Biography
The Vatican church, dedicated in honour of Saint Peter, is the second patriarchal church at Rome, and in it reposes one half of the precious remains of the bodies of Saints Peter and Paul. The tombs of the great conquerors and lords of the world have been long since destroyed and forgotten; but those of the martyrs are glorious by the veneration which the faithful pay to their memory. Amongst all the places which the blood of martyrs has rendered illustrious, that part of the Vatican hill which was consecrated with the blood and enriched with the relics of the prince of the apostles, has always been most venerable. "The sepulchres of those who have served Christ crucified," says Saint Chrysostom, "surpass the palaces of kings, not so much in the greatness and beauty of the buildings (though in this also they go beyond them) as in another thing of more importance, namely, in the multitude of those who, with devotion and joy, repair to them. For the emperor himself, who is clothed in purple, goes to the sepulchres of the saints, and kisses them; and, humbly prostrate on the ground, beseeches the same saints to pray to God for him; and he who wears a royal crown upon his head, holds it for a great favour of God, that a tent-maker and a fisherman, and these dead, should be his protectors and defenders, and this he begs with great earnestness." And Saint Austin, or another ancient father. "Now at the memory of the fisherman the knees of the emperor are bowed, and the precious ston