On the occasion of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Saint Paul, on Saturday, June 29, the solemn procession of the chains of Saint Paul took place in Rome, around the papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where the relics of the Apostle of the Gentiles.
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The procession began around 8:00 pm (local time) and hundreds of faithful participated, led by the abbot of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Fr. Donato Ogliari OSB.
The procession, in which the relic of Saint Paul and an image of him were carried, was accompanied musically by the classical band A. Panizza from the city of Frascati.
At the end of the tour through the streets surrounding one of the four papal basilicas – the other three are Saint Peter, Saint John Lateran and Saint Mary Major – the faithful were blessed with the relics of Saint Paul.
The chains of Saint Paul
The Diocese of Rome points out in its website that it is possible to venerate the chains under the altar of confession, in a reliquary placed over the tomb of Saint Paul, where the sarcophagus containing his remains is.
The chain, which is the one worn by Saint Paul when he was a prisoner in Rome, is composed of nine links, supported by two Roman coins that have the effigy of Nero, the emperor under whom the Apostle of the Gentiles suffered the martyrdom of beheading. .
“These chains, a symbol of the limitation of human freedom, did not prevent Paul from announcing the kingdom of God and teaching ‘the things relating to the Lord Jesus Christ, with all frankness and without hindrance’”; add the text.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.