Did You Know? Some Facts about the Vatican City

St. Peter’s Basilica is adorned with 140 statues of saints, martyrs and angels, the Herculean edifice stretching two football fields wide and a staggering six long. The cavernous interior of the basilica has room for over 60,000 worshippers…….over one hundred times the population of Vatican City, the smallest country in the world.

St. Peter’s Basilica

Incredibly, though, not even a citadel of this magnitude could dwarf the piazza before it. A sprawling expanse of granite, St. Peter’s Square is a staggering open space in the congestion of Rome, like a classical Central Park. In front of the basilica, bordering the vast oval common, 284 columns sweep outward in four concentric arcs of diminishing size……..an architectural trompe l’oeil used to heighten the piazza’s sense of grandeur.

St. Peter’s Square

There is a three-quarter mile underground tunnel called Il Passetto (The Little Passage) between the Vatican and Castel San Angelo. Various entrances are located throughout the Vatican buildings since it was originally used to provide a secret escape route for various Popes in the event of sieges of the Vatican, as well as by a few less pious Popes to secretly visit mistresses or oversee the torture of their enemies.

St. Angelo Castle

The Swiss Guards on guard duty inside the Vatican wield the traditional ‘Vatican long sword’ – an eight-foot spear with a razor-sharp scythe – rumoured to have decapitated countless Muslims while defending the Christian crusaders in the fifteenth century. The traditional Swiss Guard uniforms consist of a puffy tunic vertically striped in brilliant blue and gold, with matching pantaloons and spat (a short cloth or leather gaiter, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, worn over a shoe to cover the instep and the ankle. On the feet are worn black flats that look like slippers and a black felt beret covers the head. The uniform was designed by Michelangelo himself, admittedly not one of his better efforts; but they steadfastly remain to this day. There are rigorous requirements for becoming one of the elite Swiss Guard. Recruited from one of Switzerland’s four Catholic cantons, applicants have to be Swiss males between nineteen and thirty years old, at least 5 feet 6 inches, trained by the Swiss Army, and unmarried. This imperial corps is envied by world governments as the most allegiant and deadly security force in the world.

Vatican Swiss Guards

The Vatican is a fortress because the Catholic Church holds half of its equity inside its walls – rare paintings, sculptures, devalued jewels, priceless books; then there is the gold bullion and the real estate deeds inside the Vatican Bank vaults. Inside estimates put the raw value of Vatican City at 48.5 billion dollars.

Vatican City hosts the world’s largest art collection. The Vatican Museum houses

over 60,000 priceless pieces in 1,407 rooms – Michelangelo, Bernini, Botticelli, etc. Many of the pieces are sculptures weighing tons, not to mention that the greatest treasures are architectural – The Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s basilica, Michelangelo’s famed spiral staircase leading to the Museo Vaticano.

Staircase to the Vatican Museum

In 1857, one of the most horrible tragedies occurred in Renaissance art. Pope Pius IX decided that the accurate representation of the male form might incite lust inside the Vatican. So he got a chisel and hacked off the genitalia of every single male statue inside Vatican City. He defaced works by Michelangelo, Bramante, and Bernini. Plaster fig leaves were used to patch the damage. Hundreds of sculptures had been emasculated. (One wonders if there is a huge crate of stone penises stored someplace in the Vatican).

His Holiness’s private library is reputed to contain three thousands ancient volumes along with hundreds of current magazines and periodicals.

Vatican Apostolic Library

The Secret Vatican Archives are located at the far end of the Borgia Courtyard directly up a hill from the Gate of Santa Anna. They contain over 20,000 volumes and are rumoured to hold such treasures as Leonardo da Vinci’s missing diaries and even unpublished books of the Holy Bible. Access into these vaults is only permitted by written decree of the curator and the Board of Vatican Librarians. Or else by papal mandate. To reach the Archives, one has first to pass through four steel doors, each with two passkey entries, down a long stairwell, and through a foyer with two combination keypads. Then, passing through a high-tech series of electronic gates, one arrives at the end of a long hallway outside a set of wide oak double doors. Lastly, one has to open a metal box on the wall too the side of these doors, enter a code and only then does a deadbolt spring open and access is granted. All manuscripts, books and other material are enclosed in glass-walled enclosures since humidity and heat erode ancient vellum and parchments and preservation required them to be sealed up in hermetic vaults like these – air-tight cubicles that keep out humidity and natural acids in the air. Oxygen is regulated by a reference librarian and lighting inside each cubicle is in the red spectrum –v deep red to be more precise since parchment and vellum fades in bright light and so vault lighting is always done with dark lights. Also, since oxygen is an oxidant, hermetic vaults contain very little of it. It’s a partial vacuum inside and breathing whilst inside doing research will feel somewhat strained. The vault entrance consists of a single electronic revolving door. Four access buttons on the door’s inner shaft, one accessible from each compartment, regulate access into the vault. When a button is pressed, the motorized door would kick into gear and make the conventional half rotation before grinding to a halt – a standard procedure to preserve the integrity of the inner atmosphere. Inside each vault, there is only eight per cent humidity.

Deep within the Borgia apartments in the pope’s private reliquary lies the Papal

Vault. This contains those items the church deem too dangerous for anyone’s eyes except the Pope’s. The vault’s key is passed down from Pope to Pope. This vault is purported to contain, amongst other items, the original manuscript for the fourteen unpublished books of the Bible known as the Apocrypha as well as the location of the tomb of the Virgin Mary and of Mary Magdalene.

When a Pope dies, the camerlengo or chamberlain administers the Vatican until a new Pope is elected. As was Vatican tradition, following the Pope’s death the camerlengo has personally to confirm expiration by placing his fingers on the Pope’s carotid artery, listening for breath, and then calling the Pope’s name three times. By law there is no autopsy.* Then, he seals the Pope’s bedroom, destroys the papal fisherman’s ring, shatters the die used to make lead seals, and arranges for the funeral. That done, he begins preparations for the conclave. The College of Cardinals choose one from amongst their number (usually one over eighty years and thus not eligible to vote) as The Great Elector – the conclave’s internal master of ceremonies. The appointed master of ceremonies spends many days prior to conclave poring over the pages of the Universi Dominici Gregis reviewing the subtleties of conclave’s arcane rituals to ensure the election was properly administered.

*(Although countless rumours of treachery and murder abound regarding diverse

Papal deaths throughout the ages, with no autopsy none was ever confirmed. Until recently. Academics not long ago had gotten permission to X-ray the tomb of Pope Celestine V, who had allegedly died at the hands of his overeager successor, Boniface VIII. The researchers had hoped the X-ray might reveal some small hint of foul play – a broken bone perhaps. Incredibly, the X-ray has revealed a ten-inch nail driven into the Pope’s scull).

And more recent in time, When Pope John Paul I died in 1978, it was alleged that

he was the plot of the P2 Masonic Lodge who decided to murder the Pope when it saw that he was determined to dismiss the American Archbishop Paul Marcinkus as President of the Vatican Bank. The Bank had been implicated in shady financial deals with the Masonic Lodge. When the Pope was found dead, he was wearing his day shirt. Why was it torn? No medical investigations were made. Cardinal Villot forbade an autopsy on the grounds that no Pope was ever submitted to a post-mortem. But then, to further substantiate claims of foul play, John Paul’s medicines had mysteriously vanished from his bedside, as did his glasses, slippers and his last will and testament.

Conclave. The name derives from the Latin Con clave which literally means

‘locked with a key’. The cardinals during conclave are locked in the Sistine Chapel whose windows are covered in black velvet in the name of secrecy. This ensures that no one on the inside could send signals or communicate in any way with the outside world. The result is a profound darkness lit only by candles………a shimmering radiance that seems to purify everyone it touches, making all present seem ghostly………..like saints. Only cardinals below the age of eighty are eligible to be present to elect a new pope. The cardinals are permitted no contact whatsoever with the outside world: no phone calls, no messages, and no whispers through doorways. Conclave is a vacuum, not to be influenced by anything in the outside world. This would ensure that the cardinals keep Solum Dum prae oculis ………..only God before their eyes. Conclaves have been held without exception since 1179, surviving earthquakes, famines and even the plague. By law, the chapel door could only be unsealed for two reasons – to remove the very ill, or to admit late cardinals.

Cardinals assembling before Conclave

During voting, each cardinal approaches the altar, kneels and performs the specific balloting procedure as dictated by custom. After calling on Christ the Lord as his witness, he then stands up, holds high over his head his ballot for everyone to see and lowers the ballot to the altar where a plate sits atop a large chalice. He places the ballot on the plate, picks up the plate and uses it to drop the ballot into the chalice. Use of the plate ensures no one secretly drops multiple ballots. After submitting the ballot, he then replaces the plate over the chalice, bows to the cross, and returns to his seat. When the final ballot has been cast, the appointed master of ceremonies approaches the altar and leaving the plate on the chalice, he shakes the ballots to mix them. Then he removes the plate and extracts a ballot at random. He unfolds each ten inch wide ballot and reading the text embossed at the top of each ballot: Eligo in summum pontificem – I, elect as Supreme Pontiff, he announces the nominee’s name that has been written beneath it for everyone to hear. After reading each name, he raises a threaded needle and pierces the ballot through the word Eligo, carefully sliding the ballot onto the thread. Then he makes note of the vote in a logbook. After repeating this procedure for all cast ballots and the last of the ballots had been tallied, the master of ceremonies then checks if the vote was successful or if it had failed. In case of the latter, he takes the thread carrying all the ballots, ties the ends together to create a ring, and lays the ring of ballots on a silver tray. He adds the proper

chemicals and carries the tray to a small chimney at the end of the chapel. Here he lights the ballots. As the ballots burn, the added chemicals create black smoke that in turn flow through a pipe to a hole in the roof where it rises above the chapel for everyone to see. Black smoke signifies that a balloting had taken place and no Pope elected. It is required that a two-thirds majority of votes be obtained for a cardinal to be elected as the new Pope, whereas the right mix of chemicals is added to the decisive ballot and burned to create the white smoke that heralds the election of the new Pope. If for some reason grey smoke emerges from the chimney instead of the white smoke indicating the election of a new Pope, it is confirmed for public knowledge by the ringing of the biggest bell in the Vatican.

The Chimney above the Sistine Chapel that heralds a new Pope

An interesting piece of information that is not generally known outside the Vatican is the fact that according to the ancient forgotten laws put forth in the Romano Pontifici Eligendo, Numero 63, balloting is not the only method by which a Pope can be elected! There is another, more divine method called Acclamation by Adoration. This law states, verbatim: ‘Election by Adoration occurs when all the cardinals, as if by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, freely and spontaneously, unanimously and aloud, proclaim one individual’s name’. Furthermore, the law states that Election by Adoration supersedes the cardinals’ eligibility requirement and permits any clergyman – ordained priest, bishop or cardinal - to be elected.

When a new Pope is elected, he subsequently elects from one of the cardinals a

trustworthy individual, whose identity is kept secret, to act as the ‘Devil’s Advocate’. The infamous Devil’s Advocate is the authority when it comes to scandalous information inside the Vatican. Skeletons in a Pope’s closet is dangerous and, prior to elections, secret inquiries into a candidate’s background are carried out by this lone cardinal whose role is to unearth possible reasons why the eligible cardinals should not become Pope. The Devil’s Advocate is appointed in advance by the reigning Pope in preparation for his own death and is never supposed to reveal his identity, ever.

Conclaves created an intense, politically charged atmosphere, and over the centuries they had turned deadly; poisonings, fist fights, and even murder had erupted within the sacred walls.

During conclave, almost all Vatican City residents and staff are banned from the

city for secrecy and security reasons until the conclave concludes. Only the Swiss Guards and a few other essential personnel like the telephone operator are permitted to remain in the City. And these are in turn continually overseered by a Swiss Guard, even being escorted to the bathroom.

Saint Peter is buried in the most sacred of tombs, buried five stories down, directly

beneath the central cupola of the basilica.

The Crypt with the entrance to the underground catacombs

A Papal sarcophagus in the Crypt

In St. Peter’s Basilica there is a sunken sanctuary beneath the main altar – the sumptuous underground chamber that holds the Vatican’s most sacred relics known as the Niche of the Palliums. Down there, one can see a golden coffer surrounded by exactly ninety nine glowing oil lamps. It was tradition that the clergy vigilantly refills the lamps with sacred oils such that no lamp ever burns out. It is said that they would burn until the end of time. Most people are under the impression that this golden coffer is a reliquary containing the bones of St. Peter. But this is a misconception. The box contains only palliums, woven sashes that the Pope gives to newly elected cardinals. The true grave lies two stories beneath this sanctuary, buried in the earth. The Vatican excavated it in the forties and nobody is allowed down there.

The Niche of the Palliums

The Niche of the Palliums – the sunken chamber lit by ninety-nine oil lamps under the canopy holds the golden box purportedly holding the remains of St. Peter. Behind it is the entrance to the Catacombs below the Cathedral, a dark maze of subterranean crypts. An iron grate seals the steep stairs down to the catacombs. These catacombs are called Terra Santa (Holy Ground) and are considered the most sacred place in all Christendom. Some also refer to these catacombs as the Necropolis. St. Peter was crucified and buried on Vatican Hill.

The colossal subterranean hollow is filled with crumbling mausoleums dotting the

floor everywhere. An awkward grid of narrow walkways wind between the decaying memorials, most of which are fractured brick with marble platings. The maze of passages is riddled with libation tubes called snack holes. The early Christians had believed in the resurrection of the flesh, and they’d used the holes to literally ‘feed the dead’ by pouring milk and honey into crypts beneath the floor. Countless pillars of unexcavated earth rise up, supporting a dirt sky, which hang low over this penumbral hamlet. This is a veritable City of the dead. The topography of these 2000 year old catacombs may seem strange at first because since at first they go downhill, after a time they start ascending again. This feature is due to the fact that the original Vatican Hill is still down there buried beneath the Basilica, with St. Peter’s tomb situated on top of it. As Peter’s eminence spread, new shrines were built on top of the old, and now, the homage stretched 440 feet overhead to the top of Michelangelo’s dome, the apex positioned directly over the original tomb to within a fraction of an inch!

The early Christians built a small shrine over his tomb. The tomb itself is a simple hole in the wall at waist level with a tiny marker beside it that reads: Mausoleum S beyond which lies a small grotto and a meagre, crumbling sarcophagus, actually only a simple terra cotta casket – la tomba di San Pietro. As Christianity spread, the shrine got bigger, layer upon layer, culminating in this colossal basilica. The entire Catholic faith had been built, quite literally, upon St. Peter. The rock. (Upon this rock I will build my church ).

Conquering religions often adopt existing holidays to make conversion less

shocking. It’s call transmutation. It helps people acclimatize to the new faith. Worshippers keep the same holy dates and pray in the same sacred locations (churches, cathedrals, etc. were often erected on the ruins of old pagan temples – a classic example here in Malta is that of the Cathedral in the Cittadella, Victoria, Gozo that is built over the remains of a Roman temple, with the very stones and marble from that temple used for the foundation of the Cathedral). They are also able to use similar symbology……and they simply substitute a different god.

The Christian Church has, since its beginning, borrowed traditions from other

religions, as others have borrowed from it. Still others have evolved separately and yet have eerily similar rites and practices. Below are a few examples.

The halo depicted in paintings of saints is borrowed from the Egyptian sun disks.

Formal Christian tombs and sarcophagi of great men and saints in many old

basilicas, cathedrals and churches are often misaligned with the architecture so that they could lie facing east, reminiscent of ancient sun worship.

The ritual of Christian canonization is taken from the ancient “god-making” rite of

Euhemerus.

The practice of “god-eating” – i.e. Holy Communion – is reminiscent of the Aztecs.

Even the concept of Christ dying for our sins is also reminiscent in the earliest

tradition of the Quetzalcoatl.

The birth of Jesus is celebrated on the 25th December when, according to the Bible, Christ was born in March. Incidentally, 25th December is the ancient pagan holiday of sol invictus – Unconquered Sun – coinciding with the winter solstice.

And as a lasting remembrance of the two oldest and persistent beliefs still present

in Christianity, how about this: i) reminiscent of the ages old worship to mother earth, most Christians revere the Virgin Mary more than Christ himself regardless of what Church teaching emphasize, with more Churches dedicated to her than to any other saint. And ii), ever wonder why all church domes and apses are painted red, and not blue or any other colour? This may come as a surprise to most but even these holy edifices symbolize the other ages old worship – that of the virility of the male symbolised by the erect phallus.

This shows that religions are just a collage…..an assimilated historical record of

man’s quest to understand the divine.

Even our image of God as an old man with a long white beard is borrowed. When the early Christian converts abandoned their former deities, they asked the church fathers what their new Christian God looked like. Wisely, he church chose the most feared, powerful and familiar face in all of recorded history – Zeus.