Pilgrimage series: Colosseum has fascinating history

Editor's note: Fourteenth in a series on the sacred places and tombs of saints included in The Compass pilgrimage to Rome and Paris that retired Green Bay Bishop Robert Banks will lead May 3-13. (More information on pilgrimage)

By Tony Staley

	The Colosseum What: Amphitheater When: Built c.70-80 AD Where: Rome

The final day of touring in Italy, the pilgrims will go to the Colosseum, which is among the best known symbols of Rome.

In the Christian mind, the Colosseum also represents the brutal slaying of numerous early martyrs. While there is no doubt that the Romans martyred many believers, there's no solid evidence concerning the Colosseum.

That is the finding of Fr. Hippolyte Delehaye (1859-1941), a Belgian Jesuit. Fr. Delehaye was a Bollandist, an association of Catholic scholars who engage in critical studies of church history and the lives of the saints.

Trust-worthy historical sources tell of the martyrdom of Christians in Nero's garden, but there are no similar accounts linked to the Colosseum, Fr. Delehaye said. It's just as likely, he said, that they died in Circus Flaminius, the Gaianum, the Circus of Hadrian, the Amphitheatrum Castrense or the Stadium of Domitian.

Early Christians paid little attention to where a martyr died, other than scooping up any blood-stained sand as a relic; they concentrated on where the saint was buried. During the Middle Ages the Colosseum was not considered a place of martyrdom.

Pope St. Pius V (1566-72) seems to be the first to consider the Colosseum as a place of martyrdom. He suggested gathering sand from the arena as a relic of the blood of martyrs. But soon after, Pope Sixtus V (1585-90) was making plans to convert the Colosseum into a woolen goods factory.

In 1653, the view of St. Pius V took hold when Fioravante Martinelli, published a work listing the Colosseum as the top place of martyrdom. Despite that, in 1671 Cardinal Paluzzo Altieri gave permission for bullfights in the Colosseum. Carlo Tomassi responded by publishing a pamphlet labeling the plan a profanity. In 1675, Pope Clement X (Cardinal Altieri's uncle) closed the exterior and made the Colosseum a sanctuary.

Pope Benedict XIV (1740-58), urged on by St. Leonard of Port Maurice, placed Stations of the Cross in the Coliseum, which remained until the government ordered their removal in 1874.

Nineteenth century popes Pius VII, Leo XII, Gregory XVI and Pius IX gave generously to preserve the Colosseum because they thought early Christians held it sacred as a place of martyrdom.

Throughout his papacy, Pope John Paul II presided at the Way of the Cross around the Colosseum on Good Friday until his impending death in 2005 forced him to watch on TV. For 16 years he carried the cross for the entire ceremony.

Starting in 1995, after hip surgery, he did it only part way, until 2002 when even that was not possible. Pope Benedict XVI has continued the tradition of leading the Way of the Cross through the Colosseum and will do so again this year on March 21.

Construction of the Colosseum began in about 70-72 AD under the Emperor Vespasian in an area Nero had turned into a lake. The elliptically-shaped amphitheater is 620 feet long, 525 feet wide and 157 feet high and could seat 50,000. It was the site of games or circuses in honor of the Roman gods, including gladiator contests, chariot races and wild animal hunts.

After the fall of Rome, the Colosseum was used for housing and workshops and in the 6th century it even held a small church. For a while one noble family used it as a castle. The south side collapsed in an earthquake in 1349 and the stone was used to build churches, hospitals and palaces. For several centuries a religious order used part of the building as a monastery.

Next: Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres

(Staley is a retired editor of The Compass.)