Basilica de San Clemente

Last year on our trip to Italy some friends took me to what they described as the coolest church in Rome, The Basilica of San Clemente. Located a few minutes walk from the Coliseum, the Basilica de San Clemente is named after Saint Clement, the Bishop of Rome in the late first century and one of the first Fathers of the Church. Supposedly his bones lie entombed in the church after Cyril, another Church Father, discovered them 700 years later. No one really knows and there are several other places that claim to have some or all of Clements' remains. What makes this basilica the coolest in Rome is not the presence or absence of ancient bone relics, but the history of the building itself. Walking into the present church, I was amazed by the brilliant mosaics and renaissance art work built in the 12th Century. The main artwork is positioned directly above the altar and displays Christ on the cross as the river of life leading all to eternal life with God. After being true tourists and trying to stealthily take pictures in the active church, we turned to the right, walked through the gift shop and down directly below the present church, some 20 feet below the street level, where lies the original church building from the 8th Century. Here medieval frescoes decorate the walls and the bones of martyrs lie buried in alcoves. A winding maze of rope railings guided us along each wall until in the far back left of the building we found still more stairs leading down. Now well below the street where cars zoomed along toward the coliseum, we stood on the archeological level of the First Century A.D. A room to our right opened into a Mythraic temple, one of Rome’s cultic, mystery religions. To the left a path led through a warehouse where you could see the waters of an ancient spring running along one side. Some wonder if this public warehouse was eventually used by early Christians before the construction of the first church structure above.

For at least 2000 years this spot has been used for worship. Most of it for the worship of God, but even before that to wrestling with the mystery of humanity's place in this world. The Basilica de San Clemente was one of the highlights of my trip to Rome, but the church as it stands now would not exist without the faith of those who went before and added upon each layer. Our faith is this way too. Not one of us has a simple faith made of a single layer or story. We could each travel back through the layers of our life and find different thoughts and beliefs crafted and shaped by those around us. Perhaps some of these layers are darker than others, but many are beautiful expressions of our wrestling with God throughout our life. Perhaps they even contain, like frescos and relics, the wisdom of people who poured their life and faith into us to help us become who we are today. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, “ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” Let us give thanks to God for growth in our life of faith and let us remember those who have helped and continue to help shape us year after year.