The vision faded away, and, with a heart breaking with joy and love, the Apostle retraced his steps and told the faithful of the Lord’s will, now so clearly revealed. “The Prince of Pastors” had spoken. The hour for which His great vicar had waited so long was at hand—the martyrdom for which he thirsted, already prepared. The weeping brethren went out to see the place where Christ had met their Spiritual Father, and found there the impress of the Saviour’s blessed foot upon the stone. Later a church[5] was erected at the spot, but at that time all that was possible was to cover the sacred footprint and mark the site for veneration. (This stone was afterwards removed to the Church of St. Sebastian, but a copy of it is still kept at Domine Quo Vadis.) Every trace of the history of the Faith was so inexpressibly dear to those loving hearts! One disciple, who must have followed St. Peter at a distance on that memorable night, found in the path a little bandage which had detached itself from his foot (were his feet sore and cut from the many weary steps that the saving of souls had cost him?) and this was reverently treasured, and a Basilica called “In Titulus Fasciolæ,” and now known as the Church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, was erected in after years to mark the spot and guard the humble souvenir. All this happened apparently in the month of September or October. Within a year, at most, the mourning Christians, led by Clement, Peter’s successor, put up the marble tablet—found in 1911—a small tablet of greenish marble, on which these words were inscribed: “Here the Blessed Peter absolved us, the elect, from the sins confessed.” But what a chapter of history had been written between! St. Peter returned to the city and disposed all things for his death. His first care was to write his second Epistle General, his last will and testament, and his farewell to the faithful. “In a little while,” he says, speaking of his mortal body, “this my tent will be folded away, as was signified to me by the Lord Himself,” thus evidently referring to the vision on the Appian Way. Only the words of our Divine Lord surpass in majesty and tenderness that last Epistle of St. Peter. Heaven was very near as he wrote it, the celestial melodies were already in his ears, the recent apparition of his Master had filled his heart with love and longing almost too great to be borne, but that love translates itself into the most tender parental care for the children he was leaving behind. With what tears and devotion must the letter have been received in the different Churches that had known his care, when it came to them accompanied by the news of his death!