The Basilica or St. Peter or the Golden Ceiling 

 

 

 

St. Augustine's close friend, companion and brother bishop, St. Possidius, with whom Augustine lived far almost forty years, wrote a simple biography of Augustine's life shortly after he died on August 28, 430 A.D. In his conclusion and final chapter of the brief life, Possidius begins:       

"God granted this holy man a long life for the benefit and prosperity of his church (he lived seventy-six years, almost forty of them as a cleric and bishop) .... in his final illness; he had the very few Davidic psalms on repentance written out and the sheets attached to the wall opposite his bed; while he lay ill, he looked at them, read them, and wept continually and copiously .... He did not make a will because as a poor man of God he had nothing to leave. He always intended that the library of the church and all the books in it should be carefully preserved for posterity .... His legacy to the Church was a very numerous clergy and monasteries filled with men and women vowed to continence under the guidance of tlleir superiors, as well as libraries containing his own books and discourses and those of other holy men. From these .... we can know his quality and importance as a churchman; in them he will always be alive for the faithful. So too, one of the secular poets dictated the following epitaph for the tomb which he ordered built for himself by the public road: "Traveler, would you know how a poet, dead, lives on? When you read, I speak, and your voice is mine. "                                                  

The Life of St. Augustine 31: 1, 2, 6, 8 Originally, in the time of the Roman Empire, a basilica was an ancient Roman public building having a centrai nave with an apse at one or both ends and two side aisles formed by rows of columns. This type of Roman building was 'Christianized' when Christianity became the official religion of the empire and the design began to be used in the construction of churches. In later years, the title 'basilica' began to be used and reserved by the Catholic Church as a particular church that was accorded special privileges by the pope because of its special importance and prominence. This particular Basilica was so designated because of its antiquity. (There is mention of a church of St. Peter the Apostle in Pavia in 604 but it is believed to go back even further. It was renovated by Luitprand, King of the Lombards between 720 and 725). Within it are found the tombs both of the celebrated Roman Christian philosopher, Boethius, as well as St. Augustine of Hippo. This Basilica is also mentioned by three eminent Italian authors: Dante, Petrach and Boccaccio. A tablet on the right side of the façade of the Basilica cites the passage from Dante's Il Paradiso where the church is mentioned. As indicated, King Luitprand renewed the building early in the eight century (720-725) and added to the name of St. Peter the words 'in coelo aureo' in Italian, 'in ciel d'oro' and in English, 'or the golden ceiling' because of the gilded wooden ceiling that was installed at that time. Furthermore, Luitprand, with full honors, placed the remains of the body of St. Augustine of Hippo in the church. In 722, he had paid its weight in gold to bave it moved from the city of Cagliari on the island of Sardinia where it had been transferred from Hippo Regius in North Africa, perhaps to save it from the onslaught of Vandal, Arabic and/or Saracen invasions. Most scholars are of the opinion that it was the Vandal invasion in North Africa that prompted the body's removal from Hippo Regius to Sardinia. Augustine died on August 28, 430, just as they were laying siege to the port of Hippo.

In his The Life of St. Augustine, his friend and biographer notes: The part of his life that he endured almost at the very end was thus the bitterest and saddest of his old age. For the man of God saw cities destroyed, farm buildings razed and their inhabitants either slaughtered by the enemy or put to flight and scattered, churches stripped of their priests and ministers, consecrated virgins and men vowed to continence scattered in all directions. " (28: 6 -7) It would bave been the bishops and monks who had known him during his life that procured a way to remove his body to Sardinia for protection. It was said that they also carried their faith and their monastic life there. Other scholars say that it was during the Arab invasion in the latter part of the seventh century that this occurred. In that case, Augustine's body would bave remained in Sardinia for only a few decades and some 500 years would therefore bave to be eliminated from its time in Sardinia. We know of King Luitprand's transferal of Augustine's bones in 722 from the writing of the Venerable Bede. It too involved invasions and pillages, this time by the Saracens. When Luitprand heard that the Saracens had laid waste to Sardinia and were about to desecrate the place where the bones of St. Augustine the Bishop had been placed with honor to save them from the devastations of the barbarians, he ordered them to be acquired at a great price and brought to Pavia. Here they were placed with the honor duke to so great a Father. (Chronicles) The present basilica is believed to be from the second half of the twelfth century. It is lower than the attual street level because the city has grown higher with urban renewal. Because of the presence of St. Augustine's remains, the church had achieved a widespread fame over the centuries. In addition to its reference in Dante's classic, it is the scene of one of the chapters of Boccaccio's Decameron. The custody of the church and of the bones of Augustine also has its own history. Originally a Benedictine Church, it was given first to the Canons of St. Augustine in 1221.

One hundred years later, the Friars of St. Augustine (the Order of St. Augustine) were brought to Pavia to share in the task. Reference to this kind of two-fold care of Augustine's bones will be made later. The marble Arc or The Tomb of St. Augustine An object of particular artistic worth in the basilica is the marble 'arc' in the apse of the basilica where the bones of St. Augustine are kept in a special golden urn within a locked and heavily guarded silver case. It was carved in the fourteenth century and took almost fifty years to complete. Carved in marble are scenes from the lire of Augustine, e.g., Augustine listening to the homilies of St. Ambrose in Milan; a conversation between Augustine and the priest, Simplicianus, the 'Tolle Lege' event under the fig tree in the garden in Milan; Augustine's reception of the white tunic of a catechumen from bishop Ambrose; the burial of St. Monica; Augustine's giving of his Rule to the friars; a dispute between Augustine, the bishop, and a group of heretics; and Augustine baptizing some people in Hippo. Numerous Augustinian saints and representations of virtues are carved in the marble as well. Along tbe balustrade or the sanctuary are oil lamps representing each of the Provinces of the Augustinian Order. Every year, the Provinces send a donation of the community to pay for tbe oil that keeps their light symbolically burning close to their Holy Fatber, Augustine. The grand mosaic in Paleochristian strie which covers the ceiling of the apse above the Arc was done in 1900 and pictures very large representations of Christ, the Redeemer, St. Peter, the Apostle, on His right, and St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica on His left.

The urn of St. Boethius (480 - 525-526) Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, Roman statesman and philosopher, often styled 'the last of the Romans', regarded by tradition as a Christian martyr, was born at Rome in 480, exactly fifty years after St. Augustine died in North Africa. Descended from a consolar family, he was left an orphan at an early age and was educated by the pious and noble-minded Symmachus, who daughter, Rusticana, he married. As early as 507, Boethius was known as a learned man and as such, was entrusted by King Theodoric with several important missions. After enjoying the confidence of the king, bis enemies made false accusations against him and without being heard, he was cast into prison and eventually executed. During bis imprisonment, he reflected on the instability of the favor of princes and the inconstancy of the devotion of bis friends. These reflections suggested to him the theme of bis best-known philosophical work, the De Consolatione Philosoohiae, by far, the most interesting example of prison literature the world has ever seen. It is a dialogue between Philosophy and Boethius in which the Queen of Sciences strives to console the fallen statesman. The main argument of the discourse is the transitoriness and unreality of all earthly greatness and the superior desirability of the things of the mind. That the De Consolatione was a favorite study of theologians as well as of poet is evidenced by the numerous references or paraphrases by such authors as Dante and Tennyson as well as imitations under the title of De Consolatione Theologiae which were widely read during the later Middle Ages. Boethius died in Pavia in either 524 or 525.

His remains are venerated in the crypt of the Basilica in an elegant sarcophagus of Byzantine style, much like similar objects found in Ravenna, Italy. King Luitprando's remains are also found in this crypt. The former monastery of the Augustinian Canons In 1221, the bishop of Pavia invited the Augustinian Canons or Canons Regular (so called because they followed the Rule of St. Augustine) to build a monastery next to the Basilica. They took over the care of the church from the Benedictines who had been there for many years. There is often some confusion regarding the identity of the Augustinian Canons, particularly in relationship to the Augustinian Friars. They are two separate groups of religious.

When Augustine was ordained a priest and then a few years later, was ordained as bishop of Hippo Regius in North Africa, he desired to continue to live a common life with others as he had done for some years in his home town of Tagaste upon his return from Italy in 388. Within a short time, based on his experience of living the Christian life in common with other priests, he wrote his famous Rule, establishing simple and practical guidelines for this way of life. He based his Rule on scriptural texts found in the New Testament's The Acts of the Apostles with its emphasis of the early Jerusalem Christian community sharing all things in common. Augustine lived with others according to these guidelines for the rest of his life and had been responsible for this way of life spreading through much of North Africa. Coinciding with his death on August 28, 430 A.D., the vandals from northern Europe, having sacked Rome and having brought about the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire, most of the monks who had lived in that region fled into Europe by way of Spain.           

Centuries later, the Canons Regular, as they began to form themselves in the twelfth century adopted Augustine's Rule and envisioned themselves as his descendants, charged with carrying on his way of life. They were ordained clergy, gathered around the bishop with the intent of assisting in the ministry of the church as did the monks of Augustine's day. It was members of this group who were invited to come to this church which contained the remains of St. Augustine who came to Pavia in 1221. Their monastery was built on the left side of what is now the basilica. They ministered there until 1799, the time of the Napoleonic suppression of religious life. The basilica was turned into a stable for the horses of the French soldiers and eventually fell into ruin. The old monastery was taken over by the state and continues to be in its possession.

It has had a variety of uses over the past two hundred years but neither the Canons Regular nor any religious group has inhabited the former monastery. St. Augustine's Convent or Friary About 106 years after the Canons had been at the basilica, the bishop invited the Augustinian Friars to come to Pavia in 1327, perhaps with the intention of reforming or reviving the spirituality of the basilica. They built their convent or friary on the right side of the church. Soon after their arrival, they commissioned the building of a splendid marble arc to contain the bones of St. Augustine. They ministered along side the Canons Regulars also until 1799. One can imagine that the relations between the different 'sons of Augustine' were often delicate and tense and had their times of highs and lows trying to lay claim to who were the 'authentic' heirs of the North African bishop.

Their way of life, namely between monk and friar, differed. The friars had come into existence in Tuscany, Italy, in 1244 at the invitation of the pope at that time. Their approach to life as an apostolic community of friars, based also on Augustine's Rule, offered them a great deal of flexibility to move about serving the spiritual, religious and sacramental needs of the people. Less than one hundred years after their beginning, a group of them found themselves invited to Pavia. Over the years between 1327 and 1799, there often were disputes about who 'owned' Augustine's bones! Both groups were suppressed by Napoleon along with other religious communities. During the next century, a whole side wall of the basilica collapsed. Augustine's remains were removed to the Cathedral of Pavia. The basilica remained in great disrepair until its restoration in 1896. The Augustinian Friars returned in 1900 and have served at the basilica ever since.