Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.
Thursday after Ash Wednesday.
Station at Saint George's (San Giorgio-in-Velabro).
Indulgence of 10 Years and 10 Quarantines.
Violet Vestments.
Photo: April 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: User: Zello
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Liturgy of today inculcates in us the spirit of Prayer, which forms part of The Forty Days' Penance. It was by Prayer that Ezechias obtained a prolongation of his life (Epistle of today) and the Centurion the healing of his servant (Gospel), and it is by Prayer that we shall obtain from God the strength to mortify ourselves, in order that we may gain the pardon of our sins, and, with it, the healing of our Souls and Life Eternal.
San Giorgio-in-Velabro.
Photo: August 2012.
Source: Own work.
Author: Luc
(Wikimedia Commons)
Remember that, if sin offends God and draws upon us the scourge of His Righteous Anger, Penance, on the contrary, appeases Him and procures for us the effects of His Mercy (Collects).
Mass: Dum clamárem.
Preface: For Lent.
San Giorgio-in-Velabro.
Photo: March 2012.
Source: Own work.
Author: sailko
(Wikimedia Commons)
San Giorgio-in-Velabro is a Minor Basilica Church in Rome, Italy, Devoted to Saint George.
The Church is located in the ancient Roman Velabrum, near the Arch of Janus, in the rione of Ripa. Sited near The River Tiber, it is within a complex of Republican-era pagan temples associated with the Port of Rome. The ancient Arcus Argentariorum is attached to the side of the Church's façade.
San Giorgio-in-Velabro is The Station Church for The First Thursday in Lent.
The first religious building attested, in the place of the current Basilica, is a Diaconia, funded by Pope Gregory the Great.
The High Altar,
San Giorgio-in-Velabro.
Photo: March 2012.
Source: Own work.
Author: sailko
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Basilica was inside the Greek Quarter of Rome, where Greek-speaking merchants, civil and military officers, and Monks, of The Byzantine Empire lived — the nearby Santa Maria-in-Cosmedin, for example, was known as Schola Graeca at the time. Pope Zachary (741 A.D. - 752 A.D.), who was of Greek origin, moved the Relic of Saint George to this Basilica from Cappadocia, so that this Saint had a Basilica Dedicated in The West, well before the spreading of his Devotion associated with the return of The Crusaders from The East.
After a restoration by Pope Gregory IV (9th-Century A.D.), the Basilica received the addition of the Portico and of the Bell-Tower in the first half of the 13th-Century. The Apsis was decorated with frescoes by Pietro Cavallini in the 13th-Century.
Photo: April 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa
(Wikimedia Commons)
The building, as we see it today, is largely a product of the 1920s’ restoration. However, five years' further restoration followed the explosion of a car bomb, parked close to the Basilica's facade, at midnight on 27 July 1993. That explosion caused no fatalities but left the 12th-Century Portico almost totally collapsed and blew a large opening into the wall of the main Basilica, as well as doing serious damage to the residence of The Generalate of The Crosiers (Canons Regular of The Order of The Holy Cross), next door.
The Ministry of Cultural Heritage researched and catalogued what was damaged or destroyed, placing the fragments in 1050 crates, with dates and locational references, before restoring the building with them, although some details, particularly in the Portico, were deliberately left un-restored as a memorial to the bombing.
Gianfranco Ravasi is, since November 2010, Cardinal-Deacon of the Church. Among the previous Titulars are: Oddone Colonna, who later became Pope Martin V; Raffaele Riario; Giacomo Stefaneschi; and John Henry Newman. Cardinal Alfons Maria Stickler was Titular of San Giorgio, as a Cardinal Priest, until his death in 2007.
I have been to this ancient Roman church (S. Giorgio in Velabro), and I suspect "Dom" Zephyrinus has been too: but I have always been struck by its holy and perfect Roman symmetry, and blending of arches and the apse and mosaic over the altar baldacchino, which also is perfectly "fitted" to the end of the nave.
ReplyDeleteOne feels overwhelmed by a sense of ancient holiness at this site (even overcoming its sad state of being a Novus Ordo ceremony only there now). Nonetheless, it is strikingly beautiful and conducive to prayer.
Thank you, Zephyrinus.
Dear Dante Peregrinus. Thank You, as always, for your erudite and welcome Comment.
ReplyDeleteWe can agree that the ancient Roman Churches and Basilicas generate so much holiness and empathy with previous generations. So much beauty; so much Devotion; so much history. It is, indeed, a great tragedy that the majority now only offer Novus Ordo ceremonies. Please God, that situation will change in the near future.
Sorry to say that S. Giorgio-in-Velabro is one Roman Church that Zephyrinus has yet to visit.