Mamertine Prison in Rome

During this dearth of travel opportunities, what are you doing to keep yourself occupied? I am looking back on recent trips.

Last Spring, I took my second trip to Rome. If you read about my first trip there a few years ago, you know the city holds special meaning for me, as a Christian, with all its religious sites. The Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls remains one of my most beloved places, mainly because it probably does contain the remains of the writer of most of the New Testament, in a marble sarcophagus under the basilica. Carbon dating was used in 2009 to confirm that the bone fragments found there date to the first or second century AD and so likely are, indeed, those of the apostle.

San Paulo Fuori le Mura; the chains that bound Paul

Saint Paul’s head, however, is believed to be in Saint John Lateran, along with Saint Peter’s. Saint John Lateran is the Archbasilica and Papal Seat of Rome. It is another emotionally charged Roman site, of course because of the aforementioned remains, but also because it houses Michelangelo’s Moses, a huge marble sculpture originally intended as a tomb decoration for a 16^th century Pope. The sculpture is impressive because of its massive size but also because it seems to be about to come to life at any moment. It is second only to the Pietà, also by Michelangelo, and found in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, also well worth the considerable trouble to see.

San Giovanni in Laterano: the papal seat and Michelangelo’s Moses

Both times in Rome, I visited all three of those sacred locations. And I probably will see Saint Paul’s and Saint John’s again because they move me nearly to tears each time. But the first time I went to Rome, I didn’t get to visit Mamertine Prison, the Capitoline Hill location where both Paul and Peter were held before their executions. I promised myself I would see it the next time, and last April I did. Not only that, but we stayed in an Airbnb within a stone’s throw of the place and the adjacent forum. The Colosseum was also within walking distance. Best.Location.Ever.

Mamertine Prison is a tiny facility with a two room museum on the ground floor and the prison under the building. It takes all of thirty minutes to see. But for me it was a contemplative experience, knowing these two spiritual giants may well have spent their last weeks on earth in this location.

Mamertine Prison, anciently known as Tullianum

There are two prison cells, one on top of the other. The lower cell once could be reached only by a hole in the floor of the upper cell. Now the upper one is mainly an anteroom for the cell in which the apostles were said to be held, the one on the lowermost level. It is reached now by a stairway, at the top of which is a broken stone in the wall, said to have been broken by Saint Peter’s head smacking against it as he was tossed below. That may or may not be true but it is fairly likely that the prison did actually hold both Peter and Paul before they were executed, as holding before trial or execution was the main purpose of this particular detention area at the time.

Of course, the main attraction is the lower prison cell, a space about the size of a modern American living room. In the middle is the spring that Peter used to baptize other cellmates during his stay there. It is bare and once lead directly into the city’s sewage system, where dead prisoners were likely thrown to be swallowed up by the Tiber River. Normally there is an altar there decorated with an upside-down cross, commemorating how Saint Peter apparently died, upside-down because he declared himself unworthy to be crucified like the Lord. It has of late been under renovation of some kind.

The spring Peter used to baptize

Naturally prone to introspection, I reveled in the few minutes alone in the darkened space, spending as long as I dared down there, imagining how they must have lived for those weeks in that damp, dark space, leaving reluctantly only when another small group of tourists filed in behind me. The presence of the apostles weighed heavily on me, and I called to mind the recent film, Paul, Apostle of Christ, as well as passages in the New Testament, so much of the Christian Bible written by him.

Sensing that presence is indescribable, to be honest. Exiting into the blinding sunlight, my friend and I didn’t have too many words we wanted to speak aloud; we stood and basked in the sunlight for a few minutes, took a few photos and sauntered contemplatively on.

So I ask again, during this dry travel spell, what are you doing to quiet your wanderlust?