The First Holy Years
by Joan Lewis
As we saw last month, the first Holy Year was the Jubilee of the Year 1300, called for by Pope Boniface VIII. We are told that, between Christmas 1299 and New Years Day 1300, huge crowds of Romans flocked to St. Peter's Basilica, having heard rumours that extraordinary indulgences would be obtained by those who prayed at the tomb of the first Pope, or who venerated Veronica's veil. This relic, a recent arrival to the basilica and called quite simply 'the Veronica', from vera (true) icona (icon or image) was allegedly the veil with which Jesus' face was wiped, leaving a perfect image, on his walk through Jerusalem to Calvary.
Pilgrimages continued throughout the month of January, with ever growing numbers of faithful visiting the basilica. Pope Boniface, reading 'the signs of the times', consulted the cardinals of the Curia and, on February 22, 1300, he promulgated the Decree Antiquorum habet digna fide relatio, with which he instituted the Jubilee.
According to that decree, those who wished to obtain a plenary indulgence, "must visit the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul for 30 days continuously, or interpolatedly and at least once a day if they were Romans, or fifteen days in the same manner if they were foreigners." Previously, indulgences had been granted only on exceptional occasions. Thus, with this papal bull, the plenary indulgence became part and parcel of Jubilee celebrations.
Invaded by tourists!
History records that the city of Rome made preparations to worthily accept foreign pilgrims, including increasing the number of places where one could obtain food and lodging. Another gate was opened in the city walls to receive the influx of visitors and the famous Sant'Angelo Bridge, which crossed the Tiber to the Vatican, was divided into two 'lanes' by a short wall, with arriving pilgrims on one side and departing pilgrims on the other. As 'all roads lead to Rome', roads from major cities in Europe were often improved and bridges either restored or repaired.
In medieval times, the three most prominent destinations for pilgrims were Rome (to the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul), Santiago de Compostela in Spain (the tomb of St. James) and Jerusalem (the Holy Sepulchre). A pilgrim to Rome was called a 'romeo', those to Spain 'jacquaires' (from Jacques, the French for James) and those to Jerusalem, palm bearers', because pilgrims brought home a palm branch from the Holy Land as a symbol of their pilgrimage.
Often the pilgrims bore a distinctive mark on their hats or clothing. Visitors returning from Rome had either the image of St. Peter and St. Paul or that of the Holy Face (from Veronicas veil, preserved in St. Peter's Basilica); for Jerusalem pilgrims, the palm was again their symbol, and for those coming from Compostela, it was a scallop shell. A pilgrims outfit usually consisted of a walking staff, a shoulder bag to carry some of life's necessities, a broad hat for protection against sun and rain and a cape, known as a pelerine (from peregrines, meaning one who comes from afar). These capes were frequently impregnated with wax to shield travellers against the rain and cold.
In 1300 Pope Boniface VIII had decreed that Holy Years would take place at 100-year intervals. However, in 1343, a delegation of Romans, including members of noble families, went to see Pope Clement VI in Avignon, France, where the seat of the papacy had been moved in 1309. They petitioned the Pope to change the frequency of Holy Years, reasoning that most people would never live long enough to celebrate a Jubilee. Clement responded by calling for a Holy Year in 1350, and he decreed that they be celebrated every 50 years.
The Jubilee of 1350 was indeed celebrated in Rome, but without the Pope as it was not until 1377, during the pontificate of Gregory XI, that the Holy See was transferred back to Rome. It was a difficult Jubilee as Rome had allowed many buildings and monuments to deteriorate during the Avignon period. The plague, too, had swept Europe in 1348 and, while it spared Rome to a great extent, some pilgrims were still afraid to make a trip to the Eternal City. Romans, however, in thanksgiving to the Virgin for having generally spared them, had erected the famous marble staircase of Ara Coeli, leading to the church of the same name, Altar of Heaven. In 1349 the city was struck by a violent earthquake which damaged many buildings, including the basilicas of St. Pauls, St. Peters and St. John Lateran, in addition to those which had been neglected during the transfer of the papacy.
Successive Jubilee Years
Pope Urban VI, successor to Gregory XI, who returned the papacy to Rome from Avignon, decided in 1389 to celebrate that return with a Jubilee. He also decided that henceforth Jubilees would occur every 33 years, the age of Jesus at his death. However, this meant that the one after 1350 should have taken place in 1383. As it was now 1389—and too late—he called for a Jubilee to be held in 1390. Urban VI, however, died before officially opening the Holy Year: this task fell to his successor, Boniface IX.
Boniface celebrated a second Jubilee Year in 1400, following the directives of his namesake predecessor who in 1300 had directed that Holy Years be held at every turn of a century. Historians are not always in agreement on whether or not to include 1400 as an official Jubilee, given that there was no bull of convocation. It appears that the term 'Holy Year' appeared for the first time in 1400, though the word 'Jubilee' continued to be used.
Pope Martin V, following Urban VI's decree of Jubilees at 33 year intervals, proclaimed one for 1423, thus dating it from 1390, and simply not counting the year 1400. Again, there seems to be no bull for this Holy Year. A tradition was to begin this year which has continued to this day: Pope Martin opened a Holy Door at the basilica of St. John Lateran.
Nicholas V, considered the first humanist Pope, did count the Jubilee Year 1400 and, preferring to adhere to the 50 year intervals, called one for 1450, the first in the early Renaissance period. It was Pope Nicholas who introduced the custom of a pontiff greeting the faithful in St. Peter's Square on Sundays and holidays, and it was he who made canonisations and beatifications a regular part of Jubilee year celebrations.
Twenty years later, in 1470, Pope Paul II issued a bull declaring that Holy Years would, starting in 1475, be celebrated at 25 year intervals. Except for extraordinary Holy Years, that period is still respected today. Paul II aid not live to see the 1475 Jubilee: that was inaugurated by his successor, Pope Sixtus IV (who gave his name to the Sistine Chapel which he built in 1473). Pope Sixtus also issued orders that Rome be improved and beautified. In fact, one of the city's better known bridges, Ponte Sisto, is also named after this pontiff. One novelty of this Holy Year was the use of the newly-invented printing press to print the bull of indiction. It was also used to print information for pilgrims such as the times and places of Holy Year ceremonies.
The Holy Year 1500 definitively ushered in the custom of opening a Holy Door on Christmas Eve and closing it the following year on Christmas Day. Pope Alexander VI opened the first Holy Door in St. Peters Basilica, and his legates opened doors in the other three patriarchal basilicas. Alexander created a new opening in the portico of St. Peters and commissioned a door made of marble for the occasion. It was 3.5 meters high and 2.2 wide (11 feet by 7 feet), and lasted until 1618, when another door 4 was installed in the new basilica. That door was replaced in 1950 by a bronze door, which is still in use.
Michelangelo's Pieta was completed for the Holy Year of 1500, and placed in a side chapel.
The shadow of the Reformation
Pope Clement VII opened the Holy Year 1525 in the shadow of the Protestant Reformation. The atmosphere was quite tense and the Holy Year took place in a very understated way, with far fewer pilgrims than normal coming from abroad.
The following Holy Year, 1550, was marked by the tensions of the Counter-Reformation and the infamous Sack of Rome in 1527. It took place during the Council of Trent (1545-63), convened by Pope Paul III to help ease those tensions. Paul died in 1549 and his successor, Pope Julius III, immediately proclaimed the Holy Year after his election on February 22,1550. Two future saints—Ignatius of Loyola and Philip Neri—participated in this Jubilee. That same year the Pope gave his approval to the Order founded by Ignatius, the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits.
Pope Gregory XIII proclaimed the Holy Year 1575 with a bull issued on the Feast of the Ascension and read again on the last Sunday of Advent, a practice which continues today. This was indeed a year for jubilation as the Council of Trent had been brought to a successful conclusion twelve years earlier and Rome had been restored and embellished following the Sack of Rome. Pilgrims flocked to the Eternal City in 1575: some accounts put the number at 300,000. During his pontificate Pope Gregory reformed the calendar, founded the papal observatory and the Gregorian University and laid out Via Merulana, which connects the basilicas of St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major. Another street, Via Gregoriana, bears his name.
Pope Clement VIII was pontiff during the Holy Year 1600, which, chronicles tell us, had the most massive participation ever of pilgrims. The Pope, in fact, instituted two commissions of cardinals to whom he entrusted the ceremonial and logistical aspects of the Jubilee. Clement VIII was the pilgrim par excellence: not only did he assiduously visit Rome's basilicas—history tells us he fulfilled 60 visits—he personally attended to assisting pilgrims and donated large sums of his personal money to this end. During Lent, he invited twelve poor people to eat meals with him.
The Holy Year 1625 was celebrated in the new St. Peters Basilica, though it was only officially dedicated by Pope Urban VIII on November 18, 1626. This is the same date on which the old basilica was supposedly dedicated in 326. This celebration took place during the Thirty Years War (1618-48). Due to a flood which had made St. Pauls Basilica unusable, the Pope replaced it with Santa Maria in Trastevere and personally opened the Holy Door. The Pope also issued an order extending the spiritual effects of a Holy Year to all who would be unable to participate but who wished to do so: old people, the ill, cloistered religious and prisoners. Roman pontiffs since then have continued to respect this disposition.
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