The Lateran Basilica

The Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran — not St. Peter's — is the cathedral of Rome and the highest-ranking of all churches in Catholicism. Its formal title is the "Mother and Head of all Churches of the City and the World." It was the first church built after Emperor Constantine's Edict of Milan legalized Christianity in 313.

The feast celebrates not bricks and mortar but what they signify: the Church as a living temple. For over a thousand years before the popes moved to the Vatican, the Lateran was the papal residence and the seat of Church governance. Five ecumenical councils were held within its walls.

Celebrating the dedication of a building may seem strange, but this feast reminds the faithful that sacred spaces matter — that the places where the sacraments are celebrated become, in a real sense, gates of heaven. Every parish church is a daughter of the Lateran.