What are holy doors? They only exist in 8 churches around the world

by Andrea
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What are holy doors? They only exist in 8 churches around the world

maximus shoots / Flickr

What are holy doors? They only exist in 8 churches around the world

St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican

“I am the door: whoever enters through me will be saved, and will be able to come in and out and find pasture.”

For millions of Catholics, the passage from the Gospel of John (10:9-11) took on a new dimension starting this Christmas Eve, when the Church began the Holy Year or Jubilee of 2025.

The beginning of the celebration, which runs until January 6, 2026, is marked by a rite that has been repeated for six centuries: the opening of the holy door by Pope Francis.

“The time has come for a new Jubilee, to open the holy door again and offer the living experience of God’s love, which awakens in the heart the certain hope of salvation in Christ”, wrote the Argentine pontiff in his papal bull Spes non confusion ( Hope does not confuse), in which he called for the event that has its origins in Judaism.

The one in São Pedro is not the first

Just like the pilgrimage to Rome and the visit to the papal basilicas, crossing the holy door is one of the best-known rites performed by the faithful who participate in the opening of the Jubilee to obtain indulgence (forgiveness of sins).

But what is a holy door? “It is the door of a church that opens only on the occasion of the Holy Year“, explains Father Fermín Labarga to BBC News Mundo, the BBC’s Spanish news service.

“A door is a construction element that allows us to access a place. Then, Jesus himself is the door and the one that gives us access to eternal life is something symbolic”, adds the religious, who is a professor of Church History at the University of Navarra, in Spain.

Although the St. Peter’s BasilicaAlthough the Vatican is the main temple of Catholicism, it was not the first to have a holy door.

“The first and oldest of the sacred doors is that of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, which was opened by Pope Martin V in 1423,” says Labarga.

The church, whose origin dates back to the 4th centuryis the oldest in the West and, in addition, is the cathedral of Rome.

However, a few decades later, in 1499, the rite of the holy door was consolidated within Jubilee customs with the installation of one of these special entrances in Saint Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican, by order of Pope Alexander VI.

The second Borgia pope also ordered the opening of two other doors in the Roman basilicas of Santa Maria Maggiore and São Paulo Extramuros, which were ready for the opening of the Jubilee celebrated in 1500.

The doors of the four papal basilicas are opened by Pope Francis in the following order: the first, the one on the far right of the main facade of St. Peter’s Basilica, also known as “door of great forgiveness“, opened on December 24th.

Then, on December 29th, the pontiff opens the door located in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. Then, on January 1, 2025, that of Santa Maria Maggiore.

And, finally, on January 5th, the one in São Paulo Extramuros opens, according to the schedule contained in the papal bull.

Not only in Rome

Although this Jubilee will only open the doors on the facades of the Roman papal basilicas and a temporary one in a penitentiary, at least four other churches in the world have one of these special entrances.

Two of these ports are also in Italy. One in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, in the city of L’Aquila, and the other in the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, in Atri.

Both temples, located in the center-east of the European country and separated by less than 85 kilometers, claim to have the first holy doors of which we are aware.

The origin of both entrances dates back to 1294, when Pope Celestine V issued a papal bull granting indulgence to anyone who visited both sanctuaries to hear mass and take communion, and who entered through certain entrances.

This rite is known today as Celestinian Forgiveness (Perdão Celestino), according to the websites of both religious temples.

Unlike the Roman holy doors, those found in the sanctuaries of the two Italian cities are not opened only in holy years, but annually, although only for a few days.

They can be opened by the Pope or any other Church leader designated by him. In L’Aquila, this happens between August 28th and 29thwhile in Atri it is on the 14th of the same month.

Although these doors appear to be older than that of Saint John Lateran, Labarga has doubts about this.

“The bull that establishes the Perdonanza of Pope Celestine 5th certainly dates from September 29, 1294, but the doors are later, probably from the end of the 15th century, imitating those in Rome”, adds the expert.

In Galicia and North America

In Spain, there is also another sacred door: the one at the back of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedralcapital of the Galicia region.

“One of the most symbolic parts of Santiago Cathedral is, without a doubt, the sacred door. Just like the doors of the great Roman basilicas (…), it only opens during holy years. In Santiago, a Holy Year takes place when July 25th, Santiago’s feast day, falls on a Sunday”, they explain in the Spanish temple.

There are also doubts about the origin of this door.

“Some experts believe there may be a medieval tradition which precedes the Roman holy years, although it is more likely that Santiago adopted this ritual from Christianity”, says the material sent to BBC News Mundo by the cathedral’s press department.

“It is believed that the sacred door was built in the early years of the 16th century, under the command of Archbishop Alonso III de Fonseca, who was familiar with the Roman ritual established by Pope Alexander VI,” the documents add.

And finally, there is the door to Basilica-Cathedral of Notre Dame de Québecin Canada, which was opened in 2014 with authorization from Pope Benedict XVI — and is the only one outside Europe.

The holy door was open throughout 2024 to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the founding of the diocese, which was the first Catholic diocese in the country, according to the press department of the Archdiocese of Québec to BBC News Mundo.

But why do only these temples have these special entrances?

“Because that’s what the successive popes decided“, explains Labarga, stating that it is the pontiffs who have the power to decide where there will be a door with these characteristics.

“In other Jubilees, popes decided that each diocese should have a door in its most significant cathedrals and sanctuaries. This was the case with the previous one, in 2015, dedicated to Misericórdia”, recalls the historian.

Pope Francis once again made use of this power and, on this occasion, decided that in Rebibbia Roman penitentiary there will be a holy door so that the prisoners can obtain spiritual redemption.

The scare that Paul VI received

When a Holy Year is not celebrated, the doors remain closed and, until recently, some of them were covered with stone walls.

But this centuries-old custom was changed after an incident that left a pope quite scared.

This happened 50 years ago, on Christmas Eve 1974. Pope Paul VI was preparing to open the door to St. Peter’s Basilica to begin the 1975 Jubilee.

The pontiff hit the wall that covered the door three times with a silver hammer, while reciting prayers, as per the ritual, when, suddenly, rubble fell a few centimeters away from him.

Some reports from the time state that Paul VI was hit by some stones, getting slightly injured.

But why did the incident happen?

“Some workers were dismantling the wall at the same time the pope was performing the rite,” explains Labarga.

“However, after this incident, it was decided to simplify the process to make it faster and less dangerous“, he adds.

Therefore, in the case of Saint Peter’s Basilica, the wall that seals the sacred door is removed days before its opening.

In Santiago, in turn, the wall tradition was abolished to prevent debris from dirtying or damaging the interior of the church, which has undergone an extensive restoration process in recent years.

This Christmas Eve, the eyes of 1.4 billion Catholics turned once again to the door designed by sculptor Vico Consorti in 1949, which has sixteen panels with biblical passages — narrating from the expulsion from the Garden of Eden to the resurrection of Jesus.

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