Pope Alexander VI the "portico" of St. Peter's and commissioned a marble door. This door lasted until 1618, when another door was installed in the new basilica. In a ceremony similar to today's, Alexander was carried in the "sedia gestatoria" to St. Peter's. He and his assistants, bearing candles, processed to the holy door, as the choir chanted . The Pope knocked on the door three times, workers moved it from the inside, and everyone then crossed the threshold to enter into a period of penance and reconciliation. Thus, Pope Alexander formalized the rite and began a longstanding tradition that is still in
Litter (vehicle) habit must have proven quite persistent, for the Third Council of Braga in 675 AD saw the need to order that bishops, when carrying the relics of martyrs in procession, must walk to the church, and not be carried in a chair, or litter, by deacons clothed in white. In the Catholic Church, Popes were carried the same way in Sedia gestatoria, which was replaced later by the Popemobile. A palanquin is a covered litter, usually for one passenger. It is carried by an even number of bearers (between two and eight, but most commonly four) on their shoulders, by