Jubilee 2025: Holy Years in the Church's history

"You shall treat this 50th year as sacred. You shall proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you." In the Old Testament, and more precisely in Leviticus (Lv 25:10), one can find the origin of the Catholic tradition of the Jubilee Year. The term comes from the Hebrew word “yôbel,” which refers to the ram's horn blown to announce the opening of the Holy Year. But what did the Jubilees consist of then? "In ancient Israel, they were an opportunity to overhaul many situations, to start from scratch," explained historian Bernard Dompnier. "For example, it was recommended to free slaves, or to forgive debts to the poor," the former professor of the University of Clermont Auvergne said.

For a long time, the Hebrew Jubilee was forgotten by Christians. It was not until 1300 that the Church appropriated it and Christianized it. Commemorating the start of the new century, Pope Boniface VIII granted indulgences to pilgrims who went to Rome during the year. The turnout was enormous, and, buoyed by the success of this first Jubilee, the pontiff decided that a new Holy Year would be organized one hundred years later. However, in 1342, the inhabitants of Rome appealed to his successor, Clement VI, to celebrate a new Jubilee in 1350. The pope, who at the time resided in Avignon, acceded to the Romans' request. It was then decided to celebrate Jubilees every 33 years, the duration of Christ's earthly life, until finally, in 1470, Pope Paul II decreed that holy years would be celebrated every 25 years.

Since then, that has been the practice, and it has been a little over 500 years since ordinary Jubilees have been celebrated every quarter century. These successive evolutions of the calendar stem from the requests made by the faithful. "At the end of the Middle Ages, people wanted the interval between Jubilees not to be too long. They wanted to experience a holy year during their lifetime. And at that time, few lived to be fifty years old," explains Bernard Dompnier. To these ordinary Jubilees – the most important ones – others were added, which were decided by the pope, and qualified as extraordinary. The most recent one occurred in 2016, when Pope Francis organized the Jubilee of Mercy.

An opportunity to obtain a plenary indulgence

For the faithful, a Holy Year is also an opportunity to receive plenary indulgence. "During a Jubilee, all the penalties associated with sin are forgiven, just as debts were forgiven in the Hebrew Jubilee," explained Father Bernard Ardura, emeritus president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences. "God's mercy brings joy, and that's why 'jubilare' is associated with the idea of rejoicing.” To benefit from this indulgence, pilgrims who come to Rome must adhere to several practices. During their stay in the city, the faithful are required to walk daily to a certain number of churches to say 5 “Our Fathers” and 5 “Hail Marys.”

Initially, pilgrims were directed to visit the Roman basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul Outside the Walls, as well as pray at Saint Mary Major and Saint John Lateran – a very long pilgrimage. "In the pilgrimage accounts of the 16th or 17th century, some faithful said they were exhausted and regret not having time to visit the rest of the city. They would have liked to do a bit of sightseeing too," Dompnier said. In order to obtain a plenary indulgence, the faithful must also make a general confession and receive communion. To facilitate matters, priests who hear confessions during the Jubilee Year in suitable places are authorized to absolve all sins.

"For the papacy, Jubilees are an opportunity to affirm the centrality of Rome," says Dompnier. "That's where we converge, that's where we obtain forgiveness for our sins." Consequently, after the Protestant Reformation, Jubilees became a distinctly Catholic celebration. They make it possible to affirm the Church’s teaching in opposition to Protestant "heresy." The faithful gather in Rome, around the pope, the head of the Church, in a pilgrimage intended to obtaining an indulgence. Rome, the pope, pilgrimage, indulgences: these are all elements that Reformers rejected. However, within the context of the Counter-Reformation, the splendor displayed on the occasion of the holy years testified to the power and greatness of the Church.

At the end of the 16th and 17th centuries, while Baroque architecture was popular, some of the developments made in the city were made with Jubilee celebrations in mind. Thus, to allow the crowd of pilgrims to move more easily, long streets were traced across the city to reach different basilicas. "This is the case, for example, of the Via Sistina, planned by Sixtus V at the end of the 16th century," said Father Ardura, referring to a 2-kilometer-long street that notably connects to Saint Mary Major. Part of today's Roman geography is thus directly inherited from Jubilees.

The 19th century: A dull period for Jubilees

In the history of Jubilees, however, there is a dark period: the 19th century. During this period, the upheavals of political life only allowed one Holy Year to be organized, in 1825. In 1800, there was no pope to celebrate the Jubilee since Pope Pius VI, who was taken prisoner by Napoleon Bonaparte’s army, had died in France. In 1850, Pope Pius IX fled Rome, which was in the hands of Italian revolutionaries who had established the Roman Republic. In 1875, the same Pius IX considered himself a prisoner in the Vatican since the city of Rome had been annexed by independent Italy in 1870, and the organization of a Jubilee was therefore unthinkable.

The 20th century, particularly its second half, was much happier. The era of "gigantic crowds" began in this century, historian Charles Mercier noted. In 1950, the Jubilee celebrated by Pius XII was conceived as a response to mass political gatherings, notably organized by the Communists. As time passed, trains and subsequently airplanes, allowed more and more pilgrims to travel to Rome.

This expansion went hand-in-hand with the progressive "globalization" of the Jubilees. Although Italians remain the most numerous participants in holy years, in 1975 and even more so in 2000, faithful from all continents could be seen in the streets of Rome. Jubilees therefore "emphasized the global character of Catholicism," explained Mercier, a history professor at the University of Bordeaux.

Jubilees were also an opportunity to develop "pastoral events," based on mass movements generating enthusiasm, added Mercier. As an expert on World Youth Days, the historian recalled that these were directly inspired by the Jubilee celebrations. In 1984, a Jubilee of Young People was organized following the previous year’s Extraordinary Jubilee. It was a great success and became the model for World Youth Days, which first took place in 1987. In 2000, the World Youth Day organized in Rome became part of the celebrations of the 2000 Jubilee Year.

The 2000 Jubilee Year was undoubtedly a success with an estimated 25 million pilgrims visiting Rome. Beyond this success, St. John Paul II wanted the Holy Year to be an opportunity to commemorate the second millennia of the Church’s existence, most notably so that it would repent for its faults. The Jubilee was also meant to celebrate the movement towards the 3rd millennium and his hope for a "new evangelization.”. Will the 2025 Jubilee Year be an opportunity for Pope Francis to deliver a similar message? "In 2025, the Catholic Church will celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, during which the Creed, shared by all Christians – Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants – was agreed upon," said Father Ardura. "The 2025 Jubilee could therefore be an opportunity to highlight ecumenism."

Why we did it

What could be more ancient – some would say outdated – than a Jubilee, this holy year announced with the blowing of a ram's horn in the Bible? However, was not this practice of commemorating a year of debt remission, rest, and liberation from slavery – as described in Leviticus – adopted by Christians in the early centuries of our era?

Why did the Church revive this "year of grace" in 1300? And since then, in crucial moments in history, why has it established Jubilee celebrations in key moments in the lives of the faithful? At the moment when the bull of indiction of the 2025 Jubilee Year was published, it seemed interesting to look back on the history of Jubilees in past centuries, and how they have shaped the history of the Church and its urban setting, as exemplified by Via Sistina in Rome.

We remember the great 2000 Jubilee Year, which was for St. John Paul II an opportunity to celebrate the holy year with very diverse audiences (artists, doctors, religious), to repent on behalf of the Church, and to welcome two million young people for the World Youth Day organized on that occasion. The year 2000 also saw the innovation of Jubilee Years being celebrated in local churches. In 2016, Francis was keen to devote a year to an extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, a theme that is dear to him because it speaks of God's love for humanity. These "Holy Years" are always an opportunity for the Church to deliver its message.

Further reading: Pilgrimage, a spiritual adventure common to all religions