The Oratory of San Silvestro (St Sylvester in italian), which is part of the complex of the Basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati at the Celian Hill, is completely frescoed thanks to the Cardinal Stefano at the 1247. A gem of the medieval time of Rome that I suggest you to visit, in order to understand more about the culture of Rome and its artistic beauty. Come with me to discover why the Caelian Hill must be visited (even because it is related to the origins of the city, as you can read here) and how the Middle Ages was able to produce pictorial wonders.

These medieval paintings are showing scenes from the life of Constantine, especially those in which the emperor represents himslef in the act of embracing the Christianity, being the paladin of this new religion and abandoning the old pagan Gods. Of course, this cycle of paintings follows the versions wrote by the Christian sources and traditions, in which Constantine was able to impose himself as a champion of Christianity. How? Thanks to Saints Peter and Paul, when they appeared to him in a dream and thanks to the Pope Sylvester who renamed him (although this act seems, by now, definitely the result of a false history). The two protagonists, in fact, of the pictorial cycle of this oratory are the Emperor Constantine and Pope Sylvester, the one who has made it possible for his conversion (if you want to read more about him try to click here).

The historical and religious figure of this Pope became central in the Christian propaganda, so much that after his death many new stories about his life came out. In fact St Sylvester not only baptized Constantine, because his biography is chock-full of events, more or less miraculous, like the episode that I am going to narrate and that you see in the picture, painted in the Oratory of San Silvestro. The story begins with Saint Helen, Costantine's mother: already christian, the saint will begin, however, to have doubts and consider Judaism as a religion is perhaps superior even to that of the christian! To take off every doubt Saint Helen organized a sort of convetion, where jewish wisemen should debate against St Sylvester. The question was simply: what is the best religion and faith between the christian and the jewish one? 

The dispute begins, and it seems that the battle is moving toward a break-even. One of the jews, therefore, asked to bring a bull in the room. He approached the animal whispering in the ear a magic word. The poor bull died suddenly. Then was the time for Saint Sylvester who approached the corpse of the animal whispering the word of God (according to some version will pronounce the name of God, and according to the name of Jesus). Miraculously, to hear the word of god, the bull revives. In this way Helen was convinced that the christian God was the most powerful. All this actually has a great symbolic value and educational. Through these stories and traditions, in fact, you wanted to make it plausible and acceptable to the "paternity" of the renewed faith of Constantine by St. Sylvester. In this way, the figure of Constantine was also "used", if you'll pardon the term, to justify that the temporal power that the Church had in Rome over the centuries. What remains, however, in the end, is the beauty of these pictorial features that always manage to scaraventarci in a world full of beauty!