Peterborough Cathedral.
© Chel @ Sweetbriar Dreams
www.sweetbriardreams.blogspot.co.uk
unless otherwise stated.
Tuesday of The Fourth Week in Lent.
Station at Saint Laurence’s-in-Damaso.
Indulgence of 10 Years and 10 Quarantines.
Violet Vestments.
(San Lorenzo-in-Damaso), Rome.
The Lenten Stational Church for
Tuesday of The Fourth Week in Lent.
The Nave,
Basilica of Saint Laurence’s-in-Damaso, Rome.
The Lenten Station is at the Church built in the 4th-Century A.D., by Pope Saint Damasus, in honour of the celebrated Deacon, the Martyr, Saint Laurence. This Sanctuary, in the 5th-Century A.D., 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).
Mass: Exáudi, Deus.
Preface: Of Lent.
The Entrance of San Lorenzo-in-Damaso, Rome,
incorporated into the Palazzo della Cancelleria.
Photo: September 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa.
(Wikimedia Commons)
San Lorenzo-in-Damaso (Saint Laurence in the House of Damasus) is a Basilica Church in Rome, one of several Dedicated to the Roman Deacon and Martyr, Saint Laurence. Known since antiquity (The 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 Laurence-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.)
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.
The smaller door, in the centre, is the entrance to
The Minor Basilica of Saint Laurence's-in-Damaso
(San Lorenzo-in-Damaso).
Photo: January 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa
(Wikimedia Commons)
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 San Laurentii-in-Damaso is Antonio Rouco Varela, Archbishop Emeritus of Madrid.
Herewith, another valued contribution from our intrepid Pilgrim in Rome.
ReplyDeleteThe Basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso is fascinating because it is hidden: in fact this Roman traveller many times traversed the Corso Vittorio Emanuele taking the No. 40 or No. 64 bus, which run from the Stazione Termini train station through the Corso to St Peter’s, and admired the vast palazzo of the Vatican Cancellaria and never realized that a Roman stational church from the time of P. Damasus (308-384 AD) was sequestered within it.
As Zephyrinus’ notes detail, although built on the site of P. Damasus’ house, the church was moved by the Baroque architect, Donato Bramante (1444-1514) under the orders of Card. Raffaele Riario around 1490-1500. This and the later destruction of Old St Peter’s Church is said to have earned Bramante the nicknames of “Maestro Ruinante” or “Maestro Guastante”—“Master Wrecker” or “Master Breaker.” Bramante’s attention was quickly turned by P. Julius II to the construction of New St Peter’s in 1505, so the interior of S. Lorenzo was never completed for some time, and it was said to have no ceiling nor monumental entrance for decades.
Eventually, Card. Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589), a well-known patron of the arts, engaged the architect Giacoma Barozzi da Vignola ( 1507-1573) who designed the façade of the Church of the Gesu and much of its interior. Vignola completed the entrance and it is believed he designed and completed the coffered ceiling. In fact, the well-lit interior from large nave windows over the side arches and light pouring into the apse from the large cupola make it almost a sister church in design to the Gesu. There are numerous paintings above the side arches and statuary by sculptor Stefano Moderno (1576-1636), the artist who created the white marble statue of S. Cecilia in death in Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.
The Collect encourages the catechumens to persist in their Lenten observance and seek God’s mercy, imitating the sacrifice of S. Lawrence: Sacræ nobis, quǽsumus, Dómine, observatiónis ieiúnia: et piæ conversatiónis augméntum, et tuæ propitiatiónis contínuum præstent auxílium. “May the sacred practice of fasting, we beseech You, O Lord, win for us increased holiness of life and the continuing help of Your mercy.”
Let us be inspired by this basilica to elevate our minds during Lent to spiritual things, aided by prayer and fasting.