Guest Author - Christine MacNeil Sweet

Life was not all toil and trouble during the Renaissance. The wars did keep people busy, and the infighting from powerful families was on some level entertaining – depending on whose side you were on. But were there any really big celebrations?

If you were a Christian pilgrim during the time of the Renaissance, perhaps you might make a journey to Rome to attend a Jubilee celebration. The purpose of the Jubilee was to grant pardons for sins of pilgrims who made the journey to Rome in that year. Jubilees were held about every 25 years during this time. The first recorded one was in 1300.

These celebrations were a good thing for Rome. It was an opportunity for the papacy to “fix-up” the city in preparation for the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that made the journey of the faithful. Part of the pilgrim experience was to visit the designated patriarchal churches (usually four or so) before coming to the city proper for the final visit and to obtain atonement for sins.
A special Holy Door was opened up every 25 years for the Jubilee. This door was an allegory representing the words of Jesus Christ who said He was “the door” to reaching the heavenly Father. Therefore it became (and still is) highly symbolic for the pilgrims to walk through the door, pray, and reach God. The papacy gave out pardons for sins and the pilgrims undoubtedly went away happy and renewed in their faith. The celebration lasted one year and at the end of it the door was actually bricked up with cement and bricks until the next time.

Not all Jubilees were without issue. The Jubilee of 1500 was noted to have been poorly attended because the French wars in Italy caused many pilgrims to forgo the journey and stay home lest they get killed before they ever reached Rome. Of course, it’s also possible that the poor reputation of Pope Alexander VI could have also kept people away. But they would have to be in the know about the goings-on in Rome at the time to realize how decadent a papacy he was running. Most were not that educated about the goings-on in Rome – they came for the tradition and to renew their faith.

Certainly not the only celebration held in Italy but quite possibly one of the largest. The Jubilee’s still are large events in the Catholic world with hundreds of thousands of religious faithful making their pilgrimage to the holy city in search of salvation.