Basilica of San Saba | |
---|---|
41°52′43″N12°29′08″E / 41.8786°N 12.4855°E | |
Location | Piazza Gian Lorenzo Bernini 20 Rome |
Country | Italy |
Denomination | Catholic |
Religious institute | Jesuits |
Website | sansaba |
History | |
Status | Minor basilica, titular church |
Dedication | Sabbas the Sanctified |
Architecture | |
Style | Romanesque |
Completed | 13th century |
San Saba is an ancient basilica church in Rome, Italy. It lies on the so-called Piccolo Aventino , which is an area close to the ancient Aurelian Walls next to the Aventine Hill and Caelian Hill.
The current Cardinal Deacon of the Titulus S. Sabae is Arthur Roche, succeeding Jorge Medina. [1] Both served as prefects of the Dicastery of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments at the time of their elevation. The church was made parochial in 1931 and entrusted to the care of the Society of Jesus. It was established as a titulus in 1959.
According to legend, St. Silvia, mother of Pope Gregory I, had an estate at the site. [2] After her death, so legend reads, her estate was transformed into an affiliate monastery of St. Andreas, the monastery which Gregory I founded at the site of today's San Gregorio al Celio. This legend, however, can be traced back only to the 12th century, when in context of Renovatio Romae and Church Reform, the monastery of San Saba was meant to be provided with a long and impressive local tradition.
An alternate theory suggests a connection with a hospice for pilgrims founded by Gregory on land that belonged to his family. [3]
The historic origin of the religious site goes back to around 645. In this year, fugitive monks from the monastery of St. Sabas (Mar Saba, Palestine), who had fled their home country after the Islamic invasion, came to Rome to attend the Lateran Council. After the council, these Sabaite monks settled down in an old domus (=noble estate) on the "Piccolo Aventino" (the smaller crest of the Aventine hill, [4] which at this time was deserted due to the big decrease in Rome's population. Here, they founded an eremitic cell. The Sabaites introduced the cult of St. Sabas to Rome. In ancient sources, their monastery however goes by the name cellas novas or cellaenovae, which refers to the cellae (=cells) of their mother abbey, Mar Saba. [3]
The Sabaite monastery prospered quickly [3] and for a long time. In the 8th and 9th centuries, San Saba was one of the most prestigious of Rome and among the leading "Greek" monasteries. It received rich papal donations. Since 680, its abbots held important diplomatic roles in the relationships between Rome and Byzantium, and represented the Roman Church and Pope at several church councils in Constantinople.
In 768, Antipope Constantine II was held prisoner in this monastery, before being killed by the Lombards.
The Benedictine monks of Monte Cassino received the church after it was rebuilt in the 10th century. Anselm, the nephew of St Anselm, was one of its abbots before departing to England as a papal legate. After many years of decay, the basilica was completely renovated in the 13th century, after being ceded to Cluniac monks in 1144. [5]
In 1463, Pope Pius II granted his nephew, Cardinal Francesco Todeschini the monastery of San Saba in commendam. The cardinal, who adopted his uncle's family name "Piccolomini", immediately began extensive restoration, construction, and decoration works on the ancient buildings. [6] He added the loggia to the facade, and a fresco depicting the Annunciation. [2]
In 1503 the Cistercians were entrusted with the church, which in 1573 was conveyed to the Jesuits [4] (and their German seminary Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum).
The church, preceded by a small porch from the 13th century, has a nave with two aisles. These end with three apses. The interior is characterized by numerous interventions from different ages. The columns are from ancient buildings, and the floor is an example of Cosmatesque marble art from the beginning of the 13th century.
The main artpieces are the notable frescoes. On the left side of the church is depicted scenes from the life of Christ; on the right, scenes from the life of Mary. They represent the first instance of this Marian subject matter in any church in western Europe. [3] The wall paintings date to the first half of the eighth century. Egyptian blue and lapis lazuli have been detected mixed together within the same pictorial layer. These are the oldest western paintings where lapis lazuli has been used as a blue pigment. [7]
The crypt, built on the house of St. Silvia, holds the relics of St. Sabas. The sacristy houses a fragment of fresco from the first church (8th century).
In 1959, San Saba was made a titular church, to be held by a cardinal-deacon. [8]
The Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls is one of Rome's four major papal basilicas, along with the basilicas of Saint John in the Lateran, Saint Peter's, and Saint Mary Major, as well as one of the cities Seven Pilgrim Churches. The basilica is the conventual church of the adjacent Benedictine abbey and is served by the monks of the community.
The Basilica of Saint Clement is a Latin Catholic minor basilica dedicated to Pope Clement I located in Rome, Italy. Archaeologically speaking, the structure is a three-tiered complex of buildings: (1) the present basilica built just before the year 1100 during the height of the Middle Ages; (2) beneath the present basilica is a 4th-century basilica that had been converted out of the home of a Roman nobleman, part of which had in the 1st century briefly served as an early church, and the basement of which had in the 2nd century briefly served as a mithraeum; (3) the home of the Roman nobleman had been built on the foundations of republican era villa and warehouse that had been destroyed in the Great Fire of AD 64.
The Basilica Papale di San Lorenzo fuori le mura is a Roman Catholic papal minor basilica and parish church, located in Rome, Italy. The Basilica is one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome and one of the five "papal basilicas", each of which was assigned to the care of a Latin Church patriarchate. The basilica was assigned to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The basilica is the shrine of the tomb of its namesake, Lawrence, one of the first seven deacons of Rome who was martyred in 258. Many other saints and Pope Pius IX are also buried at the Basilica, which is the centre of a large and ancient burial complex.
In the Catholic Church, a titular church is a church in Rome that is assigned to a member of the clergy who is created a cardinal. These are Catholic churches in the city, within the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Rome, that serve as honorary designations symbolising the relationship of cardinals to the pope, the bishop of Rome. According to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, a cardinal may assist his titular church through counsel or through patronage, although "he has no power of governance over it, and he should not for any reason interfere in matters concerning the administration of its good, or its discipline, or the service of the church".
The Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin is a minor basilican church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is located in the rione (neighborhood) of Ripa. Constructed first in the sixth century as a diaconia (deaconry) in an area of the city populated by Greek immigrants, it celebrated Eastern rites and currently serves the Melkite Greek Catholic community of Rome. The church was expanded in the eighth century and renovated in the twelfth century, when a campanile was added. A Baroque facade and interior refurbishment of 1718 were removed in 1894-99; the exterior was restored to twelfth-century form, while the architecture of the interior recalls the eighth century with twelfth-century furnishings. The narthex of the church contains the famous Bocca della Verità sculpture.
San Saba is the 21st rione of Rome, Italy, identified by the initials R. XXI. It is located within the Municipio I, and takes its name from the Basilica of San Saba, which is located there.
There are more than 900 churches in Rome, which makes it the city with the largest number of churches in the world. Almost all of these are Catholic.
The Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina is a Roman Catholic parish, titular church, and minor basilica in central Rome, Italy. The basilica is located in Piazza di San Lorenzo in Lucina in the Rione Colonna, about two blocks behind the Palazzo Montecitorio, proximate to the Via del Corso.
Santi Quattro Coronati is an ancient titular and conventual minor basilica and Augustinian convent in Rome, Italy. The church dates back to the fourth or fifth century, and is devoted to four anonymous saints and martyrs. The complex of the basilica with its two courtyards, the fortified Cardinal Palace with the Saint Silvester Chapel, and the monastery with its cosmatesque cloister is built in a silent and green part of Rome, between the Colosseum and San Giovanni in Laterano.
San Martino ai Monti, officially known as Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti, is a minor basilica in Rome, Italy, in the Rione Monti neighbourhood. It is located near the edge of the Parco del Colle Oppio, near the corner of Via Equizia and Viale del Monte Oppio, about five to six blocks south of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Santi Nereo ed Achilleo is a fourth-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, located in via delle Terme di Caracalla in the rione Celio facing the main entrance to the Baths of Caracalla. It has been the titular church of Cardinal Celestino Aós Braco since 28 November 2020. Unusually it is part of a detached portion of the parish of Chiesa Nuova rather than the local geographical parish of San Saba and is served by Oratorians as a satellite of the Roman Oratory.
The early Christian imperial basilica of the Saints Martyrs Vitale, Valeria, Gervasio and Protasio known more commonly as the basilica of San Vitale and Compagni Martiri in Fovea or more simply as San Vitale al Quirinale. It is the oldest Catholic place of worship in the historic center of Rome, located in via Nazionale. The imperial basilica of San Vitale al Quirinale, built under the pontificate of Pope Siricius after 386 and consecrated and richly decorated by Pope Innocent in 402 is the first public Christian basilica with a baptistery not founded on pre-existing pagan temples, mentioned in the Liber pontificalis, built by the Emperor Theodosius at the behest of Saint Ambrose of Milan, in honor of the miraculous discovery of the bodies of martyrs Gervasius and Protasius in Milan. It is the most frescoed basilica in Rome.
The Minor Basilica of St. Mary in Domnica alla Navicella, or simply Santa Maria in Domnica or Santa Maria alla Navicella, is a Roman Catholic basilica in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and active in local charity according to its long tradition. It is one of the best examples of the Carolingian Renaissance in Rome. It has been the titular church of Cardinal Marcello Semeraro since 28 November 2020.
The basilica of San Pancrazio is a Catholic minor basilica and titular, conventual, and parish church founded by Pope Symmachus in the 6th century in Rome, Italy. It stands in via S. Pancrazio, westward beyond the Porta San Pancrazio that opens in a stretch of the Aurelian Wall on the Janiculum and covers the Catacomb of San Pancrazio. The adjacent convent was established perhaps as early as the church and has been occupied by the Discalced Carmelite since 1662.
San Crisogono is a church in Rome dedicated to the martyr Saint Chrysogonus. It was one of the tituli, the first parish churches of Rome, and was probably built in the 4th century under Pope Sylvester I (314–335).
Santa Maria in Via Lata is a church on the Via del Corso, in Rome, Italy. It stands diagonal from the church of San Marcello al Corso. It is the stational church for Tuesday in the fifth week of lent.
The Basilica dei Santi Bonifacio e(d) Alessio is a basilica, rectory church served by the Somaschans, and titular church for a cardinal-priest on the Aventine Hill in the third prefecture of central Rome, Italy.
Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino is a complex located on the Piazza Cavalieri di Malta Square on the Aventine Hill in Rome's Ripa rione and overseen by the Benedictine Confederation and the Abbot Primate. The Sant'Anselmo complex, also known as the "Primatial Abbey of Sant'Anselmo" because it is the residence of the Abbot Primate, consists of: an ecclesiastical residential college known as the "College of Sant'Anselmo" ; a university known as the "Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm" ; the "Church of Sant'Anselmo" ; and the curial headquarters of the "Benedictine Confederation" and Abbot Primate. The complex and associated institutions are named in honor of the Benedictine monk Saint Anselm of Canterbury.
The Sacra di San Michele, sometimes known as Saint Michael's Abbey, is a religious complex on Mount Pirchiriano, situated on the south side of the Val di Susa in the territory of the municipality of Sant'Ambrogio di Torino, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. The abbey, which for much of its history was under Benedictine rule, is now entrusted to the Rosminians.
The Basilica of Saints John and Paul on the Caelian Hill is an ancient basilica church in Rome, located on the Caelian Hill. It was originally built in 398.
Media related to San Saba (Rome) at Wikimedia Commons
Preceded by Santi Quattro Coronati | Landmarks of Rome San Saba, Rome | Succeeded by Santa Sabina |