ST. JOHN LATERAN

Named after a wealthy family, the Laterani. Founded about 318 AD by Emperor Constantine.

He had a vision before going into battle: Christ came to him and told him to put a Christian cross on his soldiers’ shields. Costantine won the battle against Maxentius, thereby becoming emperor. He converted to the new religion and immediately legalized Christianity, forbidding the persecution of its followers.

He chose a location away from the center of the city (and its pagan population) to build the Archbasilica of the Holy Savior. It is the cathedral of Rome, part of Vatican City, built over the barracks of Emperor Maxentius’s bodyguards, thus symbolically proclaiming Constantine’s victory over Maxentius and the victory of Christiianity over paganism. Very little remains of the first church. A long list of disasters included the terrible 896 earthquake, plundering by Vandal hordes of Alaric in 410 and of Genseric in 455 and neglect as popes fled to Avignon in France.

The present church dates from the 17^th century.