Wednesday, 20 March 2024

Wednesday In Passion Week. The Lenten Station Is At The Church Of San Marcello-Al-Corso (Saint Marcellus).



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


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

Wednesday in Passion Week.

Station at Saint Marcellus’s.

Indulgence of 10 Years and 10 Quarantines.

Violet Vestments.



English: The Church of San Marcello-al-Corso.
Façade by Carlo Fontana
Italiano: San Marcello-al-Corso è una chiesa di Roma.
Photo: November 2005.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Church of Saint Marcellus, where today’s Lenten Station is held, was one of the twenty-five Parish Churches of Rome in the 5th-Century A.D. Originally the house of the holy matron, Lucina, where she received Saint Marcellus, it was transformed by her into a Sanctuary and Dedicated to this Holy Pope, whose body rests under The High Altar.

The Mass of today shows us the obstinacy of the Jews in rejecting Jesus, as they had already rejected His Father. The Divine Law, given by Him Whom the Epistle calls six times “The Lord”, “Whose word is stable” declared formally “that one may not shed his neighbour’s blood, nor hate his father in his heart”.

The Members of the Sanhedrin, on the contrary, hated Christ and sought to stone Him (Gospel). Unfaithful to God, “Who orders His laws to be kept” (Epistle), they blamed Jesus “Whom The Father has sent” and Who is The Son of God. “The Father and I are One. The Miracles that I have worked come from My Father.” “Rejecting the legitimate pastor of their Souls, they are no longer His sheep,” and will be replaced by the Gentiles, who, Baptised or reconciled to God at The Easter Festival, are “the sheep who hear His voice and to whom He gives Eternal Life” (Gospel).


The High Altar,
Basilica of San Marcello-al-Corso.
Photo: July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: SteO153
Permission: CC-BY-SA-2.5.
(Wikimedia Commons)



Let us be faithful to Jesus and Pray God “to Sanctify our Fast and illumine our hearts” (Collect), in order that, delivered from the abyss into which our sins had made us fall (Gradual), we “may wash our hands among the innocent and proclaim the wondrous works of God” (Communion).

Three Feasts called the Jews to Jerusalem:

1. In The Spring.

The Feast of The Passover:

Instituted to commemorate the departure from Egypt;

2. In The Autumn.

The Feast of Tabernacles:

In commemoration of the sojourn of the Jews in tents in the desert;

3. In The Winter (Middle Of December).

The Feast of The Anniversary of The Dedication of The Temple:

Which The Machabees had purified after their victory. It was on the occasion of this last Feast, that Jesus, in the Third Year of His Ministry, spoke the words in today’s Gospel. He was then under Solomon’s Porch, which faces the ravine of Cedron.

Mass: Liberátor meus.
Preface: Of The Holy Cross.


The Apse,
Church of Saint Marcellus.
Photo: July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: SteO153
(Wikimedia Commons)



The following Text is from Wikipedia.

San Marcello-al-Corso is a Church in Rome, Dedicated to Pope Marcellus I. It is located in Via-del-Corso, the ancient Via-Lata, connecting Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo. It stands diagonally from the Church of Santa Maria-in-Via-Lata (see yesterday's Post).

While Tradition holds that the Church was built over the prison of Pope Marcellus I (who died in 309 A.D.), it is known that the "Titulus Marcelli" was already present in 418 A.D., when Pope Boniface I was Elected here.

Pope Adrian I, in the 8th-Century A.D., built a Church in the same place, which is currently under the modern Church.

The corpse of Cola di Rienzo (an Italian Mediæval politician), was held in the Church for three days after his execution in 1354. In 1519, a fire destroyed the Church. The money collected for its rebuilding was used to bribe the Landsknechts, who were pillaging the City during the Sack of Rome (1527).

The original plan to rebuild the Church was designed by Jacopo Sansovino, who fled the City during The Sack and never returned to finish it. The work was continued by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, who rebuilt the Church, but a Riber Tiber flood damaged it again in 1530. It was only in 1592 that the Church was completed, and, later, Carlo Fontana built the façade.


The Sacristy Ceiling fresco: "Gloria di San Marcello", by Giovanni Battista Ciocchi.
Church of San Marcello-al-Corso.
Photo: November 2005.
Source: Flickr
Author: antmoose
Reviewer: Mac9
(Wikimedia Commons)


Under The High Altar, decorated with 12th-Century opus sectile, are the Relics of several Saints, which include those of Pope Marcellus, as well as Digna and Emerita.

The last Chapel on the Left is Dedicated to Saint Philip Benizi. The Late-Baroque decoration contains sculptures by Francesco Cavallini and Reliefs by Ercole Ferrata and Antonio Raggi. The first Chapel on the Left has the double tomb of Cardinal Giovanni Michiel and his grandson, Antonio Orso, sculpted by Jacopo Sansovino.

Behind the façade is a Crucifixion (1613) by Giovanni Battista Ricci. Along the first Chapel is an Annunciation by Lazzaro Baldi; in the second Chapel, a Martyrdom of Saints Digna and Emerita (1727) by Pietro Barbieri; in the third Chapel, a Madonna with Child, a fresco of the Late-14th-Century, episodes of The Life of The Virgin by Francesco Salviati, fresco and paintings by Giovan Battista Ricci.

In the fourth Chapel, a Creation of Eve and the Evangelists, Mark and John, frescoes by Perin del Vaga, Matthew and Luke, begun by Perin del Vaga and finished by Daniele da Volterra.


"Saint Philip Benizi refuses The Papal Tiara",
by Antonio Raggi (1686). The Church of Saint Marcellus.
Photo: October 2005.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)



Inside, is a Ciborium (1691) designed by Carlo Bizzaccheri; in the fifth Chapel, is a Monument to Cardinal Fabrizio Paolucci (1726) by Pietro Bracci and a Monument to Cardinal Camillo Paolucci by Tommaso Righi (1776) and Wall Paintings by Aureliano Milani.

On the Left Nave, in the fifth Chapel, is a San Filippo Benizi (1725), by Pier Leone Ghezzi; in the fourth Chapel, the Conversion of Saint Paul (1560) by Federico Zuccari and his brother, Taddeo, and, on the sides, a History of Saint Paul.

The inside of the Chapel has Busts of Muzio, Roberto, Lelio Frangipane by Alessandro Algardi (1630-1640). In the third Chapel, on the Left, is a "Doloroso" by Pietro Paolo Naldini, Sacrifice of Isaac and discovery of Moses by Domenico Corvi; in the first Chapel, a Madonna and Seven Saints by Agostino Masucci.

The Church has been administered and owned by the Servite Order since 1369.

2 comments:

  1. Yesterday’s Stational church, Santa Maria in Via Lata, we noted is situated on the famous Corso; and today’s Stational church is literally 53 m. from yesterday’s basilica across the busy Corso, and “kitty corner” from Santa Maria in Via Lata. It has been staffed by the Servite Order since the mid-1300’s.

    The original basilica was dedicated to P. Marcellus I (d. 309), who reigned during difficult times, the ending years of Diocletian’s persecution. In 309, because P. Marcellus imposed strict penances on apostate Christians who subsequently repented, a public tumult arose and the emperor, Maxentius, who had previously apostatized, banished the holy pope, who died that year in exile; for that reason, he is considered a martyr. Some traditions state that the house on this site was where P. Marcellus had been received by the wealthy Roman matron, Lucina; others that, like Santa Maria in Via Lata, it was the prison where P. Marcellus had been held. His relics are interred under the high altar.

    The earlier 4th C. church, and later the 8th C. church built by P. Adrian I, were destroyed by fire in 1519. The Basilica today is basically the work of first, Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570), but finally was finished by another Baroque architect, Antonio Sangallo the Younger (1484-1546), a pupil of Bramante who worked on the early design of S. Peter’s Basilica. Other works of Sangallo the Younger are the Sala Regia, the famous hall in the Vatican Palace used in papal conclaves and is an antechamber to the Sistine Chapel, connecting it with the Pauline Chapel; and the great Scala Regia, the long and impressive staircase which is the official entrance to the Apostolic Palace. Intended to impress the visitor by its massive pillars and endless ascending stairs, the Scala Regia is a must see for Roman visitors (prior appointment at the Vatican office required).

    Back to San Marcello al Corso. The attractive pillared façade was designed and built in 1681-1687 by Carlo Fontana (1638-1714), with whom we are familiar from designing the façade we see today on Santa Maria in Trastevere as well as rebuilding the fountain in front of that basilica; and also who conceived the idea of the majestic present-day Via de Conciliazione. This facade art historians say is his most successful work.

    The attractive Baroque interior of the church contains wonderful artworks we cannot mention for brevity sake; except the miraculous crucifix, “The Crucifix of San Marcello,” now enshrined next door in the Oratory of the Crucifix (“ Oratory of Santissimo Crocifisso of the Church of San Marcello al Corso), which survived somehow the 1519 conflagration.

    In 1522, Rome was struck with a devastating bubonic plague. The Cardinal of the Basilica organised a penitential procession for 15 days in August during the height of the plague, carrying the heavy crucifix on his shoulders through the neighbourhoods of Rome, starting from San Marcello and ending at S. Peter’s. People of all backgrounds,including nobles and commoners, joined the procession and covered themselves with ashes and cried out for mercy. In every district that the procession passed, the epidemic ceased immediately. The procession has continued every year on Holy Thursday from San Marcello to the Vatican to the present day. Twice in March 2020, P. Francis visited the Oratory and prayed for an end to the coronavirus pandemic in front of this crucifix.

    The hard life, short papacy, and martyrdom of S. Marcellus I, was a worthy contemplation by the early catechumens for this Stational church. The tone of the Mass for Wednesday of Passion Week is a worthy meditation for us of Christ as He approaches Palm Sunday and Holy Week: “Liberátor meus de géntibus iracúndis: ab insurgéntibus in me exaltábis me: a viro iníquo erípies me, Dómine. “My deliverer from the angry nations; truly above my adversaries You exalt me, and from the violent man You have rescued me, O Lord.” -Ps. 17:48-49.

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    Replies
    1. We are again very grateful for the splendid Roman Pilgrim's contribution, above, concerning the Basilica of San Marcello.

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