Who was the great basilica built for?

Catholic tradition holds that the basilica is the burial site of Saint Peter, chief among Jesus's apostles and also the first Bishop of Rome (Pope). Saint Peter's tomb is supposedly directly below the high altar of the basilica, also known as the Altar of the Confession.



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St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the largest church in the world.

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The word basilica is derived from a Greek term meaning “royal court”—from which the king exercised his reign. In the Catholic world, a basilica is a church building that has been recognized and accorded special privileges by the pope.

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Basilicas (in the Catholic Church) are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the Pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches.

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According to the Catholic Encyclopedia the Cenacle (the site of the Last Supper) in Jerusalem was the first Christian church. The Dura-Europos church in Syria is the oldest surviving church building in the world, while the archaeological remains of both the Aqaba Church and the Megiddo church have been considered to ...

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The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular building with a central nave flanked by two or more longitudinal aisles). Basilicas are either major basilicas, of which there are four, all in the Diocese of Rome, or minor basilicas, of which there were 1,810 worldwide as of 2019.

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To clarify: a cathedral is any church that is the “seat” of a bishop. There is one cathedral per diocese. A basilica is any church named highly important by the pope based on its historical or cultural importance, its art or beauty, its signi?cance in the liturgical life of the Church or a variety of these attributes.

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Although not all popes are buried at the Vatican Grottoes, there are over 90 papal tombs inside. Some of them include Pius VI Braschi, who was captured by the French and died a prisoner in 1799, John Paul I Luciani, whose reign lasted for just 33 days, Adrian IV, the only English pope, and many more.

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Annually, the Basilica of Santa María de Guadalupe has at least twice as many visitors as the best-known Marian shrines, making it an outstanding social and cultural phenomenon.

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There are two types of basilicas – Major Basilicas and Minor Basilicas. First among the Major Basilicas is the Lateran Basilica of Saint John, which is the Pontifical Cathedral of the Holy Father as the Bishop of Rome.

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The following is a list of Basilicas in Rome. An ecclesiastical basilica is a Roman Catholic church building which has been granted special status by the Pope. There are 66 such churches in Rome, more than any other city, and more than 125 of the 131 countries in the world that have basilicas.

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