Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Saturday 31 March 2012

Lenten Station at Saint Stephen's on Mount Coelius

Non-Italic Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for the 
Ferial Mass of the Friday in Passion Week
Pictures and Italic text taken from Wikipedia (the free encyclopaedia) (unless otherwise accredited)
Station at Saint Stephen's on Mount Coelius
Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines
Violet Vestments 




Santo Stefano Rotondo in a 19th-Century painting by Ettore Roesler Franz

The Station was at the Church of Saint Stephen on Mount Coelius, called Saint Stephen the Round, on account of its circular form. It was dedicated in the 5th-Century to the first of the martyrs, whose relics had been brought to Rome.

This Saint was the first martyr or witness of Christ. Whilst dying, he beheld the Saviour at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. Thus, it was fitting to assemble in this Basilica at this holy time, consecrated to the memory of the Saviour’s Passion, which prepares us to celebrate His triumph at Easter.

The Gospel of today mentions the sitting of the Sanhedrin, at which the death of Jesus was irrevocably decreed by the Jewish priests. [Jesus having raised Lazurus from the dead at the time that the pilgrims were preparing to come in multitudes to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, the Jewish authorities of the Sanhedrin assembled on the Mount of Evil Counsel, and, under pretext that the Romans, who had conquered Judea, would take umbrage at the influence of Christ and use repressive measures against the Jewish people, the High Priest declares that Jesus must die.]



Interior of Santo Stefano Rotondo during restoration work. 
From Wikimedia Commons. Photo taken by Lalupa, September 2006

The miracle of the resurrection of Lazurus, they say, will excite such popular enthusiasm during the Paschal festivities, when crowds fill Jerusalem, that the Romans, uneasy for their authority, will destroy our city and nation. It is therefore better, concludes Caiphas, that one man should disappear and that the nation should be saved.

Jeremias, in the Epistle, and the Psalmist, in the Introit, the Gradual, the Offertory and the Communion, express the sorrows and anguish of Jesus, who feels Himself surrounded by such treacherous and relentless enemies.

Let us participate in the feelings of Christ, who will soon atone for our sins by the sufferings of His Passion. And may the fear of eternal punishment make us accept the troubles of this life and the holy austerities of Lent (Collect).

Cardinal Mindszenty was a Cardinal Priest 
of the Titulus S. Stephani in Coelio Monte.
Mindszenty József szobor (szobrász: Domonkos Béla, 2009)
From Wikimedia Commons. Original uploader was Misibacsi at hu.wikipedia

The Venerable József Mindszenty (29 March 1892 – 6 May 1975) was a Cardinal and the Head of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary, as the Archbishop of Esztergom. He became known as a steadfast supporter of Church freedom and opponent of communism and the brutal Stalinist persecution in his country. As a result, he was tortured and given a life sentence in a 1949 Show Trial that generated worldwide condemnation, including a United Nations resolution. Freed in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he was granted political asylum and lived in the U.S. embassy in Budapest for 15 years. He was finally allowed to leave the country in 1971. He died in exile in 1975 in Vienna, Austria.
The Basilica of Saint Stephen in the Round on the Celian Hill ( Italian: Basilica di Santo Stefano al Monte Celio, Latin: Basilica San Stephani in Coelio Monte) is an ancient Basilica and Titular Church in Rome. Commonly named Santo Stefano Rotondo, the Church is the National Church in Rome of Hungary, dedicated to Saint Stephen and, also, Saint Stephen of Hungary. The Minor Basilica is also the Rectory Church of the Pontifical Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum.

The Cardinal Priest or titular of Saint Stephen's is Friedrich Wetter.

The earliest Church was consecrated by Pope Simplicius between 468 A.D. and 483 A.D. It was dedicated to the proto-martyr, Saint Stephen, whose body had been discovered a few decades before in the Holy Land, and brought to Rome. The Church was the first in Rome to have a circular Plan, inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

 



Pope Saint John I (523 A.D. - 526 A.D.) embellished 
the Basilica di Santo Stefano al Monte Celio
He is the first Pope known to have visited Constantinople while in office

Santo Stefano was probably financed by the wealthy Valerius family, whose estates covered large parts of the Caelian Hill. Their villa stood nearby, on the site of the present-day Hospital of San Giovanni - Addolorata. St Melania the Elder, a member of the family, was a frequent pilgrim to Jerusalem and died there, so the family had connections to the Holy Land.

Originally, the Church had three concentric ambulatories, flanked by 22 Ionic columns, surrounding the central circular space surmounted by a tambour (22 m high and 22 m wide). There were 22 windows in the tambour, but most of them were walled up in the 15th-Century restoration. The outermost corridor was later demolished.

The Church was embellished by Pope John I and Pope Felix IV in the 6th-Century. In 1130, Innocent II had three transversal arches added to support the dome.


 
 Pope Nicholas V (1447 - 1455).
In 1454, Pope Nicholas V entrusted the ruined Church to the Pauline Fathers
the only Catholic Order founded by Hungarians.This is the reason why Santo Stefano Rotondo later became the unofficial Church of Hungarians in Rome.

In the Middle Ages, Santo Stefano Rotondo was in the charge of the Canons of San Giovanni in Laterano, but, as time went on, it fell into disrepair. In the middle of the 15th-Century, Flavio Biondo praised the marble columns, marble-covered-walls and cosmatesque works-of-art of the Church, but he added that: "Unfortunately, nowadays, Santo Stefano Rotondo has no roof". Blondus claimed that the Church was built on the remains of an ancient Temple of Faunus. Excavations in 1969 to 1975 revealed that the building was never converted from a pagan temple, but was always a Church, erected under Emperor Constantine I in the first half of the 4th-Century.

In 1454, Pope Nicholas V entrusted the ruined Church to the Pauline Fathers, the only Catholic Order founded by Hungarians. This is the reason why Santo Stefano Rotondo later became the unofficial Church of the Hungarians in Rome. The Church was restored by Bernardo Rossellino, it is presumed under the guidance of Leon Battista Alberti.

In 1579, the Hungarian Jesuits followed the Pauline Fathers. The Collegium Hungaricum, established here by István Arator that year, was soon merged with the Collegium Germanicum in 1580, which became the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum, because very few Hungarian students were able to travel to Rome from the Turkish-occupied Kingdom of Hungary.




 Arms of Pope Nicholas V
 "de gueules à la clef d'argent posée en bande 
et à la clef d'or posée en barre toutes deux liées d'un cordon d'azur".
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Author: Odejea, August 2008

The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Stephani in Coelio Monte has been Friedrich Wetter since 1985. His predecessor, József Mindszenty, was famous as the persecuted Catholic leader of Hungary under the Communist dictatorship. Although the inside of the Church is circular, the exterior is cruciform.

The walls of the Church are decorated with numerous frescoes, including those of Niccolò Circignani (Niccolò Pomarancio) and Antonio Tempesta portraying 34 scenes of martyrdom, commissioned by Gregory XIII in the 16th-Century. Each painting has a titulus or inscription explaining the scene and giving the name of the Emperor who ordered the execution, as well as a quotation from the Bible. The paintings' naturalistic depictions of torture and execution are somewhat morbid.



The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Stephani in Coelio Monte 
has been Friedrich Wetter since 1985.

The altar was made by the Florentine artist Bernardo Rossellino in the 15th-Century. The painting in the apse shows Christ between two martyrs. The mosaic/marble decoration is from 523 A.D. - 530 A.D. One mosaic shows the martyrs St Primus and St Felicianus flanking a crux gemmata (jewelled cross).

There is a tablet recording the burial here of the Irish king, Donough O'Brien, of Cashel and Thomond, who died in Rome in 1064. An ancient chair of Pope Gregory the Great from around 580 A.D., is also preserved here.

The Chapel of Ss. Primo e Feliciano has very interesting and rare mosaics from the 7th-Century. The chapel was built by Pope Theodore I, who brought here the relics of the martyrs and buried them (together with the remains of his father).

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