The Heart of Rome

By Nina Leone

As times grow increasingly evil, the Church will come further and further under attack. We have been so fortunate here to not face severe persecution as they do in many parts of the world, but it is coming, and the question remains: are we preparing for it? The truth is that most of us aren’t ready. How often are we praying to God to give us the grace to not shrink from death if that is what it comes to? The early Church spent their lives preparing for death, and embracing it.

The Martyrdom of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop of Antioch and Apostle of St. John the Apostle

St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop of the Catholic Church in Antioch, and disciple of John the Apostle, died in 110 AD in the Roman Colosseum. The Colosseum is regarded as a martyrdom site according to history and Sacred Tradition. He was thrown to the lions and eaten alive, and he embraced it with these words: “I am God’s wheat, and I must be ground by the teeth of wild beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ.” St. Justin Martyr, Father of the Catholic Church who died in Rome in 165 AD said, “You can kill us, but you cannot do us any real harm.” Tertullian said in 190 AD, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of our faith. The more you kill us, the more we grow." The Christians did not shrink from death—they embraced it. St. Peter and Paul also died in Rome, and their bones are buried there to this day.

Peter had denied Christ three times, in attempt to stand on his own feet with his own strength. If Peter, who walked next to Christ, and walked on water and saw Jesus perform all of his miracles could deny Him because of his own weakness, what makes us think we won’t? According to Sacred Tradition, St. Peter went on to be given the grace to be a martyr.

Revelation 12:11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Times will get worse and worse with the coming of lawlessness and with the intentional destruction of the Church. Jesus promised us in Matthew 16 that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We should ask God every day to please never let us reject Him. We are so weak and cannot do any good thing. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It should be our prayer to never reject Him in the face of evil. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Nothing happens outside of God’s will—even the rulers appointed over us who we groan under happen because God allows for it to.

In the very same spot where the Roman Emperor once sat in the Roman Colosseum and ordered the execution of the Christians who refused to deny Jesus used to sit to watch them die, now stands a cross. So it is, that this is the very definition of what it means when it says, “He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither.” —Isaiah 40:23-24

Christ is King. The Colosseum has since been consecrated as a holy place by the Papacy. In 1750 AD, Pope Benedict XIV consecrated the site of the Colosseum to the memory of the Christian martyrs who were killed there in the name of Jesus Christ. To read the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch (Disciple of John the Apostle), St. Justin Martyr, and St. Polycarp (Disciple of St. John the Apostle, that still exist, click here.

If we think that God left the Church where the bones of the martyrs are, we are mistaken. The gates of hell wont prevail. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When Jesus said, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell wont prevail” He meant it, and St. Peter’s tomb rests under St. Peter’s basilica in Rome under the Church to this day. Thus, God built His Church on the rock, Peter, the first Pope. (click here for list of popes tracing back to St. Peter.)

Saint Peter's tomb is a site under St. Peter's Basilica