Minor Basilica of Santa Sabina, Rome. (Part Two).

Italic Text, Illustrations and Captions, are taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

The Minor Basilica of Santa Sabina is the Lenten Station for next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, will be in attendance.

English: Basilica of Saint Sabina, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Français : Basilique Sainte-Sabine, Rome, Latium, Italie.

Photo: September 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Tango7174

(Wikimedia Commons)

With the departure of Aquinas for Paris in 1268, and the passage of time, the pedagogical activities of the Studium Provinciale at Santa Sabina were divided between two campuses. A new Convent of the Order at the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva had a modest beginning in 1255 as a community for women converts, but grew rapidly in size and importance after being given to the Dominicans in 1275.

In 1288, the theology component of the Provincial curriculum was relocated from the Santa Sabina Studium Provinciale to the Studium Conventuale at Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which was redesignated as a Studium Particularis Theologiae.

Thus, the Studium at Santa Sabina was the forerunner of the Studium Generale at Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The latter would be transformed in the 16th-Century into the College of Saint Thomas (Latin: Collegium Divi Thomæ), and then, in the 20th-Century, into the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, sited at the Convent of Saints Dominic and Sixtus.

English: Santa Sabina, Roma.

Česky: Interiér baziliky Santa Sabina, Řím.

Photo: February 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Rumburak

(Wikimedia Commons)

Following the curriculum of studies laid out in the Capitular Acts of 1291, the Santa Sabina Studium was re-designated as one of three Studia Nove Logice, intended to offer courses of advanced logic covering the Logica Nova, the Aristotelian texts recovered in the West only in the second half of the 12th-Century, the Topics, Sophistical Refutations, and the First and Second Analytics of Aristotle. 

This was an advance over the Logica Antiqua, which treated the Isagoge of Porphyry, Divisions and Topics of Boethius, the Categories and On Interpretation of Aristotle, and the Summule Logicales of Peter of Spain. Milone da Velletri was Lector at the Santa Sabina Studium in 1293.

In 1310, the Florentine, Giovanni dei Tornaquinci, was Lector at Santa Sabina. In 1331, at the Santa Sabina Studium, Nerius de Tertia was Lector, and Giovanni Zocco da Spoleto was a student of Logic.

The exterior of the Church, with its large windows made of selenite, not glass, looks much as it did when it was built in the 5th-Century.

English: Interior of Santa Sabina.

Français : Interieur de l'église de Santa Sabina, Aventin, Rome.

Photo: 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ursus

(Wikimedia Commons)

The wooden door of the Basilica is generally agreed to be the original door from 430 A.D. - 432 A.D., although it was apparently not constructed for this doorway. Eighteen of its wooden panels survive, all but one depicting scenes from the Bible. Most famous among these is one of the earliest certain depictions of Christ's Crucifixion, although other panels have also been the subject of extensive analysis because of their importance for the study of Christian iconography.

Above the doorway, the interior preserves an original dedication in Latin hexameters.

The Campanile (bell tower) dates from the 10th-Century.

The original 5th-Century Apse mosaic was replaced in 1559 by a very similar fresco by Taddeo Zuccari. The composition probably remained unchanged: Christ is flanked by a good thief and a bad thief, seated on a hill, while lambs drink from a stream at its base. The iconography of the mosaic was very similar to another 5th-Century mosaic, destroyed in the 17th-Century, in Sant'Andrea in Catabarbara. An interesting feature of the interior is a framed hole in the floor, exposing a Roman-era temple column that pre-dates Santa Sabina.

Italiano: Santa Sabina all'Aventino: dettaglio del portone intagliato del VI sec.

English: Basilica of Santa Sabina all'Aventino. 

Detail from the carved Portal dating back to the 6th-Century.

Photo: April 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: Talmoryair

(Wikimedia Commons)

This appears to be the remnant of the Temple of Juno, erected on the hilltop site during Roman times, which was likely razed to allow construction of Santa Sabina. The tall, spacious Nave has 24 Columns of Proconnesian marble with perfectly-matched Corinthian Columns and Bases, which were re-used from the Temple of Juno.

Saint Dominic, Pope Saint Pius V, Saint Celsus, Saint Hyacinth and Saint Thomas Aquinas are among those who have lived in the Monastery adjacent to the Church. The interior Cells, for the Dominican Friars, are little changed since the earliest days of the Order of Preachers. The Cell of Saint Dominic is still identified, though it has since been enlarged and converted to a Chapel. Also, the original dining room still remains, in which Saint Thomas Aquinas would dine when he came to Rome.

THIS ENDS THE ARTICLE ON THE MINOR BASILICA OF SANTA SABINA.

Minor Basilica of Santa Sabina, Rome. (Part One).

Italic Text, Illustrations and Captions, are taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

 

Exterior of Santa Sabina, Rome.

Roma, chiesa di Santa Sabina, esterno (fianco destro e abside), dal giardino degli Aranci.

Photo: 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: MM

Permission: PD

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Basilica of Saint Sabina, on the Aventine Hill, in Rome, Italy (Latin: Basilica Sanctae Sabinae, Italian: Basilica di Santa Sabina all'Aventino) is a Titular Minor Basilica and Mother Church of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans. Santa Sabina is perched high above the Tiber river, to the North, and the Circus Maximus to the East. It is a short distance to the headquarters of the Knights of Malta.

Santa Sabina is the oldest extant Roman Basilica, in the eternal city, that preserves its original colonnaded rectangular plan and architectural style. Its decorations have been restored to their original restrained design. Together with the light pouring in from the windows, this makes Santa Sabina an airy and roomy place. Other Basilicas, such as Santa Maria Maggiore, are often heavily and gaudily decorated. Because of its simplicity, Santa Sabina represents the crossover from a roofed Roman forum to the Churches of Christendom. Its Cardinal Priest is Jozef Tomko. It is the Lenten Stational Church for Ash Wednesday.

The entrance doorway to Santa Sabina.

Photo: November 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Lalupa

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Church of Santa Sabina was built by Peter of Illyria, a Dalmatian Priest, between 422 A.D. and 432 A.D., near a temple of Juno, on the Aventine Hill in Rome. The Church was built on the site of the 4th-Century house of Sabina, a Roman matron, originally from Avezzano in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Sabina was beheaded under Emperor Vespasian, or perhaps Hadrian, because she had been converted to Christianity by her servant, Seraphia, who was stoned to death. Sabina was later declared a Christian Saint.

Pope Honorius III approved, in 1216, the Order of Preachers, now commonly known as the Dominicans, which was "the first Order instituted by the Church with an academic mission,". Honorius III invited Saint Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers, to take up residence at the Church of Santa Sabina in 1220. The official foundation of the Dominican Convent at Santa Sabina, with its Studium Conventuale, the first Dominican Studium in Rome, occurred with the legal transfer of property from Honorius III to the Order of Preachers on 5 June, 1222, though the brethren had taken up residence there in 1220.

Some scholars have written that Honorius III was a member of the Savelli family and that the Church and associated buildings formed part of the holdings of the Savelli, thereby explaining why Honorius III donated Santa Sabina to the Dominicans. In fact, Honorius III was not a Savelli. These scholars may have confused the later Pope Honorius IV, who was a Savelli, and Honorius III. In any case, the Church was given over to the Dominicans and it has since then served as their headquarters in Rome.

Italiano: Roma, Santa Sabina all'Aventino: il portone intagliato del VI sec.

English: Rome, Basilica of Santa Sabina all'Aventino. The carved Portal, dating back to the 6th-Century.

Photo: November 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Lalupa

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1265, in accordance with the injunction of the Chapter of the Roman province of the Order of Preachers at Anagni, Thomas Aquinas was assigned as Regent Master at the Studium Conventuale at Santa Sabina: “Fr. Thome de Aquino iniungimus in remissionem peccatorum quod teneat studium Rome, et volumus quod fratribus qui stant secum ad studendum provideatur in necessariis vestimentis a conventibus de quorum predicatione traxerunt originem. Si autem illi studentes inventi fuerint negligentes in studio, damus potestatem fr. Thome quod ad conventus suos possit eos remittere”.

At this time, the existing Studium Conventuale at Santa Sabina was transformed into the Order's first Studium Provinciale, an Intermediate School between the Studium Conventuale and the Studium Generale. "Prior to this time, the Roman Province had offered no specialised education of any sort;  no arts, no philosophy; only simple Convent Schools, with their basic courses in Theology for resident Friars, were functioning in Tuscany and the meridionale during the first several decades of the Order's life. 

But the new Studium at Santa Sabina was to be a School for the Province," a Studium Provinciale. Tolomeo da Lucca, an associate and early biographer of Aquinas, tells us that, at the Santa Sabina Studium, Aquinas taught the full range of philosophical subjects, both moral and natural.

PART TWO FOLLOWS.