By Br. Alexis Bugnolo
Three weeks ago, I made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Pope Saint Gregory VII (Saint Hildebrand), who is buried in the Cathedral of Salerno, Italy. There in the vault of the apse of the Church, above the sanctuary, the Saints of the Gregorian Reform are glorified in a wondrous mosaic depicting the Immaculate Virgin, a type of Holy Mother Church, free from the bonds of this world.
These are the patron Saints to pray to for the election of a Catholic pope this year of Our Lord, 2025. As you can see from their short biographies, their own elections confirm the principles which the Faithful of Rome will use this year to elect a pope. This is the true Church. Those who refuse to speak of this are not Catholic in any sense of the word, nor Traditionalists.
Here are some photographs and a video, for those who might never get the opportunity to visit this holy place:
In the above image, we see the mosaics above the right hand side of the Sanctuary (right hand here means at the right hand of the Papal Throne), as seen from someone standing outside the Sanctuary on the right side of the Cathedral (right side here means as to your right as you face the High Altar).
These mosaics depict Saint Hildebrand as Pope Gregory VII (see below for close up), and at his feet four great and famous popes of the Gregorian Reform (left to right): Pope Clement II, who was elected in 1046 at the Synod of Sutri; Pope Saint Leo IX, who was nominated by a imperial synod at Worms, Germany, in 1048, but canonically elected at Rome in 1049; Pope Saint Alexander II, elected in 1061, without imperial consent, following the directives of the Bull of Pope Nicholas II, in 1059; and Pope Saint Victor III, elected at Rome in 1086, the chosen successor of Pope Gregory VII, he spent a year refusing and fleeing from the Cardinals who wanted to elect him pope, before relenting and accepting. As abbot of Monte Cassino, he wrote the history of this age which recorded the events of the Synod of Sutri.
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In the above image, we see the other side of the mosaic, featuring on high, the patron Saint of Salerno, Saint Alphanus I, Archbishop of Salerno, appointed by Pope Saint Stephen IX in 1058, just before his death. He built the Cathedral, and was an expert physician; beneath him are (right to left): Pope Alexander III, elected in 1159 and opposed by the antipope Victor IV, elected by a minority of the Cardinals a few days later; Pope Saint Callixtus II, elected by a group of Cardinals at Cluny, in France, in 1119, in according with the Bull of Nicholas II, since the German Emperor Henry V, who had chased the previous pope into exile in France, occupied the city and would not allow a free and fair election; Pope Saint Paschal II, elected at Rome, in August of 1099, as the Eternal City celebrated the capture of Jerusalem, under the Papal Army of the First Crusade; and Pope Saint Urban II, who was elected in accord with the Bull of Nicholas II, at Terracina, Italy, in March of 1088, since the antipope Clement III held the city of Rome. His election was the first recorded, in which the Clergy and Laity of Rome, unable to leave the city, voted by proxy, through the intermediary of a canonical delegate. Urban II is reckoned a Blessed of the Church, but at Salerno, they regard him as a Saint, because of his strong support of the Norman Dynasty, which became famous and blessed by its participation in the First Crusade, which Urban II called, at the Council of Clermont, on Nov. 27, 1085, at the request of the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, Emperor of Constantinople.
And here, below, is the tomb of Saint Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII, which you can find to the right of the Sanctuary, as you enter. It contains a sarcophagus in glass, with a wax figurine covering his sacred relics. And yes, he was a short man, about 5 foot, 4″ inches in height:
And here is a close up of his visage, wearing his Papal Miter, as they looked in the 11th century:
And here is a close up of the mosaic of Saint Hildebrand, in the Sanctuary’s ceiling, laid down c. 1950:
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Not all the great heroes of the Gregorian Reform are depicted in this mosaic. Notably, there is missing Pope Nicholas II, who in life was Gerard of Burgundy, Bishop of Florence and the brother of the Count of Lorraine. As he was the favorite of the German Imperial Vicar at Florence, and promised the imperial crown to Henry III, to obtain support for his papal election in 1058, perhaps at Salerno he was forgotten, because Salerno belonged to the Norman Dynasty, which was often at odds with the Holy Roman Empire over control of Italy.
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