By Brad Miner.

But first a note from Robert Royal: Most people, I think, take it for granted that they know about St. Peter's. But Brad Miner gives us a great deal of helpful information and insight about that singular basilica in just a few words today. People may also take the daily appearance of TCT for granted, but I assure you it takes daily dedication on our end as well as your support to make it all happen - from the daily columns to News and Commentaries, to our podcasts, the Posse, TCT courses, and much more. We're getting to the point where it looks like we'll be here for the rest of 2025, but I can't emphasize enough how urgent it is that you do your part. Today. We're here every day for you, will you be there for us?

Now for today's column...

It was built upon the ancient Roman site known as Mons Vaticanus. Vatican Hill is on the west side of the Tiber, facing the seven hills of Rome, and - to put it clearly in context - it is the burial site of Peter, the man to whom our Lord said, "on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it."

St. Peter's Basilica, as we know it today, is a relatively new building, constructed mainly during the Renaissance, which is to say more than 1400 years after the Apostle was martyred on that very spot, c. 68 A.D.

The site was treasured by early Christians, but it wasn't until Emperor Constantine the First (272-337) ended the persecution of Christians and embraced the faith (in hoc signo vinces) that a church could be constructed over Peter's tomb. That was what we now refer to as Old St. Peter's. There are no extant 4th-century images of its appearance, but Shawn Tribe, writing in Liturgical Arts Journal, included this digital mockup "as it may have appeared closer to Constantine's time":

The old church took about 40 years to complete. And it endured for more than a thousand years.

Leon Battista Alberti (d. 1472), often considered the first "Renaissance Man," was among the earliest to call for a new structure to be built on the site because the 4th-century church was collapsing into ruins.

Construction of the current Basilica, however, did not begin until April of 1506. It was completed in November of 1626. Those 120 years may seem like a very long time to build a basilica, but Notre-Dame de Paris took six decades longer, and Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was begun 143 years ago and is not yet complete.

The plan for a new St. Peter's was kick-started by the return of the papacy to Rome from Avignon. And it was a propitious moment, given that there happened to be working in the city an assortment of geniuses such as we'll likely never see again: the aforementioned Alberti, Bernardo Peruzzi, Donato Bramante - and others - until, in 1547 and at the behest of Pope Paul III, the work fell to the great Michelangelo Buonarroti, who seemed never to relish his Vatican work. "I undertake this only for the love of God and in honor of the Apostle," he said. He had earlier tried to dissuade Pope Julius II from using him to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508-1512), but at the age of 71, Michelangelo became the Chief Architect of St Peter's.

Historian James Lees-Milne has written that Michelangelo cleared out the clique of sluggish craftsmen who had been employed at St. Peter's and hired new "basilican workmen with a fresh enthusiasm and zest for the great and holy task ahead of them."

Michelangelo built upon the architect Bramante's work, but like Gaudí, did not live to see the Basilica's consecration. No matter. As the American art historian Helen Gardner wrote, "Without destroying the centralizing features of Bramante's plan, Michelangelo, with a few strokes of the pen, converted its snowflake complexity into massive, cohesive unity."

And massive it is. St. Peter's is the largest church in the world. The Basilica and Colonnade cover nearly 240,000 square feet - nearly six acres.

This brings us to the dome of St. Peter's - in some ways...