St. Peter in Chains

St. peter in Chains is a church we visited together during class. Somehow I forgot to blog about this earlier, and I haven't been in any new this week so now is a good to get it in. It is an important church for two reasons. The first reason, where there church gets its name from, is because it holds the chains that bound St. Peter when was in Jerusalem. According to legend, when Eudoxia, wife of Emperor Valentinian III, gave the chains to Pope Leo I as a gift, he compared them to the chains of St. Peter's final imprisonment in Rome and they miraculously fused together. Now they are kept in this church under the main alter in a reliquary (container for relics). The second reason the church is well known is because Michaelangelo's sculpture of Moses is held here. It is amazing larger than life size piece of work. it was completed 1515, and originally intended to be part of massive 47 statue funeral monument for Pope Julius II. But instead it became the centerpiece of his funeral monument and tomb in this church. The church has a beautiful painting on the ceiling above the Nave, and numerous other pieces of artwork.