Sant'Ambrogio della Massima

Last updated
Sant'Ambrogio della Massima
S. Angelo - S. Ambrogio della Massima.JPG
The church, located in rione Sant'Angelo
Sant'Ambrogio della Massima
Click on the map for a fullscreen view.
41°53′35.4″N12°28′42″E / 41.893167°N 12.47833°E / 41.893167; 12.47833
LocationVia di Sant'Ambrogio, Rome
Country Italy
Denomination Roman Catholic
History
Dedication Ambrose
Architecture
Architectural type Church
Groundbreaking 4th century

Sant'Ambrogio della Massima (also Sant'Ambrogio alla Massima [1] ) is a Catholic church in rione Sant'Angelo, Rome, Italy, that perhaps dates to the 4th century. It was attached to a convent until it became the subject of a canonical investigation in the 19th century, when it was disbanded and repurposed as a missionary college and later an abbey church. It is said to have been associated with Saint Ambrose. [2]

Contents

Etymology

The name of the church derives from the tradition that the church was built on the site of the house in which Saint Ambrose lived in Rome, before he moved to become the consul in Milan. The family home was built on the ruins of a temple to Hercules. Archeological research has discovered parts of the temple and porch beneath the current Sant’Ambrogio buildings. [3]

The name "Massima" may derive from the Cloaca Maxima, a branch of which flows nearby, [4] or from the Porticus Maximae, the long arcaded road passed in the immediate vicinity of the church. [5] The Porticus Maxima was part of a larger passageway for pilgrims to reach the tomb of Saint Peter at the Vatican,

History

According to legend, the church of Saint Mary was founded by Saint Marcellina, the older sister of Saint Ambrose, in 353. The house was also the seat of her religious community, but later became the property of a certain Maxima who, under the pontificate of Pope Leo III, had a Latin cross church with a monastery built there. It was called variously "Santo Stefano de Maxima" or "Santa Maria in Formosa". [6]

Around 1500, the church was renovated [7] and turned over to the Benedictines, who re-dedicated it to St. Ambrose. Giacomo della Porta added a new wing in 1578. In 1606, Beatrice de Torres, sister of the abbess, Olympia de Torres, and her brother Cardinal Ludovico de Torres commissioned Carlo Maderno to redesign the church. [8] It was rebuilt by Orazio Torriani incorporating the remains of the previous building. The church was abandoned during the Napoleonic Wars, but was restored under Pope Pius VII beginning in 1814. [4]

During this period the convent was inhabited by Franciscans nuns. [9] The founding abbess of the restored convent, Maria Agnese Firrao, was convicted in 1816 of "false sanctity", or pretending to be a saint, and was removed from her post and imprisoned. Despite this, she continued to direct activities at the convent via smuggled correspondence with followers there. [10] In 1859, Princess Katharina of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, who had recently joined the convent as a novice, denounced its activities to the Holy Office, accusing the mistress of novices Maria Luisa, among others, of "sexual transgressions, heretical practices and homicidal schemes". [11] Katharina noted the veneration of Firrao as well as Maria Luisa herself; the latter claimed to receive messages from Mary, and slept with several of the novices. [12] Other transgressions included alleged affairs between the women and priests. According to Katharina, when she challenged convent practices, she became the victim of an attempted poisoning. As the investigation proceeded the Holy See removed the sisters from the convent and sent Maria Luisa into "forced isolation". [13]

It emerged that the Jesuit priest who as the "spiritual father" of the nuns had been accustomed to administer the sacrament of Penance had entered into sexual relations with Maria Luisa. Styling himself Giuseppe Peters, his real name was Joseph Kleutgen, an influential German theologian. He was convicted as a heretic for his fostering of the cult of Agnese Firrao and sentenced to three years of imprisonment. Pope Pius IX reduced the sentence to two years. Later Kleutgen was instrumental in the drafting of the dogma of papal infallibility. The details of the affair became known when discovered by researchers in 1976.

In 1861 Pope Pius IX gave the building to a group of Benedictine monks; they adopted it for a missionary college and replaced its façade when it collapsed the following year. [4] Side altars were also added to the church. After 1870, the church and the monastery were expropriated by the Italian State, but later the church and part of the convent were returned to the Benedictines. Initially, the monastery was used as a missionary college to train monks for overseas work. The church is currently an abbey and the curial house of the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation. [14] [15]

Architecture

The current building, parts of which date to the 17th century, is a domed basilica. It is cross-shaped, with a chapel to either side of the nave. The church includes "rich gold stucco decorations and frescos depicting the life of Mary". [16] What is now the main refectory at Sant’Ambrogio was at one point the sisters’ chapter house. [3]

Relics

In the church deposited are the relics of St Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Maria sopra Minerva</span> 14th-century Dominican church in Rome

Santa Maria sopra Minerva is one of the major churches of the Order of Preachers in Rome, Italy. The church's name derives from the fact that the first Christian church structure on the site was built directly over the ruins or foundations of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, which had been erroneously ascribed to the Greco-Roman goddess Minerva.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Carlo al Corso</span> Roman Catholic basilica, a landmark of Rome, Italy

Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso is a basilica church in Rome, Italy, facing onto the central part of the Via del Corso. The apse of the church faces across the street, the Mausoleum of Augustus on Via di Ripetta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benedictine Confederation</span> International governing body of the Benedictine order

The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict.

The Casa Santa Maria is a residence in Rome, Italy that serves English-speaking priests who are sent by their dioceses for graduate level studies in the city. It is a part of the Pontifical North American College, and served as its main campus from its founding in 1859 until the construction of a new campus on the Janiculum Hill in 1953. It also houses the Bishops' Office for United States Visitors to the Vatican.

SantAngelo (<i>rione</i> of Rome) Rione of Rome in Lazio, Italy

Sant'Angelo is the 11th rione of Rome, Italy, located in Municipio I. Often written as rione XI - Sant'Angelo, it has a coat of arms with an angel on a red background, holding a palm branch in its left hand. In another version, the angel holds a sword in its right hand and a scale in its left.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vallombrosians</span> Roman Catholic religious order, based on the Rule of St. Benedict

The Vallombrosians are a monastic religious order in the Catholic Church. They are named after the location of their motherhouse founded in Vallombrosa, situated 30 km from Florence on the northwest slope of Monte Secchieta in the Pratomagno chain. They use the postnominal abbreviation OSBVall to distinguish themselves from other Benedictines, who generally use the abbreviation OSB.

Domenico Serafini, O.S.B. Subl. was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served in various pastoral, diplomatic, and curial posts, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustav Adolf, Cardinal Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst</span> German prince and cardinal (1823–1896)

Gustav Adolf, Cardinal Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst, was a member of the Hohenlohe family of Germany, claiming descent from Eberhard, one of the early dukes of Franconia. He became a cardinal of the Catholic Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino</span> Church in Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelangelo Celesia</span> Italian Cardinal

Michelangelo Celesia, O.S.B. Cas. was an Italian Benedictine monk who served as the Archbishop of Palermo from 1871 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1884.

Joseph Wilhelm Karl Kleutgen was a German Jesuit theologian and philosopher. He was a member of the Society of Jesus, and contributed significantly to the establishment of Neo-scholasticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Haid</span> American Benedictine abbot and Catholic bishop

Leo Haid was an American Benedictine abbot and Catholic bishop, who served as the abbot of the Abbey of Mary Help of Christians, in Belmont, North Carolina, from 1885 to 1924. He also served as vicar apostolic of North Carolina from 1888 to 1910 and territorial abbot from 1910 to 1924.

The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses within the Benedictine Confederation. It developed from the Subiaco Congregation, which was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro Casaretto, O.S.B., as a reform of the way of life of monasteries of the Cassinese Congregation, formed in 1408, toward a stricter contemplative observance, and received final approval in 1872 by Pope Pius IX. After discussions between the two congregations at the start of the 21st century, approval was given by Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 for the incorporation of the Cassinese Congregation into its offshoot, the Subiaco Congregation. The expanded congregation was given this new name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbey of Saint Scholastica, Subiaco</span> Benedictine abbey in Italy

The Abbey of Saint Scholastica, also known as Subiaco Abbey, is located just outside the town of Subiaco in the Province of Rome, Region of Lazio, Italy; and is still an active Benedictine abbey, territorial abbey, first founded in the 6th century AD by Saint Benedict of Nursia. It was in one of the Subiaco caves that Benedict made his first hermitage. The monastery today gives its name to the Subiaco Congregation, a grouping of monasteries worldwide that makes up part of the Order of Saint Benedict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambrose Agius</span> Maltese Catholic archbishop, Benedictine monk and diplomat (1856–1911)

Ambrose Agius, O.S.B. was a Maltese Archbishop of the Catholic Church.

Hubert Wolf is a German church historian and professor at the University of Münster. He was awarded a Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2003. In 2006 he was awarded the Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Katharina of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst</span> Countess Erwin von Ingelheim

Princess Katharina Wilhelmine Maria Josepha of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst was a member of the House of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst by birth and a member of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Princess consort of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen by marriage.

Tommaso Riccardi was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and Benedictine monk of the Cassinese Congregation. His monastic name was Placido. He was beatified in 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Ambrose, Brugherio</span>

Saint Ambrose is a small church which is an annex to the farmhouse that takes its name from it, in Brugherio, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cascina Sant'Ambrogio</span> Farmhouse in Brugherio, Italy

Cascina Sant'Ambrogio is the oldest among the farmhouses in Brugherio, Italy. It is annexed to Saint Ambrose Church from which it takes its name.

References

  1. ↑ Pietrangeli (1976), sub voce
  2. ↑ Rome, ancient and modern: and its environs, Volume 2 by Jeremiah Donovan 2010 ISBN   1-174-37350-4 pages 179–180
  3. 1 2 "Impressions of Rome: Sant’Ambrogio della Massima:, Christ in the Desert Monastery
  4. 1 2 3 "Sant'Ambrogio della Massima". Hidden Churches of Rome. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  5. ↑ "Via di S.Ambrogio", Roma Segreta
  6. ↑ "Sant'Ambrogio della Massima", Turismo Roma, Dipartimento Grandi Eventi, Sport, Turismo e Moda
  7. ↑ "Chiesa di Sant'Ambrogio della Massima", Religiana
  8. ↑ Dunn, Marilyn (1997). "Convents". In Gaze, Delia (ed.). Dictionary of women artists . Fitzroy Dearborn. p.  27. ISBN   9781884964213.
  9. ↑ Wolf, Hubert: Die Nonnen von Sant'Ambrogio (2013), pp. 105–113
  10. ↑ Wolf 2013, p. 120; pp. 140–142.
  11. ↑ Wolf 2013, p. 38–56.
  12. ↑ Hardy, Rob (June 2015). "Miraculous tools of corruption". The Skeptic. 35 (2): 54–55.
  13. ↑ Bethune, Brian (19 January 2015). "The sex cult inside a convent". Maclean's: 56.
  14. ↑ "The Order of St Benedict". Chilworth Benedictines. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  15. ↑ The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation
  16. ↑ Monico, Nicolle (7 February 2014). "8 obscure churches in Rome that will take your breath away". Huffington Post Italy.
  17. ↑ Schaubler, Vera; Schindler, Hanns Michael (1998). Heilige und Namenspatrone im Jahreslauf. Augsburg: Pattloch Verlag. p. 77. ISBN   3629008305.
Additional sources
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.