Majesty and Beauty

The Basilica of San Clemente is a short walk from the Colosseum in Rome, and over the centuries, it has drawn countless pilgrims and visitors. But in the middle of the nineteenth century, it captured the astonished attention of the whole world when a forgotten fourth-century basilica was unearthed beneath it—and, under that, even lower down, a pagan temple dedicated to the god Mithras. In Majesty and Beauty, Paul Murray, OP, uncovers for us, layer by layer, the story of this basilica, one of Rome’s most beautiful and important churches. It is a story constructed in stone and art, from Mithraic temple to early Christian basilica to the present living place of worship—a place universally celebrated for its magnificent twelfth-century mosaic. Throughout these pages, the author invites his readers to set out with him on a journey of discovery into the lost and found worlds of San Clemente’s pagan and Christian past. Majesty and Beauty is a work of artistic and spiritual adventure, distinguished throughout by a fine grasp of the latest scholarship and by truly stunning images of the works of art in the basilica, presented in full and splendid color.