Tag: St Peter’s Basilica

St Peter's Basilica inaugurated a new Stations of the Cross 20 February, with paintings by a young Swiss artist who won the Vatican's international art competition.

Four hundred years after its consecration, St Peter's Basilica is getting a 21st-century upgrade, with the Vatican unveiling plans for AI-powered translation services, expanded pilgrim access and high-tech structural monitoring as part of yearlong anniversary celebrations.

In the presence of hundreds of priests and with lay faithful packed into the pews and standing along the walls, US Cardinal Raymond L. Burke celebrated the traditional Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St Peter's Basilica.

This is the edited text of the Homily during the Mass of the Apostles Peter and Paul Youth Pilgrimage for the Jubilee of Hope 2025 at the Altar of the Chair, St Peter’s Basilica, Rome, 28 July 2025.

After the casket bearing Pope Francis' body was placed in St Peter's Basilica, tens of thousands of mourners lined up to pay their respects.

In the first nine hours that Pope Francis' body had lain in state in St Peter's Basilica, more than 19,000 people stood in line for hours in the sun to pray and pay homage to him.

As the lights of St Peter's Basilica were extinguished and silence settled through the sprawling interior, a single flame—the paschal candle—pierced through the gloom, representing the light of the risen Christ which "quietly shines forth, even though we are in darkness," Pope Francis said.

After decades of accumulating dirt, dust and grime, the funerary statues of Popes Paul III and Urban VIII were returned to their original luster as part of a broader restoration campaign inside the basilica, which included conservation work on sculpture surfaces and a new lighting installation in the Vatican necropolis below the basilica.

Students around the world now have a chance to be an explorer-restorer of the 519-year-old St Peter's Basilica thanks to a new online educational opportunity created by Minecraft Education.

"Being ordained is not an ascent but a descent, whereby we make ourselves small, lower ourselves and divest ourselves," Pope Francis said in a message to 23 men from eight countries, including three from the United States, who were ordained permanent deacons in St Peter's Basilica.

From 24 December to 7 February, almost 1.5 million pilgrims crossed the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica. Approximately 1,300,000.

More than half a million pilgrims crossed the threshold of the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica in the first two weeks after Pope Francis opened it.