Minor Basilica of Santa Sabina, Rome. (Part One).

Italic Text, Illustrations and Captions, are taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

 

Exterior of Santa Sabina, Rome.

Roma, chiesa di Santa Sabina, esterno (fianco destro e abside), dal giardino degli Aranci.

Photo: 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: MM

Permission: PD

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Basilica of Saint Sabina, on the Aventine Hill, in Rome, Italy (Latin: Basilica Sanctae Sabinae, Italian: Basilica di Santa Sabina all'Aventino) is a Titular Minor Basilica and Mother Church of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans. Santa Sabina is perched high above the Tiber river, to the North, and the Circus Maximus to the East. It is a short distance to the headquarters of the Knights of Malta.

Santa Sabina is the oldest extant Roman Basilica, in the eternal city, that preserves its original colonnaded rectangular plan and architectural style. Its decorations have been restored to their original restrained design. Together with the light pouring in from the windows, this makes Santa Sabina an airy and roomy place. Other Basilicas, such as Santa Maria Maggiore, are often heavily and gaudily decorated. Because of its simplicity, Santa Sabina represents the crossover from a roofed Roman forum to the Churches of Christendom. Its Cardinal Priest is Jozef Tomko. It is the Lenten Stational Church for Ash Wednesday.

The entrance doorway to Santa Sabina.

Photo: November 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Lalupa

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Church of Santa Sabina was built by Peter of Illyria, a Dalmatian Priest, between 422 A.D. and 432 A.D., near a temple of Juno, on the Aventine Hill in Rome. The Church was built on the site of the 4th-Century house of Sabina, a Roman matron, originally from Avezzano in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Sabina was beheaded under Emperor Vespasian, or perhaps Hadrian, because she had been converted to Christianity by her servant, Seraphia, who was stoned to death. Sabina was later declared a Christian Saint.

Pope Honorius III approved, in 1216, the Order of Preachers, now commonly known as the Dominicans, which was "the first Order instituted by the Church with an academic mission,". Honorius III invited Saint Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers, to take up residence at the Church of Santa Sabina in 1220. The official foundation of the Dominican Convent at Santa Sabina, with its Studium Conventuale, the first Dominican Studium in Rome, occurred with the legal transfer of property from Honorius III to the Order of Preachers on 5 June, 1222, though the brethren had taken up residence there in 1220.

Some scholars have written that Honorius III was a member of the Savelli family and that the Church and associated buildings formed part of the holdings of the Savelli, thereby explaining why Honorius III donated Santa Sabina to the Dominicans. In fact, Honorius III was not a Savelli. These scholars may have confused the later Pope Honorius IV, who was a Savelli, and Honorius III. In any case, the Church was given over to the Dominicans and it has since then served as their headquarters in Rome.

Italiano: Roma, Santa Sabina all'Aventino: il portone intagliato del VI sec.

English: Rome, Basilica of Santa Sabina all'Aventino. The carved Portal, dating back to the 6th-Century.

Photo: November 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Lalupa

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1265, in accordance with the injunction of the Chapter of the Roman province of the Order of Preachers at Anagni, Thomas Aquinas was assigned as Regent Master at the Studium Conventuale at Santa Sabina: “Fr. Thome de Aquino iniungimus in remissionem peccatorum quod teneat studium Rome, et volumus quod fratribus qui stant secum ad studendum provideatur in necessariis vestimentis a conventibus de quorum predicatione traxerunt originem. Si autem illi studentes inventi fuerint negligentes in studio, damus potestatem fr. Thome quod ad conventus suos possit eos remittere”.

At this time, the existing Studium Conventuale at Santa Sabina was transformed into the Order's first Studium Provinciale, an Intermediate School between the Studium Conventuale and the Studium Generale. "Prior to this time, the Roman Province had offered no specialised education of any sort;  no arts, no philosophy; only simple Convent Schools, with their basic courses in Theology for resident Friars, were functioning in Tuscany and the meridionale during the first several decades of the Order's life. 

But the new Studium at Santa Sabina was to be a School for the Province," a Studium Provinciale. Tolomeo da Lucca, an associate and early biographer of Aquinas, tells us that, at the Santa Sabina Studium, Aquinas taught the full range of philosophical subjects, both moral and natural.

PART TWO FOLLOWS.