THE HOLY DOOR OF THE BASILICA OF ST. MARY MAJOR IN ROME
Being the author of the Holy Door of the Liberian Basilica, Luigi Enzo Mattei has the honour of being the first sculptor from Bologna (alongside Luciano Minguzzi) to have designed the Doors of the Papal Basilicas. The Door was sculpted on the occasion of the Great Jubilee in 2000 as a way to celebrate the beginning of the third millennium and was blessed by Pope John Paul II on 8 December 2001. Later on, it was mentioned by Pope Benedict XVI in his Address to Italian Bishops Conference, and it was opened for the first time by Pope Francis on 1 January 2016, marking the beginning of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in Rome. With regard to the Holy Door of the Liberian Basilica, Claudio Strinati said: “Today St. Mary Major appears as a peculiar, fascinating basilica, not to mention that it is one of the few Christian monuments where you can still see the Classical heritage and contemporary Christian art coexist in a physical space”.
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