Tales of San Pietro in Vincoli Quiz

Answer: Rome

St. Peter's in Chains was built on top of an older foundation in Rome from 432-440 to specifically house St. Peter's chains. Interestingly, in 1956 when the floor of the basilica was being replaced, workers found remains of five earlier layers of habitation at the site. These layers range from remains of a 15th century church, to a villa that dates back to Nero's time, to the oldest layer, which consists of terra-cotta lamps and pots.

Answer: Rome and Jerusalem

Acts 12:3-19 tells of the imprisonment of St. Peter in Jerusalem by King Herod, and his subsequent escape. Visited by an angel of God, he was struck on his side. This action caused the chains to fall from the ground, and the angel led him out of the prison.

After having received the chains from her mother, Empress Eudoxia, who was the wife of the Western Roman Emperor, Valentinian III, gave them to Pope Leo I. The Pope already had the chains from St. Peter's final imprisonment at the Mamertine Prison in Rome before his death; the story is that when Leo I compared the two sets of chains, they miraculously joined together.

Answer: False

The chains are stored in a reliquary, which is a container for holy objects, such as the bones, clothing, or items - like the chains - that are somehow associated with a saint. A reliquary, made of gold and glass, contains St. Peter's chains and is on display behind the altar of the church.

It is enclosed within the wall with a glass plate in front that allows for viewing. Although it is know that the basilica has been renovated at times throughout history, there is very little information available that confirms how often the chains have been taken out of the reliquary that houses them. One thing is for certain - this visitor to the basilica was not allowed to touch the chains, so the statement that all visitors are allowed to do so is false.

Answer: He would send them shavings from the chains.

Pope Saint Gregory I, also known as St. Gregory the Great, served as the Roman Catholic Pope from 590-604. He is well known for his Gregorian Mission, which sent missionaries out of Rome to convert the pagans in England to Christianity. This led to the establishment of Canterbury as the seat of the Roman Catholic Church in England. According to documentation, the Pope would send filings from the chains to important people of his day who he felt were in need.

The filings were placed in a reliquary shaped like a key with a special prayer, ""that what bound [Peter's] neck for martyrdom, may loose yours from all sins". Those who are believed to have receiving the sacred filings include King Childebert of the Franks and King Rechared of the Visigoths.

Answer: Julius II

In 1505 Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to begin construction on his tomb and the artist spent quite some time choosing just the right marble for the structure. Shortly after, however, Michelangelo left Rome after a quarrel with Julius II; rival artists convinced the pope that Michelangelo would do better to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Although he did not view himself as a painter, Michelangelo spent the next four years (1508-1512) completing the project, after which he went back to working on the pope's tomb.

It was to be an enormous structure, with three levels and over 40 statues that would be placed in St. Peter's Basilica. Julius II, however, died a year later, and it was decided that the project would be down sized; San Pietro in Vincoli was chosen as his new tomb.

His family, the della Rovere, patronized the basilica and Julius II had served as a cardinal there. When all was said and done, the pope's tomb was much smaller in scale than originally planned.

Answer: Moses

The exact terms of the agreement between the pope and Michelangelo regarding the arrangement of his tomb are unknown today. It is known that the pope asked Michelangelo to come to Rome in 1505 to begin work on his tomb; by 1508, however, the pope had focused on the redesign of the Sistine Chapel and pressured the artist to work on that instead. Shortly after the ceiling was completed, the pope died and Michelangelo became busy with commissions from other people.

It is believed that originally the plan was to have a statue of the pope as the focal point, rather than the statue of Moses that exists in the center today, with forty other statues sculpted for the monument.

The project was finally completed later in Michelangelo's life, and it is uncertain among art historians which statues were completed by the master and which ones were completed by his students.

Answer: He started talking to it.

The legend says that when Michelangelo finished sculpting "Moses", he believed the statue looked so life like that he started talking to it! Furious that the statue did not reply, the artist threw his chisel at the right knee; there is still a mark on the knee today that is said to have been caused by this action.

By the way, the horns that are seen on the head of the statue are thought to have been the result of similar translations from the Hebrew word for "horns" and "beam of light". One Old Testament translation said that Moses had horns on his head; today the passage is translated so that it says that his face radiated light.

The use of horns in religious symbolism, however, was common at the time.

Answer: Doric

The inside of the basilica is truly magnificent; the nave, or central part, is divided by two sets of Doric columns. Considered to be the simplest and earliest of the orders of columns, the Doric column was introduced to southern Italy by early Greek colonists who settled in the region they called Magna Gracia, or Great Greece.

The Romans continued to use this style of architecture; in fact, it is believed that the two rows containing ten columns each were taken from an ancient temple or bathhouse and relocated to San Pietro in Vincoli.

Answer: Sebastian

St. Sebastian was, according to legend, killed during the time of Emperor Diocletian's persecutions of Christians. Diocletian believed that it would help the declining Roman Empire if one state religion was worshipped. Consequently, it was mandated that all people were to worship state gods; the deaths of thousands of Christians at this time, however, did not promote unity. Sebastian, a member of a prominent Roman family, became a captain of the emperor's Praetorian Guard, concealing his Christian beliefs. When it was discovered that he was a Christian, Diocletian ordered that Sebastian be taken to a field, tied to a post, and filled with arrows. Left for dead, he was discovered by Irene of Rome, who was later canonized as a saint, and nursed back to health. His recovery was eventually made known to Diocletian, who ordered that Sebastian should be beaten to death.

While St. Sebastian's relics were stored in Rome, they were taken to Pavia, Lombardy, in 680 as people prayed to him for protection against the plague. Consequently, an altar was created in his honor at San Pietro in Vincoli in Pavia, and a similar altar was included in the church in Rome with the same name. The mosaic by an unknown artist does not portray St. Sebastian with arrows; instead, he is holding a crown as an offering to Christ.

Answer: Capitoline Wolf

Thinking back on the history of Rome, remember Remus and Romulus, the twin sons of the god Mars and Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, were ordered to be abandoned on the banks of the flooding Tiber River by their evil uncle. Drawn by noises of the babies crying, a she wolf rescued the boys and took care of them until they were discovered in the woods by the kindly shepherd.

Historians have tried to determine the age of the "Capitoline Wolf", which has long been a symbol of the founding of Rome. The statue was first attributed to the Etruscans, who originally built Rome, and dated to the 5th century BC. New dating techniques, however, have suggested that the statue was made in the 11th century. Nevertheless, it is known that the twin boys were added by a later artist, and Antonio Pollaiuolo is typically given credit for the work. If you don't recognize his name, you might recognize the name of one of his students - Sandro Botticelli.