The Dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran

As it is made clear in the prayers of the day (lauds and vespers of today and vespers from yesterday), today, the 9th of November is not any ordinary day. We are in celebration of the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, in Rome. The name of Lateran comes from the Palace that the "Laterani" had in monte Celio since the 1st century, to whom the authorities confiscated their property for daring to conspire against Nero. It seems that it became a property of Fausta, wife of Constantine; advised, as they say, by Osio de Córdoba, she donated it to the popes as their usual residence, as it in fact was for several centuries until the period of Avignon. It is known that already in the year 313 there was a synod in it because the wife of Constantine gave it to Pope Miltiades, also Pope Damasus was ordained in it and was dedicated on November 9 in 324 by Silverster giving it the title of "The Saviour," until in the thirteenth century with the addition of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. This august temple has been home to many councils-more than twenty-five from the fourth to the sixteenth century, and of these, five have been ecumenical. There has been the signing in more recent times of the Lateran Treaty, on March 11, 1929, in which Pius XI Pope managed to free all temporal sovereignty and thus the free exercise of his evangelizing mission, signing with Mussolini.