Pontiff closes holy door of St. Peter’s Basilica, ending jubilee year
January 06, 2026
Pope Leo XIV closed the holy door of St. Peter’s Basilica this morning, ending the ordinary jubilee year of 2025 (booklet, pp. 3-13; video, 7:12-24:17, especially 20:25).
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The ceremony took place at the beginning of the 9:30 Mass for the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.
“This Holy Door is closing, but the gate of your mercy will never be shut, because you always sustain the weary, raise up those who have fallen and open your hand to fill with good things those who place their trust in you,” the Pontiff prayed in Latin, adding:
Now we ask you, O faithful God: Keep open the treasuries of your grace and grant us the strength to persevere in our new life so that we may bear witness in the world to the hope that does not disappoint. And so, at the end of our earthly pilgrimage, we may knock at the door of your house with confidence and taste the fruits of the tree of life.
Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, published an article on the rite and the subsequent walling-up of the door.
Since the 15th century, it has been customary for the Church to celebrate an ordinary jubilee every 25 years. Pope Francis formally proclaimed the 2025 jubilee in his bull Spes Non Confundit and inaugurated the jubilee year on Christmas Eve in 2024.
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