Will someone explain "Lateran Church" to me, please?

[Julia_Mae]

I am reading a biography of Saint Francis and have come to references to Pope Innocent III having had two visions/dreams in which he saw that “the Lateran Church was falling” and in the first vision Saint Francis held it up and in the 2nd Saint Dominic.

I had understood that the “Lateran Councils” referred to the buildings they were held in, but, maybe that’s wrong.

What exactly was the “Lateran Church?”

 

[PrayForMeStJude]

The church referred to here is Saint John Lateran. It is the Cathedral of the diocese of Rome, the location of the Pope’s cathedra (NOT St. Peter’s in the Vatican). Thus, it is the Mother Church of all Catholicism and of all the world.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_St._John_Lateran

 

[Angel_Bradford]

The name “Lateran” is because the property that the church was built on was originally owned by the Lateran Family.

 

[Julia_Mae]

The church referred to here is Saint John Lateran. It is the Cathedral of the diocese of Rome, the location of the Pope’s cathedra (NOT St. Peter’s in the Vatican). Thus, it is the Mother Church of all Catholicism and of all the world.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_St._John_Lateran

Well that’s what I thought, too. But then I wondered if it was a way of referring to the Roman (specifically) Catholic Church as opposed to the other rites, seeing as it was the 13th century. I guess not, though. I supposed the writer was referring to him seeing the actual building collapse as an allegory.

 

[JimmytheButcher]

Before it became a church building it was someones house.

They donated it. It’s been improved over the years, but was rightly beautiful and dignified even when it was a mansion belonging to the endowed Laterini.

The building itself is a fitting expression of humble Mary, both beautiful and dignified, being the House of God. She gave up herself for God allowing Him to enter under Her roof.

I have come to regard the arch-basillica as belonging to Her more than any other place. In that, the feast surrounding the building has a corresponding echo in the Old Testament, which was held at the same time of year for similar reasons. The implications of the feast for the building help underly some of the core Catholics ideas of the keys of Heaven: Mary and the Eucharist.