Pope Leo XIV has the Holy Door of the St. Peter’s Basilica closed and the Holy Year 2025 was declared over. “This Holy Door is closing, but the door of your grace is not closing,” said the Pontiff as he approached the right heavy bronze door of the Papal Basilica. Leo knelt on the doorstep and pulled both wings of the door closed from the outside.
The Catholic Church usually celebrates a Holy Year every 25 years. Through prayer and penance, believers can obtain remission of their sins during this time. This includes passing through holy gates. The heavy right bronze gate of St. Peter’s Basilica gate is bricked up in normal years.
Holy year 2025 breaks visitor record
Since the opening of the jubilee year there have been around 33.5 million believers from 185 countries in the Vatican traveled to take part in the celebrations. That is a record number. Rome’s mayor Roberto Gualtieri also said that the major church event in Italy’s capital also set records in terms of the total number of visitors and tourists. For the city, the end of the jubilee year marks the end of a period of extraordinary stress and logistical difficulties. At the same time, the economy benefited enormously from pilgrimages during the Holy Year.
The tradition of anniversaries, as the Holy Years are also called, goes back to the Middle Ages. Since 1450 they have taken place every 25 years with few interruptions. However, there are also extraordinary anniversaries. The next Holy Year should not take place in 2050, but in 2033; then the anniversary of the traditional death and resurrection will take place Jesus for the 2,000th time.
