Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Friday 8 March 2024

Friday Of The Third Week In Lent. The Station Is At The Basilica Of Saint Laurence-in-Lucina.



Peterborough Cathedral.
© Chel @ Sweetbriar Dreams
www.sweetbriardreams.blogspot.co.uk



Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Friday of The Third Week in Lent.

Station at Saint Laurence-in-Lucina.

Indulgence of 10 Years and 10 Quarantines.

Violet Vestments.



Basilica of Saint Laurence-in-Lucina
Photo during a survey of monuments in 1911.
This File: November 2005.
User: Panairjdde.
(Wikimedia Commons)



This is one of the numerous Sanctuaries built in Rome in honour of the Martyred Deacon, Saint Laurence. Part of the Gridiron, on which he was tortured, is kept there. This Church, one of the twenty-five Titular, or Parish, Churches of the First Christian Capital in the 5th-Century A.D., is still today that from which the First of The Cardinal Priests derives his Title.

It was during The Forty Years, passed in the desert, that Moses and Aaron asked God to bring from the Rock - a figure of Christ - “a Spring of Living Water,” so that all the people could quench their thirst (Epistle). During these Forty Days of Lent, the Church asks Christ to give us The Living Water, about which He spoke to the Woman of Samaria, near Jacob’s Well, The Water which quenches our thirst for ever (Gospel).


Basilica of Saint Laurence-in-Lucina, Rome.
Photo: July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: SteO153
Permission: CC-BY-SA-2.5.
(Wikimedia Commons)


This Water is our Faith in Jesus, it is Grace, it is the Blood which flows from The Wounds of The Saviour, and which, through Baptism, Penance and the other Sacraments, purifies our Souls, and gushes forth into Eternal Life, of which it assures us a share.

We should note the parallel that it pleased Christian art to establish between Saint Peter and Moses. It is the latter who touched the Rock from whence the water surged; this is a symbol of Christian Baptism, given by The Church, of which Saint Peter is the Head.

Mass: Fac mecum.
Preface: Of Lent.



The High Altar,
The Crucifix painting is by Guido Reni.
Photo: July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: SteO153
(Wikimedia Commons)



The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.

The Church of Saint Laurence-in-Lucina (Italian: San Lorenzo-in-Lucina, Latin: S. Laurentii in Lucina) is a Roman Catholic Parish and Titular Church and Minor Basilica in Rome.

The Church is Dedicated to Saint Laurence, Roman Deacon and Martyr. The name “Lucina” comes from the 4th-Century A.D. Roman matron who gave permission for Christians to build a House of Worship here.

Pope Marcellus I hid here during the Persecutions of Maxentius, while Pope Damasus I was Elected Pope here in 366 A.D. A Church here was Consecrated by Pope Sixtus III in the year 440 AD. The Church was known as Titulus Lucinæ, and thus is mentioned in “The Acts” of the 499 A.D. Synod of Pope Symmachus. It was first reconstructed under Pope Paschal II in the first decades of the 1100s.



English: Basilica of San Lorenzo-in-Lucina, Rome.
Italiano: Roma - Chiesa di S. Lorenzo-in-Lucina.
Photo: May 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Geobia
(Wikimedia Commons)


In 1606, Pope Paul V placed the Church under the Franciscan Order of Clerics Regular Minor. The Interior was completely transformed by Cosimo Fanzago in the 17th-Century, converting the lateral Aisles of the Basilica structure into Chapels. The Ceiling was frescoed by the Neapolitan Mometto Greuter.

Charles Stewart, an Officer in the Papal Army, who died in 1864, is buried within the Church. He was the son of John Stewart, Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s (Charles III) “maestro di casa”.

Charles had created John a Baronet in 1784. The current [as of February 2023] Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Laurentii-in-Lucina, established in 684 A.D., is Malcolm Ranjith, since November 2010.


English: Chapel of Saint Laurence’s Gridiron,
Italiano: San Lorenzo-in-Lucina, Roma.
La cappella che conserva la sedicente graticola
su cui sarebbe stato martirizzato San Lorenzo.
Photo: July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: SteO153
(Wikimedia Commons)



The High Altar, designed by Carlo Rainaldi, is decorated with a painting of The Crucifixion by Guido Reni. Under the Altar, there is the Gridiron on which Saint Laurence was Martyred. The Relics were put here by Pope Paschal II, according to an Inscription on the Throne behind the Altar. The Choir is decorated by Virgins and Saints by Placido Costanzi.

The second Chapel to the Right, designed by Carlo Rainaldi, was decorated by Jan Miel. Nicolas Poussin is buried in the second Chapel on the Right, with a Monument donated by Chateaubriand, with a Bust by Paul Lemoyne and a Relief by Louis Desprez.


Basilica of Saint Laurence-in-Lucina, Rome.
Photo: August 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa
(Wikimedia Commons)


The fourth Chapel, the Fonseca Chapel, was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and features a lively Bust of Gabriel Fonseca by the Master Sculptor. It also houses a Copy of Guido Reni’s “Annunciation”, completed by Giacinto Gimignani.

The fifth Chapel, on the Right, has a “Death of Saint Giacinta Marescotti”, by Marco Benefial, and a “Life of Saint Francis” (1624), by Simon Vouet. The fourth Chapel has a “Saint Giuseppe”, by Alessandro Turchi, and a “San Carlo Borromeo”, by Carlo Saraceni. The first Chapel has Works (1721) by Giuseppe Sardi.

1 comment:

  1. Zephyrinus is delighted to have received another most welcome Comment from our avid Pilgrim, currently in Rome. We are greatly for such a magnificent contribution to our Articles on Lenten Stational Churches.

    This Basilica, San Lorenzo in Lucina, is easy to find for the Roman pilgrim: simply visit the Pantheon, and San Lorenzo in Lucina is literally 450 feet away (face the Pantheon, turn left down the busy Via del Corso (which runs in front of the Piazza di Panteone): turn left again at the first street, Via di Frattina, and there again on your left is the basilica. (However, most Romans say if you want to get a bite to eat, the food places in this Corso area are overpriced and not worth it: check with your hotel or your guide for a trattoria in a residential area).
    As noted above, the titulus “In Lucina” refers to the ca. 4 C. Roman matron who gave the site, an ecclesia domestica or house-church, which became the basilica for the early Christian community from a very early time in the 4th C, or perhaps before. The present church dates at least from 366 AD when P. Damasus I was elected pontiff in this basilica.
    In the Renaissance period, sometime during the 1100’s under P. Paschal II (1099-1118 AD), the elegant front portico with 6 Ionic granite columns was added, and on entering, on either side. there are two stately marble lions, much like the marble lions on the episcopal cathedra at SS Nereo e Achilleo.
    In the mid-1600’s, more renovations were necessitated, including (like SS Cosmas e Damiano) raising the level of the basilica floor to avoid the flooding of the Tiber, done under the Neapolitan High Baroque architect Cosimo Fanzago (1591-1678). Fanzago closed off the two side naves and created 8 baroque era chapels. The incomparable Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) designed and decorated the most famous of these side chapels, the Fonseca Chapel, situated on the right side. It is also called the Cupoletta con Angeli suonatori (“Dome with Playing Angels”): Because in this chapel named for Gabriele Fonseca (d. 1668), playful flying cherubs seem to defy gravity and circle in the air in the cupola above and high over the altar. A central oculus lets in majestic natural light and lifts the eye up to heaven in an elevation of the mind and spirit to matters divine and celestial: Truly an amazing site and nothing exceeds it in all of High Baroque Rome:
    Joseph Nechvatal on Bernini’s Fonseca Chapel at San Lorenzo in Lucina (whitehotmagazine.com)
    Returning to the nave, the high altar is another Baroque masterpiece by Carlo Rainaldi (1611-1691), with 6 imposing black marble pillars and in the center, the famous masterpiece of Guido Reni (1575-1642), “Christ on the Cross” (completed 1639-1640). Under this altar is the reliquary containing the bronze grille upon which St. Lawrence was tortured to death.
    See: Orbis Catholicus Secundus: Gridiron of St. Lawrence
    There are many other art masterpieces in this basilica, but this is just a few short highlights.
    The Introit for the Mass for Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent may have been the reason this basilica was selected, to remind the catechumens of the sacrifice of the martyrs like S. Lawrence:
    Fac mecum, Dómine, signum in bonum: ut vídeant, qui me oderunt, et confundántur: quóniam tu, Dómine, adiuvísti me et consolátus es me. (Ps 85:17)
    Ps 85:1 Inclína, Dómine, aurem tuam, et exáudi me: quóniam inops et pauper sum ego. (Ps 85:1)
    “Grant me, O Lord, a proof of Your favor, that my enemies may see, to their confusion, that You, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me. (Ps. 85:17) Incline Your ear, O Lord; answer me, for I am afflicted and poor.” (Ps 85:1)
    For every follower of Our Lord, he is indeed “the poor man” (pauper sum ego) who can however always take refuge in Our Lord, notwithstanding his afflictions, knowing that after Holy Week will come our Lord's promise.

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