Lenten Station At The Basilica Of Saint Laurence's-In-Damaso. Tuesday Of The Fourth 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.

Basilica of San Lorenzo-in-Damaso,

Rome, Italy.

One of the Lenten Stational Churches.

(Google Images)

(encyclopedia.mitrasites.com)

The Nave,

Basilica of Saint Laurence's-in-Damaso,

Rome, Italy.

Photo: http://www.abcroma.com/Monumento.asp?N=48

The Lenten Station is at the Church built in the 4th-Century by Pope Saint Damasus in honour of the celebrated Deacon, the Martyr, Saint Laurence. This Sanctuary, in the 5th-Century, was one of the twenty-five Parish Churches of Rome. The Palace adjoining contained the archives of the Church in Saint Damasus' time; it is now the Pontifical Cancellaria.

The Epistle carries us to Sinai. God had seen, with indignation, His people prostrated at the foot of the golden calf: He announced to Moses His intention of destroying this ungrateful race. Moses prayed and his prayer appeased the Divine anger. He descended from the mountain, chastised the idolaters and brought the Israelites to repentance. Let us do Penance and God will hear our Prayers, since we are, henceforth, part of the people of God.

The Gospel introduces us into the Temple, where Jesus is accused by His perfidious enemies. He confounds them by appealing to the authority of Moses, but fails to change their hearts. Rejected by Jerusalem, He will found a new people, the Church, which spreads over the whole world and will soon have the joy of seeing increased numbers of her children at the Paschal festivities. Let us rejoice that we are members of this Church.

The prayer of Moses, upon the idolatry of his people (Epistle), has been interpreted as an allusion to the Schism that occurred in Rome on the election of Pope Damasus. This act of rebellion was like that which was evoked by the opposition that Our Lord encountered on the Feast of Tabernacles (Gospel).

The entrance door 
of San Lorenzo in Damaso,
Rome, Italy,
incorporated into the 

Palazzo della Cancelleria.

Photo: September 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Lalupa

(Wikimedia Commons)

San Lorenzo in Damaso (Saint Lawrence in the House of Damasus) is a Basilica Church in Rome, one of several dedicated to the Roman Deacon and Martyr, Saint Lawrence. Known since antiquity (Synod of Pope Symmachus, 499 A.D.) as "Titulus Damasi", according to tradition, San Lorenzo-in-Damaso was built by Pope Damasus I in his own house, in the 380s A.D.

Pope Damasus is known to have been raised in the service of the Basilica of Saint Lawrence-outside-the-Walls in Rome, and, following the death of Pope Liberius, he succeeded to the Papacy amidst factional violence. A group of Damasus' supporters, previously loyal to his opponent, Felix, attacked and killed rivals loyal to Liberius' Deacon, Ursinus, in a riot that required the intervention of the Emperor, Valentinian I, to quell.

Pope Saint Damasus I 

(Pope from 366 A.D. - 384 A.D.)

Source: http://centros5.pntic.mec.es/ies.carreno.

miranda/juan/index.htm#1646-1657

Artist: Juan Carreño de Miranda (1614–1685).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Donato Bramante rebuilt the church in the 15th-Century, by order of Cardinal Raffaele Riario, within the restoration works of the neighbouring Palazzo della Cancelleria. The last restoration was necessary after a fire that damaged the basilica in 1944.

Immediately to the right of the entrance is the memorial of Alessandro Valtrini, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1639.

The first Chapel, to the right, houses a "Virgin with Saints Filippo Neri and Nicolò" by Sebastiano Conca, while the Ceiling is frescoed with "Eternity appears to San Nicola" by Corrado Giaquinto. The first Chapel, to the left, has a "Last Supper" by Vincenzo Berrettini.

Façade of the Palazzo della Cancelleria,
Rome, Italy.

The smaller door is the entrance to the 
Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo-in-Damaso.

Photo: January 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Lalupa

(Wikimedia Commons)

In the first Nave to the left, are statues of Saints Francesco Saverio and Carlo Borromeo by Stefano Maderno. In the right Nave, there is a monument to Gabriella di Savoia Massimo by Pietro Tenerani. The Presbytery, modified by Bernini, is the "Altarpiece of Saints" and "Coronation of Mary" by Federico Zuccari. 

In the Nave, to the left of the Presbytery, is the Chapel of the Santissima Concezione, completed and frescoed (1635-1638) by Pietro da Cortona. Other works include the monument of Cardinal Trevisan (1505), the Madonna delle Gioie, attributed to Nicolò Circignani, and the monument of Annibal Caro (1566), by Giovanni Antonio Dosio.

The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Laurentii-in-Damaso is Antonio Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid.