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It’s December 24, 1974. On this Christmas Eve, the Vatican television cameras are focused on the 262nd Roman Pontiff. Wearing his mitre and liturgical vestments, Paul VI prepares to publicly open the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica for the Great Jubilee of 1975: A solemn moment for the Catholic Church, which celebrates these jubilees every 25 years with great pomp and ceremony.
As is customary, the Pope symbolically strikes the Door — which, on the right of the nave, is open only during the Jubilees — with three hammer blows. Then the brick wall, which has sealed the Door since the last Jubilee, is cut away before the eyes of the assembly, before being lowered slowly by a winch in front of the pontiff … When suddenly, to the great fright of his acolytes, rubble suddenly falls from the top of the wall, narrowly missing the Successor of Peter!
The black-and-white images documenting the incident show that the Bishop of Rome didn’t move a fraction of an inch, clearly remaining stoic in the face of the collapse. But in the Vatican, the lesson had a lasting effect. Henceforth, popes will no longer wield hammers, and the brick wall — containing the door’s key box — will be dismantled a few days before the start of the Jubilee, to spare the Bishop of Rome any further masonry mishaps.
Nowadays, at the inauguration of a Jubilee Year the Pope simply symbolically pushes open the door — as Pope Francis will do at the opening of the Jubilee Year 2025, to be held at the Vatican Basilica on December 24.
Since 1500
If Holy Doors are the symbol par excellence of the Jubilee Year, St. Peter’s Holy Door is even more so. It has marked the launch of the Jubilees since the year 1500 with Pope Alexander VI.
The door’s current design was created in 1949 by sculptor Vico Consorti. It’s engraved with 16 panels telling the story of humanity’s redemption, from the first sin, the expulsion from Eden, to Jesus’ death and resurrection. The frieze concludes with an image of Christ as the door of salvation.
In fact, symbolically, the Holy Door represents Jesus, who declares in the Gospel: “I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved …” (Jn 10:9). Crossing the Holy Door, for the millions of pilgrims expected in Rome next year, is a “sign of the salvific passage that Christ opened through his incarnation, death and resurrection,” explains the Vatican’s editorial director for media, Andrea Tornielli, in a video.
Each of the four great Roman basilicas — St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls — houses a Holy Door. By passing through them at the end of their pilgrimage, the faithful receive an indulgence.
Other Holy Doors may be opened around the world for local jubilees — the Basilica of Assisi has one, as does the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception — or for extraordinary jubilees.
For the 2015-2016 Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis chose to open the first Holy Door in Bangui, Central African Republic. For 2025, the Argentine Pontiff plans to open one in a prison.
And today we celebrate...