Santa Sabina

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Santa Sabina

The Basilica of Saint Sabina at the Aventine () is a titular

Titular

Titular means existing in title only.*Titular ruler*Titular head *Titular - bishop or titular cardinal, holder of a titulus , titular see or titular bishopric....
minor basilica and mother church

Mother Church

In Christianity, the term mother church or Mother Church may have one of the following meanings:# The first mission church in an area, or a pioneer cathedral...
of the Roman Catholic Dominican order

Dominican Order

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. Santa Sabina lies high on the Aventine Hill

Aventine Hill

The Aventine Hill is one of the Seven hills of Rome on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa , the twelfth rione, or ward, of Rome....
, riverside, close to the headquarters of the Knights of Malta.

Santa Sabina is an early basilica (5th century), with a classical rectangular plan and columns. The decorations have been restored to their original modesty, mostly white. Together with the light pouring in from the windows, this makes the Santa Sabina an airy and roomy place.

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Encyclopedia

The Basilica of Saint Sabina at the Aventine () is a titular

Titular

Titular means existing in title only.*Titular ruler*Titular head *Titular - bishop or titular cardinal, holder of a titulus , titular see or titular bishopric....
minor basilica and mother church

Mother Church

Dominican Order

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, Italy

Italy

Aventine Hill

Roman Forum

The Roman Forum , sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome. It is the central area around which the Ancient Rome developed....
to the churches of Christendom

Christendom

Christendom usually refers to Christianity as a territorial phenomenon. It can also refer to the part of the world in which Christianity prevails....
. Its Cardinal Priest is Jozef Cardinal Tomko

Jozef Cardinal Tomko

Jozef Tomko is a Slovakian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 1985 to 2001, and was elevated to the Cardinal in 1985....
. It is the station church for Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

In the Western Christianity calendar, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days before Easter. It falls on a different date each year, because it is dependent on the Computus; it can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10....
.

History

Santa Sabina was built by Priest Petrus

Priest Petrus

Priest Petrus was of Illyrian origins and lived in the 5th century. He is most famous for building the church of Santa Sabina all'Aventino in the center of the Dominican order with its location in Rome....
of Illyria

Illyria

'Illyria' was in Classical antiquity a region in the western part of today's Balkan Peninsula, inhabited by tribes of Illyrians, an ancient people who spoke the Illyrian languages....
, a Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, situated mostly in modern Croatia and spreading between the island of Rab in the northwest and the Bay of Kotor in the southeast....
n priest, between 422 and 432 on the site of the house of the Roman matron Sabina, who was later declared a canonized

Canonization

Canonization is the act by which a particular Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint and is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints....
Christian saint. It was originally near to a temple of Juno

Juno (mythology)

File:Juno sospita pushkin.jpgJuno was an Roman religion, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Juventas, Mars , and Vulcan ....
.

Pope Honorius III

Pope Honorius III

Pope Honorius III , born Cencio, was Pope from 1216 to 1227....
, a member of the Savelli

Savelli

The Savelli were a rich and influential Rome family who rose to prominence in the twelfth century and were extinct in the male line in 1712....
family, approved in 1216 the Order of Preachers, now commonly known as the Dominicans. At that time the church and associated buildings formed part of the holdings of the Savelli family. In 1219, Pope Honorius III gave his family church to Saint Dominic

Saint Dominic

Saint Dominic , also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzm?n and Domingo de Guzm?n Garc?s was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominican Order or Order of Preachers , a Catholic religious order....
, the founder of the Order of Preachers

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France....
. Since then, it has been their headquarters. The church and convent of Santa Sabina on the Aventine hill in Rome have been home to the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) since the church was given to the Order in perpetuity on June 5, 1222 .

Exterior

The exterior of the church, with its large windows made of selenite

Selenite

Selenite, satin spar, desert rose, and gypsum flower are four varieties of gypsum; all four varieties show obvious crystalline structure....
, not glass

Glass

Glass generally refers to a Hardness, brittle, transparency amorphous solid, such as that used for windows, many Glass Bottles, or eyewear, including, but not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovite , or aluminium oxynitride....
, looks much as it did when it was built in the 5th century.

The wooden door of the basilica is generally agreed to be the original door from the 5th century, although it was apparently not constructed for this doorway. Eighteen of its wooden panels survive — all but one depicting scenes from the Bible

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
, albeit with some departures from canonical versions of the scenes. Most famous among these is one of the earliest certain depictions of Christ's

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
crucifixion

Crucifixion

Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution , whereby the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead....
, although other panels have also been the subjects of extensive analysis because of their unusual imagery.

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

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
hexameter

Hexameter

Hexameter is a literature and poetry form, a Line consisting of six metrical foot, as in the Iliad. It was the standard epic metre in Greek and became standard for Latin too....
.

The campanile

Campanile

A campanile – pronounced – is, especially in Italy, a free-standing bell tower, often adjacent to a church or cathedral....
(bell tower) dates from the 10th century.

Interior

The original 5th century apse mosaic was replaced by a very similar fresco by Taddeo Zuccari

Taddeo Zuccari

Taddeo Zuccaro or Zuccari , was an Italian painter, one of the most popular members of the Mannerism....
in 1559. The composition probably remained unchanged: Christ flanked by male and female saints, seated on a hill while lambs drinking from a stream at its feet. The iconography of the mosaic was very similar to another 5th century mosaic, destroyed in the 17th century, in Sant'Andrea in Catabarbara.

The convent of Santa Sabina

Saint Dominic

Saint Hyacinth

Saint Hyacinth, Swiety Jacek, Jacek Odrowaz was educated in Paris and Bologna. A Doctor of Sacred Studies and a priest, he worked to reform convents in his native Poland....
and St Thomas Aquinas are among those who have lived in the monastery adjacent to the church. The interior cells

Monastery

Monastery , a term derived from the Greek language word ???ast?????, neut. of ???ast????? - monasterios denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of Monk, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in Cenobium or alone ....
for the Dominican friars are little changed since the earliest days of the Order of Preachers. The cell of St. Dominic is still identified, though it has since been enlarged and converted to a chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used as a place for fellowship and of worship for Christians. It may be attached to an institution such as a large Church , a college, a hospital, a palace, a prison or a cemetery, or may be an entirely free-standing building, sometimes with its own grounds....
. Also, the original dining room still remains, in which St. Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis....
would dine when he came to Rome.

External links

, with Mario Armellini's
, "Santa Sabina all'Aventino"
analyzed.