Santa Pudenziana

Coordinates: 41°53′54.3″N 12°29′44″E / 41.898417°N 12.49556°E / 41.898417; 12.49556
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Santa Pudenziana
Basilica of Saint Pudentiana
Basilica di Santa Pudenziana
Paleochristian, Romanesque
Completed1588
Administration
DioceseRome

Santa Pudenziana is a church of Rome, a basilica built in the 4th century and dedicated to Saint Pudentiana, sister of Praxedes and daughter of Pudens (mentioned by Paul the Apostle in 2 Timothy, 4: 21). It is one of the national churches in Rome, associated with Filipinos.

The authenticity of Pudentiana has been questioned and the name suggested to have originated in an adjective used to describe the house of Pudens, the Domus Pudentiana.[citation needed]

History

Paleochristian
mosaic, c. 420 AD.
Close-up of Saint Pudentiana in the mosaic of the apse

The Basilica of Santa Pudenziana is recognized as the oldest place of Christian worship in

Sacraments
was permitted there.

The basilica is situated below the modern street level. Entrance is through wrought-iron gates. Steps that were added in the 19th century descend to a square courtyard from both sides of the entrance. The architrave of the entrance hall of the faded façade (1870) has a marble frieze that used to belong to a portal of the 11th century. It is a significant work of medieval sculpture in Rome. From left to right it depicts Pastore, the first owner of the basilica; Pudentiana; Praxedes; and their father, Pudens. The columns in the nave were part of the original edifice.

The Romanesque belltower was added in the early 13th century. Restorations of 1388 by Francesco da Volterra, pursuant to order of Cardinal Enrico Caetani, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, transformed the three naves into one and a dome was added that Francesco da Volterra also designed. The painting of Angels and Saints before the Savior in the interior of the dome is a fresco by Pomarancio. During these last restorations some fragments of a Laocoön group were found that were larger than those in the Vatican City. Because none was willing to pay extra for this find, the hole in the ground was filled. These fragments were never recovered. The façade was renewed in 1870 and Pietro Gagliardi added frescoes.

The right side of the basilica was part of a Roman thermae, i. e. bath house, dating to the reign of the emperor Hadrian (AD 117–38).

Interior

Paleochristian
mosaic in the Santa Pudenziana basilica

On the wall behind the high altar are three paintings made in 1803 by Bernardino Nocchi representing (from left to right): St Timotheus, The Glory of St Pudentiana, and St Novatus.

The

Innocent I (401–417),[1] and was heavily restored in the 16th century. It is among the oldest Christian mosaics in Rome and one of the most striking mosaics outside of Ravenna, deemed the most beautiful mosaic in Rome by the 19th-century historian Ferdinand Gregorovius
.

This mosaic is remarkable for its

Golgotha), as a sign of the triumph of Christ, amidst the Christian symbols of the Four Evangelists. These iconographic symbols (angel, lion, ox and eagle) are the oldest still existing such representations of the Evangelists.[2]
The backdrop is a blue sky with an orange sunset.

One scholar has suggested that the enthroned figure in the center of the apse mosaic normally regarded as Christ, in fact represents God the Father,[3] which would be an extremely unusual depiction of God the Father in art at this date.

Chapels

St Praxedes and Pudenziana collecting the Blood of the Martyrs by Giovanni Paolo Rossetti

The statue of Saint Pudentiana (c. 1650) in a niche is by Claude Adam. The sisters’ well stands just outside the Caetani chapel in the left aisle, which is said to contain the relics of 3,000 early martyrs, many of which were brought here and hidden by Pudentiana and Praxedes. This is marked by a square porphyry slab in the floor.

Following the decline of popular piety ushered by the ecclesiastical reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1969, the names of Pudentiana and her sister Praxedes were removed from the General Roman Calendar.

Titular church

The church serves as a

Napoleon I
.

See also

  • Filipinos in Italy

References

  1. ^ Kleinbauer, 940
  2. ^ Some Recent Finds at Alahan (Koja Kalessi), Michael Gough, Anatolian Studies, Vol. 5, (1955), 121.JSTOR
  3. ^ Suggestion by F.W. Sclatter, see Kleinbauer, 940
  4. ^ "司教の紹介".

Bibliography

External links

Media related to Santa Pudenziana at Wikimedia Commons

Preceded by
Santa Prassede
Landmarks of Rome
Santa Pudenziana
Succeeded by
Santi Quattro Coronati