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

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

The Minor Basilica of Santa Sabina is the Lenten Station for next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, will be in attendance.

English: Basilica of Saint Sabina, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Français : Basilique Sainte-Sabine, Rome, Latium, Italie.

Photo: September 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Tango7174

(Wikimedia Commons)

With the departure of Aquinas for Paris in 1268, and the passage of time, the pedagogical activities of the Studium Provinciale at Santa Sabina were divided between two campuses. A new Convent of the Order at the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva had a modest beginning in 1255 as a community for women converts, but grew rapidly in size and importance after being given to the Dominicans in 1275.

In 1288, the theology component of the Provincial curriculum was relocated from the Santa Sabina Studium Provinciale to the Studium Conventuale at Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which was redesignated as a Studium Particularis Theologiae.

Thus, the Studium at Santa Sabina was the forerunner of the Studium Generale at Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The latter would be transformed in the 16th-Century into the College of Saint Thomas (Latin: Collegium Divi Thomæ), and then, in the 20th-Century, into the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, sited at the Convent of Saints Dominic and Sixtus.

English: Santa Sabina, Roma.

Česky: Interiér baziliky Santa Sabina, Řím.

Photo: February 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Rumburak

(Wikimedia Commons)

Following the curriculum of studies laid out in the Capitular Acts of 1291, the Santa Sabina Studium was re-designated as one of three Studia Nove Logice, intended to offer courses of advanced logic covering the Logica Nova, the Aristotelian texts recovered in the West only in the second half of the 12th-Century, the Topics, Sophistical Refutations, and the First and Second Analytics of Aristotle. 

This was an advance over the Logica Antiqua, which treated the Isagoge of Porphyry, Divisions and Topics of Boethius, the Categories and On Interpretation of Aristotle, and the Summule Logicales of Peter of Spain. Milone da Velletri was Lector at the Santa Sabina Studium in 1293.

In 1310, the Florentine, Giovanni dei Tornaquinci, was Lector at Santa Sabina. In 1331, at the Santa Sabina Studium, Nerius de Tertia was Lector, and Giovanni Zocco da Spoleto was a student of Logic.

The exterior of the Church, with its large windows made of selenite, not glass, looks much as it did when it was built in the 5th-Century.

English: Interior of Santa Sabina.

Français : Interieur de l'église de Santa Sabina, Aventin, Rome.

Photo: 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ursus

(Wikimedia Commons)

The wooden door of the Basilica is generally agreed to be the original door from 430 A.D. - 432 A.D., although it was apparently not constructed for this doorway. Eighteen of its wooden panels survive, all but one depicting scenes from the Bible. Most famous among these is one of the earliest certain depictions of Christ's Crucifixion, although other panels have also been the subject of extensive analysis because of their importance for the study of Christian iconography.

Above the doorway, the interior preserves an original dedication in Latin hexameters.

The Campanile (bell tower) dates from the 10th-Century.

The original 5th-Century Apse mosaic was replaced in 1559 by a very similar fresco by Taddeo Zuccari. The composition probably remained unchanged: Christ is flanked by a good thief and a bad thief, seated on a hill, while lambs drink from a stream at its base. The iconography of the mosaic was very similar to another 5th-Century mosaic, destroyed in the 17th-Century, in Sant'Andrea in Catabarbara. An interesting feature of the interior is a framed hole in the floor, exposing a Roman-era temple column that pre-dates Santa Sabina.

Italiano: Santa Sabina all'Aventino: dettaglio del portone intagliato del VI sec.

English: Basilica of Santa Sabina all'Aventino. 

Detail from the carved Portal dating back to the 6th-Century.

Photo: April 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: Talmoryair

(Wikimedia Commons)

This appears to be the remnant of the Temple of Juno, erected on the hilltop site during Roman times, which was likely razed to allow construction of Santa Sabina. The tall, spacious Nave has 24 Columns of Proconnesian marble with perfectly-matched Corinthian Columns and Bases, which were re-used from the Temple of Juno.

Saint Dominic, Pope Saint Pius V, Saint Celsus, Saint Hyacinth and Saint Thomas Aquinas are among those who have lived in the Monastery adjacent to the Church. The interior Cells, for the Dominican Friars, are little changed since the earliest days of the Order of Preachers. The Cell of Saint Dominic is still identified, though it has since been enlarged and converted to a Chapel. Also, the original dining room still remains, in which Saint Thomas Aquinas would dine when he came to Rome.

THIS ENDS THE ARTICLE ON THE MINOR BASILICA OF SANTA SABINA.