Lenten Station At The Basilica Of Saint Mark's. Monday Of The Third Week In Lent.

Roman Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

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

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines.
Violet Vestments.

English: Façade of the Basilica of Saint Mark's, Rome.

To the right is the Palazzo Venezia, the former See of the Embassy 

of the Republic of Venice, whose protector was Saint Mark.

Italian: Facciata della basilica di San Marco a Roma. 

Photo: January 2006.

Author: Panairjdde.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Station is at Saint Mark’s, an ancient Parish Church of Rome, built in the 4th-Century by Pope Saint Mark in honour of his patron, the Evangelist. Under the Altar, lie the remains of this Pope with the bodies of the holy martyrs, Abdon and Sennen.

One cannot choose a better spot wherein to read this account of the Syrian, Naaman, than in this Sanctuary, so clearly Oriental, since Saint Mark is the founder of the Patriarchal Seat of Alexandria, and Abdon and Sennen are Persians. This account of Naaman seems to make allusion to the Egyptians of Alexandria, whom Saint Mark healed from the leprosy of unbelief by Baptism.

Artist: Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1590–1625).

Title: Saint Ursula and her companions with Pope Ciriacus 

and Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

Date: 1608.

Current location: Basilica di San Marco, Rome.

Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art:  Image  Info about artwork

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Epistle and the Gospel speak to us of Naaman, the valiant General of the King of Syria’s Army. He was cured by bathing in the Jordan, although he did not belong to the race of Israel. Later on, Jesus was to plunge Himself into the same river and to communicate a sanctifying virtue to its waters.

Interior. San Marco, Rome.

Photo: July 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: SteO153

Permission: CC-BY-SA-2.5

(Wikimedia Commons)

Naaman, therefore, is a figure of the heathen whom the Church, by Baptism, cures of the leprosy of sin. Peter, says Tertullian, has baptised in the Tiber, and those that he has cleansed from the leprosy of sin have abandoned the waters of Damascus, by which is meant their sensual life.

Let us renew ourselves in the spirit of our Baptism by purifying our hearts in the salutary bath of penitence. This will cure them of the leprosy, called sin.

The High Altar, 
Basilica of Saint Mark's, Rome.

Photo: July 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: SteO153

Permission: CC-BY-SA-2.5

(Wikimedia Commons)

Italiano: Roma, basilica di san Marco, controfacciata e organo.

English: The organ of the Basilia of Saint Mark's, Rome.

Photo: October 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Lalupa.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 336 A.D., Pope Saint Mark built a Church devoted to one of the Evangelists, his name bearer Saint Mark, in a place called ad Pallacinas. The Church is thus recorded as Titulus Marci in the 499 A.D. Synod of Pope Symmachus. [At that time, it became one of the Stational Churches of the city (Monday of the Third Week in Lent)].

After restoration, 792 A.D., by Pope Adrian I, the Church was rebuilt by Pope Gregory IV, 833 A.D.

Besides the addition of a Romanesque Bell-Tower in 1154, the major change in the architecture of the Church was ordered by Pope Paul II in 1465-70, when the inside and the outside were restyled according to the Renaissance taste. On that occasion, the Church was assigned to the Venetian people living in Rome, Pope Paul II being a Venetian by birth.

Pope Paul II (1464 - 1471), who ordered the restyling 

of the Basilica in the Renaissance style

Artist: Cristofano dell'Altissimo (1525–1605).

Picture title: Pietrobarbo.

Source/Photographer: Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here. 

Original uploader was Savidan at en.wikipedia, 2007-06-29 (original upload date).

(Wikimedia Commons)

The last major reworking of the Basilica was started in 1654-57 and completed by Cardinal Angelo Maria Quirini in 1735-50. With these restorations, the Church received its current Baroque decoration.

The façade (1466) was built with marble taken from the Colosseum and the Theatre of Marcellus, and is attributed to Leon Battista Alberti.

English: The Theatre of Marcellus, from which marble was taken to build 

the façade of the Basilica di San Marco a Roma. 

Italiano: Il teatro di Marcello accanto al tempio di Apollo Sosiano (in Circo) a Roma, ripreso dai piedi del Campidoglio, oltre la moderna via del Teatro di Marcello. 

Foto ripresa personalmente maggio 2005.

Photo: 2005.

Author: MM, uploaded to Italian wikipedia 09.05.2005.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The inside is clearly Baroque. However, the Basilica shows noteworthy elements of all her history.

The Apse mosaics, dating back to Pope Gregory IV, show the Pope, with the squared halo of a living person, offering a model of the Church to Christ, in the presence of Saint Mark the Evangelist, Pope Saint Mark and other Saints.

The wooden Ceiling, with the emblem of Pope Paul II, is one of only two original 15th-Century wooden Ceilings in Rome, together with the one at Santa Maria Maggiore.