ranking family in service to several Roman emperors. 

During the first Christian centuries, when the Church was illegal, formal structures were difficult to establish. That changed with Constantine, who, early in the fourth century, first legalized Christianity and then gave it official favor. The Lateran Palace came into his possession around 311; Constantine gave it to the Church in 313, and it became the seat of the bishops of Rome from that time. 

Early on, a meeting of bishops was held there to discuss the Donatist controversy; the Lateran had quickly become the center of ecclesial life. Pope Sylvester I established his cathedral there and dedicated it in 324 — hence the 1,700th anniversary this year.

As Church structures were being physically established in Rome, the new freedom made it possible to tend to the theological architecture, as well. The first great ecumenical council, also under Constantine’s patronage, was soon to be organized. The 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea will take place next year.

The popes lived at the Lateran from the fourth century until the 14th century, when the papacy moved to Avignon, France, in 1309. Two fires — in 1309 and 1361 — badly damaged the Lateran complex, so when the papacy returned to Rome from Avignon, the popes shifted their residence and court to the Vatican. The official cathedral, though, remained at the Lateran. Thus the Vatican has been the residence of the popes for only about 600 years. The popes lived at the Lateran for nearly 1,000 years.

The old Lateran basilica was torn down in the 16th century and rebuilt in its current state; the current façade was completed in 1735.

Cathedral of Rome

As the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, the Lateran is the seat of the bishop of Rome. At the entrance of the basilica, the pilgrim reads: Omnium Ecclesiarum Urbis et Orbis Mater et Caput — “Mother and Head of All the Churches in the City and the World.” The unity of the entire Catholic Church with the bishop of Rome is expressed in the cathedral church of Rome.

Even today, the offices of the Diocese of Rome are in the Lateran Palace, a building just behind the basilica.

Pope Francis in recent years has emphasized this by often signing documents “at the Lateran” as opposed to “at the Vatican.” The Holy Father lives at the Vatican, but the seat of his authority is the Lateran basilica, his cathedral.

Just as Vatican I and Vatican II were held where the pope lived in the 19th and 20th centuries, five ecumenical councils were held at the Lateran when the popes lived there. The First Lateran Council was held in 1119. Lateran V was held 1512-1517 and was not a successful venture; the Protestant Reformation began as it ended.

The 1929 treaty between the Republic of Italy and the Holy See, which regulated the end of the Papal States and created the Vatican City State, was signed at the Lateran and is known as the Lateran Treaty.

An Unusual Liturgical Day

The dedication anniversary of every cathedral is a feast day for all the churches in that diocese. As the Lateran is the cathedral of Rome, it is a feast day for the entire Church, celebrated everywhere. 

In fact, the feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran is of such great importance that it outranks a Sunday in Ordinary Time. Next year, that will happen. This year, as the feast falls on a Saturday, Masses celebrated on Saturday evening will observe the greater feast of the Lateran’s dedication, rather than the lesser observance of a Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Who Is St. John Lateran?

It’s an excellent Catholic trivia question: Who is St. John Lateran?

It’s a trick question. There is no such saint. The basilica at the Lateran — the mother church of the whole world — was suitably dedicated to Christ the Savior in 324. Much later, in the 10th century, a dedication was added to St. John the Baptist, and another dedication in the 12th century added St. John the Evangelist.

The official name is thus a mouthful: Papal Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and Sts. John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran. This is simplified in common parlance to “St. John Lateran.”

There are four major papal basilicas in Rome, and they are dedicated fittingly to Christ the Savior (Lateran), to the Blessed Mother (St. Mary Major), and to the princes of the apostles martyred in Rome (St. Peter’s in the Vatican and St. Paul Outside the Walls).

It may well be that the dedication to St. John was added later to give recognition in Rome to St. John the Baptist, of whom Jesus spoke as “the greatest born of woman.”

Still Standing

The Lateran is a visible expression the Church’s passage through history. Battered and damaged, reformed and rebuilt — she stands. The Lateran — near the Roman city walls — has been sacked many times by invading armies. The most recent attack upon it was in July 1993, when the rear portico was bombed by the mafia in reaction to St. John Paul the Great’s condemnation of the mafia in Sicily in May of that year.

Most of ravages of the Lateran have been due to fires, floods and the deterioration of time — walls bulging out, foundations eroding. So it has been repaired, rebuilt — even entirely reconstructed — several times. The Lateran doesn’t look like it used to, but has the same identity and mission.

One notable feature has endured. The great doors of the Lateran are taken from the Roman Forum. Likely the most ancient part of the complex, the doors indicate that while the Roman Empire is long extinct, what survives of it is that which was taken up in the life of the Church.

Relics of the Passion

The most valuable part of the Lateran is no longer housed within it. Just a few years after its dedication in 324, St. Helena, mother of Constantine, traveled to Jerusalem and returned with the relics of the Passion. 

Some of those relics are now kept just across the street from the Lateran, including the Scala Santa — the “Holy Steps” from Pilate’s praetorium. A short walk takes the pilgrim to the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, so named because it is meant to bring Jerusalem to Rome, as it were. There are kept relics of the True Cross, as well as instruments of the Passion — fragments of the nails, thorns and scourging pillar.

Papal Tombs

Six papal tombs are in the Lateran today. More popes had been buried there in the first millennium but their graves were lost over time. Two tombs are of special note. 

Innocent III (1198-1216) reigned when St. Francis of Assisi came to Rome to establish his new order. Innocent was initially skeptical that the radicalism of the Franciscan proposal was practical. As he was considering the matter, Innocent had a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Lateran basilica. Convinced that this was a sign that Francis was needed to support a Church in need of reform, Innocent gave his approval in 1210.

Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) is also entombed at the Lateran, the last pope not to be buried at St. Peter’s. (Pope Francis has also chosen to buried elsewhere, at St. Mary Major, a place he has visited more than 100 times, as the Holy Father goes there before and after every papal trip.)

Leo came to the papacy while the question of the Papal States was still unresolved. Consequently, he never left the Vatican during his long 25-year papacy. Knowing that a bishop belongs in his cathedral, he was determined to get there in death if he could not do so in life. 

Such is the importance of the Lateran, the cathedral of the whole world, as it enters its 18th century of service.