Saturday, April 27, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog:
Piety, Psalms 98:1-4, Acts 13:44-52, John 14:7-14, Pope Francis Daily Homily - Faith is a Path of Beauty and Truth, St Zita,Basilica of San Frediano, Lucca Italy, Catholic Catechism Part Two: THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH - Chapter 2 Sacraments of Healing Penance and Reconciliation Article 4:3 Conversion of the Baptized
Year of Faith - October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013
P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Serenity Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.
The world begins and ends everyday for someone. We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have
flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge and free will,
make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in
Heaven. The Seven Gifts of
the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, wonder and awe (fear of the
Lord) , counsel, knowledge, fortitude, and piety (reverence) and shun
the seven Deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and
gluttony...Its your choice whether to embrace the Gifts of the Holy Spirit rising towards eternal light or succumb to the Seven deadly sins and lost to
eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and
survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes
from this earth to the Darkness, Purgatory or Heaven is our Soul...it's God's perpetual
gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...~ Zarya Parx 2013
"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012
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Prayers for Today: Saturday in Easter
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Papam Franciscus
(Pope Francis)
Pope Francis April 27 General Audience Address :
Faith is a Path of Beauty and Truth
(2013-04-27 Vatican Radio)
Faith is not alienation or a crooked deal, but a path of beauty and
truth marked out by Jesus to prepare our eyes to gaze without glasses at
“the marvellous face of God”, in the definitive dwelling place prepared
for each one of us. It is an invitation not to let ourselves be gripped
by fear and to live life as a preparation for seeing better, hearing
better and loving more, as Pope Francis said in his homily at the Mass
he celebrated on Friday morning, 26 April, in the chapel of the Domus
Sanctae Marthae.
Concelebrating with the Pope were Bishop Giorgio Corbellini, President of the Labour Office of the Apostolic See and of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia, and Fr Sergio Pellini, SDB, director of the Tipografia Vaticana Editrice L’Osservatore Romano. Among those present were the Supervisory and Auditing Council of the Vatican Press, a group of officers of the Gendarmes Corps and staff of the Vatican Labour Office and of L’Osservatore Romano.
Pope Francis based his homily on the Gospel passage of St John (14:1-6). “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself...”.
Jesus’ words, the Pope commented, are very beautiful. At a time of leave taking, Jesus speaks to his disciples from his heart. He knows they are sad, for they realize that things are not going well”. So now Jesus encourages them, cheers them, reassures them and unfolds before them a horizon of hope. “Let your hearts not be troubled”. And he begins talking to them as a friend.
“I am going to prepare a place for you”. What is this preparation?”, Pope Francis asked himself. “How is it done? What is this place like? What does preparing the place mean? Renting a room in heaven?” Preparing a place means preparing “our capacities for enjoying, for seeing, for hearing and for understanding the beauty of what awaits us, of that homeland for which we are bound”.
The Pope ended his homily asking “that the Lord give us this strong hope”. and also the courage to greet the homeland from afar”. And lastly, “may he give us the humility to let ourselves be prepared, that is, to let the Lord prepare the definitive dwelling place in our heart, in our sight and in our hearing.
Concelebrating with the Pope were Bishop Giorgio Corbellini, President of the Labour Office of the Apostolic See and of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia, and Fr Sergio Pellini, SDB, director of the Tipografia Vaticana Editrice L’Osservatore Romano. Among those present were the Supervisory and Auditing Council of the Vatican Press, a group of officers of the Gendarmes Corps and staff of the Vatican Labour Office and of L’Osservatore Romano.
Pope Francis based his homily on the Gospel passage of St John (14:1-6). “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself...”.
Jesus’ words, the Pope commented, are very beautiful. At a time of leave taking, Jesus speaks to his disciples from his heart. He knows they are sad, for they realize that things are not going well”. So now Jesus encourages them, cheers them, reassures them and unfolds before them a horizon of hope. “Let your hearts not be troubled”. And he begins talking to them as a friend.
“I am going to prepare a place for you”. What is this preparation?”, Pope Francis asked himself. “How is it done? What is this place like? What does preparing the place mean? Renting a room in heaven?” Preparing a place means preparing “our capacities for enjoying, for seeing, for hearing and for understanding the beauty of what awaits us, of that homeland for which we are bound”.
The Pope ended his homily asking “that the Lord give us this strong hope”. and also the courage to greet the homeland from afar”. And lastly, “may he give us the humility to let ourselves be prepared, that is, to let the Lord prepare the definitive dwelling place in our heart, in our sight and in our hearing.
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Liturgical Celebrations to be presided over by Pope: April–May
Vatican City, 3 April 2013 (VIS)
Following is the calendar of celebrations scheduled to be presided over by the Holy Father in the months of April and May, 2013:
APRIL
28 April, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass and confirmations in St. Peter's Square.
MAY
4 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Recitation of the Rosary in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
5 May, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass for Confraternities in St. Peter's Square.
12 May, Sunday: 9:30am, Mass and canonizations of Blesseds Antonio Primaldo and Companions; Laura di Santa Caterina da Siena Montoya y Upegui; and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala.
18 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Pentecost Vigil in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
19 May, Pentecost Sunday: 10:00am, Mass in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
Following is the calendar of celebrations scheduled to be presided over by the Holy Father in the months of April and May, 2013:
APRIL
28 April, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass and confirmations in St. Peter's Square.
MAY
4 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Recitation of the Rosary in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
5 May, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass for Confraternities in St. Peter's Square.
12 May, Sunday: 9:30am, Mass and canonizations of Blesseds Antonio Primaldo and Companions; Laura di Santa Caterina da Siena Montoya y Upegui; and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala.
18 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Pentecost Vigil in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
19 May, Pentecost Sunday: 10:00am, Mass in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
Reference:
- Vatican News. From the Pope. © Copyright 2013 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Accessed 04/27/2013.
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April 25, 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World:: "Dear children! Pray, pray, keep praying until your heart opens in faith as a flower opens to the warm rays of the sun. This is a time of grace which God gives you through my presence but you are far from my heart, therefore, I call you to personal conversion and to family prayer. May Sacred Scripture always be an incentive for you. I bless you all with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call."
April 2, 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World: "Dear children, I am calling you to be one with my Son in spirit. I am calling you, through prayer, and the Holy Mass when my Son unites Himself with you in a special way, to try to be like Him; that, like Him, you may always be ready to carry out God's will and not seek the fulfillment of your own. Because, my children, it is according to God's will that you are and that you exist, and without God's will you are nothing. As a mother I am asking you to speak about the glory of God with your life because, in that way, you will also glorify yourself in accordance to His will. Show humility and love for your neighbour to everyone. Through such humility and love, my Son saved you and opened the way for you to the Heavenly Father. I implore you to keep opening the way to the Heavenly Father for all those who have not come to know Him and have not opened their hearts to His love. By your life, open the way to all those who still wander in search of the truth. My children, be my apostles who have not lived in vain. Do not forget that you will come before the Heavenly Father and tell Him about yourself. Be ready! Again I am warning you, pray for those whom my Son called, whose hands He blessed and whom He gave as a gift to you. Pray, pray, pray for your shepherds. Thank you."
March 25, 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World:
“Dear children! In this time of grace I call you to take the cross of my beloved Son Jesus in your hands and to meditate on His passion and death. May your suffering be united in His suffering and love will win, because He who is love gave Himself out of love to save each of you. Pray, pray, pray until love and peace begin to reign in your hearts. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
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Today's Word: Piety pi·e·ty [pahy-i-tee]
Origin: 1275–1325; Middle English piete < Middle French < Latin pietās, equivalent to pi ( us ) + -etās, variant (after i ) of -itās; see pious, -ity
noun, plural pi·e·ties.
1. reverence for God or devout fulfillment of religious obligations: a prayer full of piety.
2. the quality or state of being pious: saintly piety.
3. dutiful respect or regard for parents, homeland, etc.: filial piety.
4. a pious act, remark, belief, or the like: the pieties and sacrifices of an austere life.
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Today's Old Testament Reading - Psalms 98:1-4
1 [Psalm] Sing a new song to Yahweh, for he has performed wonders, his saving power is in his right hand and his holy arm.
2 Yahweh has made known his saving power, revealed his saving justice for the nations to see,
3 mindful of his faithful love and his
constancy to the House of Israel. The whole wide world has seen the
saving power of our God.
4 Acclaim Yahweh, all the earth, burst into shouts of joy!
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Today's Epistle - Acts 13:44-52
44 The next Sabbath almost the whole town assembled to hear the word of God.
45 When they saw the crowds, the Jews, filled with jealousy, used blasphemies to contradict everything Paul said.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out fearlessly. 'We had to proclaim the word of God
to you first, but since you have rejected it, since you do not think
yourselves worthy of eternal life, here and now we turn to the gentiles.
47 For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said: I have made you a light to the nations, so that my salvation may reach the remotest parts of the earth.'
48 It made the gentiles very happy to hear this and they gave thanks to the Lord for his message; all who were destined for eternal life became believers.
49 Thus the word of the Lord spread through the whole countryside.
50 But the Jews worked on some of the devout women of the upper classes and the leading men of the city; they stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their territory.
51 So they shook the dust from their
feet in protest against them and went off to Iconium; but the converts
were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
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Today's Gospel Reading - John 14:7-14
7 If you know me, you will know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.
8 Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied.' Jesus said to him,
9 'Have I been with you all this time,
Philip, and you still do not know me? 'Anyone who has seen me has seen
the Father, so how can you say, "Show us the Father"?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the
Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my
own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works.
11 You must believe me when I say that I
am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe it on the
evidence of these works.
12 In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father.
13 Whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.
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Featured Item of the Day from Litany Lane
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Saint of the Day: Saint Zita
Feast Day: April 27
Patron Saint: Domestic servants, homemakers, lost keys, people ridiculed for their piety, rape victims, single laywomen, waiters, waitresses
Attributes: bag of keys
Saint Zita (c. 1212 – 27 April 1272; also known as Sitha or Citha)
is an Italian saint, the patron saint of maids and domestic servants.
She is often appealed to in order to help find lost keys.
A Mediaeval wall painting Saint Zita (Horley, Oxfordshire)
Saint Zita was born in Tuscany in the village of Monsagrati, not far from Lucca
where, at the age of 12, she became a servant in the Fatinelli
household. For a long time, she was unjustly despised, overburdened,
reviled, and often beaten by her employers and fellow servants for her
hard work and obvious goodness. The incessant ill-usage, however, was
powerless to deprive her of her inward peace, her love of those who
wronged her, and her respect for her employers. By this meek and humble
self-restraint, Zita at last succeeded in overcoming the malice of her
fellow-servants and her employers, so much so that she was placed in
charge of all the affairs of the house. Her faith had enabled her to
persevere against their abuse, and her constant piety gradually moved
the family to a religious awakening.
Zita often said to others that devotion is false if slothful. She considered her work as an employment assigned to her by God, and as part of her penance, and obeyed her master and mistress in all things as being placed over her by God. She always rose several hours before the rest of the family and employed in prayer a considerable part of the time which others gave to sleep. She took care to hear mass every morning with great devotion before she was called upon by the duties of her station, in which she employed the whole day, with such diligence and fidelity that she seemed to be carried to them on wings, and studied when possible to anticipate them.
One anecdote relates a story of Zita giving her own food or that of her master to the poor. On one morning, Zita left her chore of baking bread to tend to someone in need. Some of the other servants ensured the Fatinelli family was aware of what happened; when they went to investigate, they claimed to have found angels in the Fatinelli kitchen, baking the bread for her.
St. Betina Zita died peacefully in the Fatinelli house on April 27,
1272. It is said that a star appeared above the attic where she slept at
the moment of her death. She was 60 years old,[2]
and had served and edified the family for 48 years. By her death, she
was practically venerated by the family. After one hundred and fifty
miracles wrought in the behalf of such as had recourse to her
intercession were juridically proven, she was canonized in 1696.
Her body was exhumed in 1580, discovered to be incorrupt, but has since become mummified. St. Zita's body is currently on display for public veneration in the Basilica di San Frediano in Lucca.
Her feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is April 27. To this day, families bake a loaf of bread in celebration of St. Zita's feast day.
During the late medieval era, her popular cult had grown throughout Europe. In England she was known under the name Sitha, and was popularly invoked by maidservants and housewives, particularly in event of having lost one's keys, on when crossing rivers of bridges. Images of St. Zita may be seen in churches across the south of England. The church of St Benet Sherehog in London had a chapel dedicated to her, and was locally known as St. Sithes. However, despite her popularity at this time, the cult was not an official one.[3]
Zita often said to others that devotion is false if slothful. She considered her work as an employment assigned to her by God, and as part of her penance, and obeyed her master and mistress in all things as being placed over her by God. She always rose several hours before the rest of the family and employed in prayer a considerable part of the time which others gave to sleep. She took care to hear mass every morning with great devotion before she was called upon by the duties of her station, in which she employed the whole day, with such diligence and fidelity that she seemed to be carried to them on wings, and studied when possible to anticipate them.
One anecdote relates a story of Zita giving her own food or that of her master to the poor. On one morning, Zita left her chore of baking bread to tend to someone in need. Some of the other servants ensured the Fatinelli family was aware of what happened; when they went to investigate, they claimed to have found angels in the Fatinelli kitchen, baking the bread for her.
Death and canonization
The body of Saint Zita, found to be incorrupt by the Catholic Church
Her body was exhumed in 1580, discovered to be incorrupt, but has since become mummified. St. Zita's body is currently on display for public veneration in the Basilica di San Frediano in Lucca.
Her feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is April 27. To this day, families bake a loaf of bread in celebration of St. Zita's feast day.
Veneration
Soon after Zita's death a popular cult grew up around her, centring on the church of St Frigidian in Lucca. This was also joined by prominent members of the city. Pope Leo X sanctioned a liturgical cult within the church in the early 16th century, and was confirmed Immemorial[disambiguation needed] upon her canonization. In 1748, Pope Benedict XIV added her name to the Roman Martyrology.[3]During the late medieval era, her popular cult had grown throughout Europe. In England she was known under the name Sitha, and was popularly invoked by maidservants and housewives, particularly in event of having lost one's keys, on when crossing rivers of bridges. Images of St. Zita may be seen in churches across the south of England. The church of St Benet Sherehog in London had a chapel dedicated to her, and was locally known as St. Sithes. However, despite her popularity at this time, the cult was not an official one.[3]
References
- Butler, Rev. Alban (1864). "Life of Zita". The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, Volume IV. D. & J. Sadlier, & Company. Retrieved 2006-04-27. (Online edition hosted by Eternal Word Television Network [1].) This is a straightforward piece of nineteenth-century popular hagiography. It cites its sources thus: “See her life, compiled by a contemporary writer, and published by Papebroke, the Bollandist, on the 27th of April, p. 497, and Benedict XIV De Canoniz. lib. ii. c. 24, p. 245.”
- "St. Zita". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. It states as sources: "The earliest biography of the saint is preserved in an anonymous manuscript belonging to the Fatinelli family which was published at Ferrara in 1688 by Monsignor Fatinelli, ‘Vita beatf[sic] Zitf[sic] virginis Lucensis ex vetustissimo codice manuscripto fideliter transumpta’. For his fuller ‘Vita e miracoli di S. Zita vergine lucchese’ (Lucca, 1752) Bartolomeo Fiorito has used this and other notices, especially those taken from the process drawn up to prove the immemorial cult."
- ^ Jones, Terry. "Zita". Patron Saints Index. Retrieved 2007-03-11.
- ^ Butler states that: "she happily expired on the 27th of April, in 1272, being sixty years old." If he is correct, her date of birth becomes 1212 or 1211. The Catholic Encyclopedia prefers 1271 as the year of her death but is silent on her age at that point and on when she was born.
- ^ a b Farmer, David Hugh (1997). The Oxford dictionary of saints (4. ed. ed.). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 9780192800589.
Further reading
- Recipe for St. Zita's Bread from Cook's Blessings, The by Demetria Taylor, Random House, New York, 1965. (Actually a perfectly modern recipe: it makes no claims to resemble loaves made in thirteenth-century Lucca.)
- St. Zita is a short account of Zita’s life published by St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Picayune, MS, USA. It gives no sources.
- Life of St. Zita - Butler Life of St. Zita - Taken from Vol. IV of "The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by D. & J. Sadlier, & Company)
- Shea, John Gilmary (1894). "SAINT ZITA". Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints. New York: Benziger Brothers. Retrieved 2006-04-27. (Online edition hosted by The Order of the Magnificat of the Mother of God from the Monastery of the Apostles, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada.) This book for children is a “compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources.”
- Guerra, Almerico (1875) Istoria della vita di Santa Zita, ... narrata secondo i documenti contemporanei. Lucca
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Today's Snippet I: Basilica of San Frediano
Fridianus (Frediano) was an Irish bishop of Lucca in the first half of the 6th century. He had a church built on this spot, dedicated to St. Vincent, a martyr from Zaragoza,
Spain. When Fridianus was buried in this church, the church was renamed
Ss. Frediano and Vincenzo. Soon afterwards, a community of Augustinian canons was growing around this church. In the Longobard era, the church and the canon house were enlarged. In 1104, this order was recognized by Pope Paschal II. The prior of St. Frediano was later accorded a rank equal in dignity to that of a bishop.
The church acquired its present appearance of a typical Roman basilica during the period 1112-1147. In the 13th-14th centuries the striking façade was decorated with a huge golden 13th century mosaic representing The Ascension of Christ the Saviour with the apostles below. Berlinghiero Berlinghieri designed it in a Byzantine/medieval style.
Several chapels of the nobility were added in the 14th-16th centuries. These are lavishly decorated with paintings.
The architecture of the Basilica of San Frediano well represents the characteristics of Romanesque Lucca before the influences of the near Pisa, in particular of the Cathedral of Buscheto, and workers from northern Italy change its traditional character. The church still has a simple type of early Christian basilica plan, with curtain walls smooth, without projections or complex joints of the arches, and architectural elements are all of Roman tradition, such as architraves and columns of the facade and the apse, the windows niche, the specially carved composite capitals. These same features are found - in a stadium even purer - in the nearby church of St. Alexander, which includes the remains of an older building in which every element, from the paths proportional to the quality of the walls, the arrangement of unusual materials to bare corinzieggianti capitals, is all ancient roman traditions.
Inside, the basilica is built in richly carved white marble. It consists of a nave and two aisles with arches supported by columns with Roman and Romanesque capitals. The Roman capitals were recycled from the nearby Roman amphitheatre.
The highlight at the entrance is the huge 12th century Romanesque baptismal font (the Fonte Lustrale). It is composed of a bowl, covered with a tempietto, resting on pillars, inside a circular basin. It is the craftmanship of master Roberto (his signature is on the basin) and two unknown masters. The basin is decorated with The Story of Moses by a Lombard sculptor. Master Roberto did the last two panels The Good Shepherd and the Six Prophets. The tempietto was sculpted by a Tuscan master, representing the months of the year and the apostles.
Behind this font, higher on the wall, are two 15th century glazed terracotta lunettes : The Annunciation and St. Bartholomew, both attributed to the school of Andrea della Robbia. There is another baptismal font, still in use, carved and adapted from a sacramental altar by Matteo Civitali in 1489. The counterfaçade houses the 16th century organ in the exquisitely carved, gold-plated choir from the 17th century.
On the right hand is the side chapel of St. Zita (1218-1278), a popular saint in Lucca. Her intact mummified body, lying on a bed of brocade, is on display in a glass shrine. On the walls of the chapel are several canvasses from the 16th and 17th centuries depicting episodes from her life.
The remains of St. Frediano lie underneath the main altar from the 16th century. A massive stone monolith stands left of the main altar. This was probably pilfered from the amphiteatre of Lucca. But local tradition has it that it was miraculously transported to Lucca by San Frediano and used as a predella (step of an altar) for the first altar.
Among the many chapels, the Chapel of the Cross certainly stands out. It contains frescoes, recently restored, by Amico Aspertini (1508-1509). The blue vault shows us God surrounded by angels, prophets and sibyls. Above the altar is an anonymous 17th century painting representing Volto Santo, St. Augustine and St. Ubaldo. On the right wall is the fresco of St. Frediano displacing the course of the river Serchio, while trying to stop the flooding. Next to it is a column which is, at closer sight, actually flat. The sgraffiti are drawn in the art technique of trompe l’oeil, giving a false perspective and the illusion of a column. On the left wall is the fresco of the Transportation of the Volto Santo from the port of Luni to Lucca by the Blessed Giovanni, bishop of Lucca. In the front the stooping old lady in red robe certainly steals the show. The mortal remains of this bishop are preserved in this chapel.
The Chapel of St. Anne was constructed in the 16th century, but the paintings date from the 19th century. On the left side of the altar is the Death of St. Anna by B. Rocchi. In the middle, above the altar, St. Anna Adores the Child by Stefano Tofanelli. On the right side of the altar is the Birth of Mary by A. Cecchi.
The church acquired its present appearance of a typical Roman basilica during the period 1112-1147. In the 13th-14th centuries the striking façade was decorated with a huge golden 13th century mosaic representing The Ascension of Christ the Saviour with the apostles below. Berlinghiero Berlinghieri designed it in a Byzantine/medieval style.
Several chapels of the nobility were added in the 14th-16th centuries. These are lavishly decorated with paintings.
The architecture of the Basilica of San Frediano well represents the characteristics of Romanesque Lucca before the influences of the near Pisa, in particular of the Cathedral of Buscheto, and workers from northern Italy change its traditional character. The church still has a simple type of early Christian basilica plan, with curtain walls smooth, without projections or complex joints of the arches, and architectural elements are all of Roman tradition, such as architraves and columns of the facade and the apse, the windows niche, the specially carved composite capitals. These same features are found - in a stadium even purer - in the nearby church of St. Alexander, which includes the remains of an older building in which every element, from the paths proportional to the quality of the walls, the arrangement of unusual materials to bare corinzieggianti capitals, is all ancient roman traditions.
Inside, the basilica is built in richly carved white marble. It consists of a nave and two aisles with arches supported by columns with Roman and Romanesque capitals. The Roman capitals were recycled from the nearby Roman amphitheatre.
The highlight at the entrance is the huge 12th century Romanesque baptismal font (the Fonte Lustrale). It is composed of a bowl, covered with a tempietto, resting on pillars, inside a circular basin. It is the craftmanship of master Roberto (his signature is on the basin) and two unknown masters. The basin is decorated with The Story of Moses by a Lombard sculptor. Master Roberto did the last two panels The Good Shepherd and the Six Prophets. The tempietto was sculpted by a Tuscan master, representing the months of the year and the apostles.
12th century baptismal font.
On the right hand is the side chapel of St. Zita (1218-1278), a popular saint in Lucca. Her intact mummified body, lying on a bed of brocade, is on display in a glass shrine. On the walls of the chapel are several canvasses from the 16th and 17th centuries depicting episodes from her life.
The remains of St. Frediano lie underneath the main altar from the 16th century. A massive stone monolith stands left of the main altar. This was probably pilfered from the amphiteatre of Lucca. But local tradition has it that it was miraculously transported to Lucca by San Frediano and used as a predella (step of an altar) for the first altar.
Chapels
The Trenta chapel in the left aisle houses the polyptych of the Virgin and the Child, a 15th century masterpiece by Jacopo della Quercia, carved with the help of his assistant Giovanni da Imola. Below the altar is a Roman sarcophagus with the body of St. Richard, an English “king” (of Wessex), who died in Lucca in 722 while on pilgrimage to Rome. He was the supposed father of Saints Willibald, Winiblad and Walpurga. On the marble floor lies a tombstone of Lorenzo Trenta and his wife, equally from the hand of Jacopo della Quercia.Among the many chapels, the Chapel of the Cross certainly stands out. It contains frescoes, recently restored, by Amico Aspertini (1508-1509). The blue vault shows us God surrounded by angels, prophets and sibyls. Above the altar is an anonymous 17th century painting representing Volto Santo, St. Augustine and St. Ubaldo. On the right wall is the fresco of St. Frediano displacing the course of the river Serchio, while trying to stop the flooding. Next to it is a column which is, at closer sight, actually flat. The sgraffiti are drawn in the art technique of trompe l’oeil, giving a false perspective and the illusion of a column. On the left wall is the fresco of the Transportation of the Volto Santo from the port of Luni to Lucca by the Blessed Giovanni, bishop of Lucca. In the front the stooping old lady in red robe certainly steals the show. The mortal remains of this bishop are preserved in this chapel.
The Chapel of St. Anne was constructed in the 16th century, but the paintings date from the 19th century. On the left side of the altar is the Death of St. Anna by B. Rocchi. In the middle, above the altar, St. Anna Adores the Child by Stefano Tofanelli. On the right side of the altar is the Birth of Mary by A. Cecchi.
References
- Butler, Rev. Alban (1864). "Life of Zita". The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, Volume IV. D. & J. Sadlier, & Company. Retrieved 2006-04-27. (Online edition hosted by Eternal Word Television Network [1].) This is a straightforward piece of nineteenth-century popular hagiography. It cites its sources thus: “See her life, compiled by a contemporary writer, and published by Papebroke, the Bollandist, on the 27th of April, p. 497, and Benedict XIV De Canoniz. lib. ii. c. 24, p. 245.”
- "St. Zita". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. It states as sources: "The earliest biography of the saint is preserved in an anonymous manuscript belonging to the Fatinelli family which was published at Ferrara in 1688 by Monsignor Fatinelli, ‘Vita beatf[sic] Zitf[sic] virginis Lucensis ex vetustissimo codice manuscripto fideliter transumpta’. For his fuller ‘Vita e miracoli di S. Zita vergine lucchese’ (Lucca, 1752) Bartolomeo Fiorito has used this and other notices, especially those taken from the process drawn up to prove the immemorial cult."
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Today's Snippet II: Lucca Italy
Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, Central Italy,
situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Tyrrhenian
Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca. Among other
reasons, it is famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls.[1][2]
Ancient and medieval city
Lucca was founded by the Etruscans (there are traces of a pre-existing Ligurian settlement) and became a Roman
colony in 180 BC. The rectangular grid of its historical centre
preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza San Michele occupies the
site of the ancient forum. Traces of the amphitheatre can still be seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.
At the Lucca Conference, in 56 BC, Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus reaffirmed their political alliance known as the First Triumvirate.[3]
Frediano, an Irish monk, was bishop of Lucca in the early 6th century.[4] At one point, Lucca was plundered by Odoacer, the first Germanic King of Italy. Lucca was an important city and fortress even in the 6th century, when Narses besieged it for several months in 553. Under the Lombards, it was the seat of a duke who minted his own coins. The Holy Face of Lucca (or Volto Santo), a major relic supposedly carved by Nicodemus, arrived in 742. During the 8th - 10th centuries it was a center of Jewish life, led by the Kalonymos family (who at some point during this period migrated to Germany and became a major component of proto-Ashkenazic Jewry). It became prosperous through the silk trade that began in the 11th century, and came to rival the silks of Byzantium.
During the 10–11th centuries Lucca was the capital of the feudal
margraviate of Tuscany, more or less independent but owing nominal
allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.
First republic
After the death of Matilda of Tuscany, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune,
with a charter in 1160. For almost 500 years, Lucca remained an
independent republic. There were many minor provinces in the region
between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany dominated by the Malaspina; Tuscany in this time was a part of feudal Europe. Dante’s Divine Comedy includes many references to the great feudal families who had huge jurisdictions with administrative and judicial rights. Dante spent some of his exile in Lucca.
In 1273 and again in 1277, Lucca was ruled by a Guelph capitano del popolo (captain of the people) named Luchetto Gattilusio. In 1314, internal discord allowed Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa to make himself lord of Lucca. The Lucchesi expelled him two years later, and handed over the city to another condottiere Castruccio Castracani, under whose rule it became a leading state in central Italy. Lucca rivalled Florence until Castracani's death in 1328. On 22 and 23 September 1325, in the battle of Altopascio, Castracani defeated Florence's Guelphs. For this he was nominated by Louis IV the Bavarian to become duke of Lucca. Castracani's tomb is in the church of San Francesco. His biography is Machiavelli's third famous book on political rule. In 1408, Lucca hosted the convocation
intended to end the schism in the papacy. Occupied by the troops of
Louis of Bavaria, the city was sold to a rich Genoese, Gherardino
Spinola, then seized by John, king of Bohemia. Pawned to the Rossi of
Parma, by them it was ceded to Martino della Scala of Verona, sold to the Florentines, surrendered to the Pisans, and then nominally liberated by the emperor Charles IV and governed by his vicar. Lucca managed, at first as a democracy, and after 1628 as an oligarchy, to maintain its independence alongside of Venice and Genoa, and painted the word Libertas on its banner until the French Revolution in 1789.[5]
Napoleonic conquest
Lucca had been the second largest Italian city state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune") to remain independent over the centuries.
In 1805, Lucca was conquered by Napoleon, who installed his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi as "Queen of Etruria".
After 1815 it became a Bourbon-Parma duchy, then part of Tuscany in 1847 and finally part of the Italian State.
Main sights
The walls around the old town remained intact as the city expanded
and modernized, unusual for cities in the region. As the walls lost
their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade which
encircled the old town, although they were used for a number of years in
the 20th century for racing cars. They are still fully intact today;
each of the four principal sides is lined with a different tree species.
The Academy of Sciences (1584) is the most famous of several academies and libraries.
The Casa di Puccini will re-open to the public on 14 September 2011.[6] At the nearby town of Torre del Lago, there is a Puccini opera festival every year in July/August. Puccini had a house there as well.
There are many richly built medieval basilica-form churches in Lucca with rich arcaded façades and campaniles, a few as old as the 8th century.
- Piazza dell'Anfiteatro
- Piazzale Verdi
- Piazza Napoleone
- Piazza San Michele
- Duomo di San Martino (St Martin's Cathedral)
- The Ducal Palace, built on the location of Castruccio Castracani's fortress. The original project was begun by Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1577–1582, and continued by Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century.
- The ancient Roman amphitheatre
- Church of San Michele in Foro
- Romanesque church of San Giusto.
- Basilica di San Frediano
- Church of Sant'Alessandro,[7] an example of medieval classicism
- Torre delle ore ("The Clock Tower")
- Casa and Torre Guinigi - The Guinigi Tower with oak trees on top
- Museo Nazionale Guinigi
- Museo e Pinacoteca Nazionale
- Orto Botanico Comunale di Lucca, a botanical garden dating from 1820
- Palazzo Pfanner
- Villa Garzoni, noted for its water gardens.
- Church of San Giorgio in the locality of Brancoli, built in the late 12th century. It has a nave and two aisles with a single apse, and a bell tower in Lombard-Romanesque style ranked among the most beautiful in northern Italy. The interior houses a massive ambo (1194) with four columns mounted on notable sculptures of lions. Also having notable medieval decoration is the octagonal baptismal fount. The altar is supported by six small columns with human figures
- Church of San Michele, at Antraccoli. Founded in 777, it was enlarged in the 12th century and modified again in the 16th century with the introduction of a portico.
- Passeggiata delle Mura Urbane, a street all over the city on the bastions. It passes from these balconies: Santa Croce, San Frediano, San Martino, San Pietro/Battisti, San Salvatore, La Libertà/Cairoli, San Regolo, San Colombano, Santa Maria, San Paolino/Catalani, and San Donato; also pass over these gates: Porta San Donato, Porta Santa Maria, Porta San Jocopo, Porta Elisa, Porta San Pietro, and Porta Sant'Anna.
- Church of Santa Giulia, of Lombard origins, but remade in the 13th century.
- The fortified city is surrounded by the streets of: Piazzale Boccherini, Viale Lazzaro Papi, Viale Carlo Del Prete, Piazzale Martiri della Libertà, Via Batoni, Viale Agostino Marti, Viale G. Marconi (vide Guglielmo Marconi), Piazza Don A. Mei, Viale Pacini (vide Pacini), Viale Giusti, Piazza Curtatone, Piazzale Ricasoli, Viale Ricasoli, Piazza Risorgimento (vide Risorgimento) and Viale Giosuè Carducci (vide Giosuè Carducci).
Culture
Lucca is the birthplace of composers Giacomo Puccini (La Bohème and Madama Butterfly), Nicalao Dorati, Francesco Geminiani, Gioseffo Guami, Luigi Boccherini, and Alfredo Catalani. It is also the birthplace of Bruno Menconi and artist Benedetto Brandimarte.
References
- ^ Magrini, Graziano. "The Walls of Lucca". Scientific Itineraries of Tuscany. Museo Galileo. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
- ^ Boatwright, Mary et al. The Romans: From Village to Empire, pg 229.
- ^ See article on the Basilica di San Frediano.
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)
- ^ "Puccini Museum - Casa natale". Retrieved 2012-06-29.
- ^ "Church of Sant'Alessandro Maggiore | Lucca". Tuscanypass.com. 2012-12-16. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
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Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part Two: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,
Section Two: The Seven Sacraments of the Church
CHAPTER TWO : THE SACRAMENTS OF HEALING
Article 4:3 THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION
SECTION TWO
THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH
CHAPTER TWO
THE SACRAMENTS OF HEALING
Article 4
THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND
RECONCILIATION
III. The Conversion of the Baptized
1427
Jesus calls to conversion. This call is an essential part of the proclamation
of the kingdom: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;
repent, and believe in the gospel."Mk 1:15 In the Church's preaching
this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and his
Gospel. Also, Baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental
conversion. It is by faith in the Gospel and by Baptism Acts 2:38 that one
renounces evil and gains salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and
the gift of new life.
1428
Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians.
This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who,
"clasping sinners to her bosom, (is) at once holy and always in need of
purification, (and) follows constantly the path of penance and
renewal."LG 8 # 3 This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work.
It is the movement of a "contrite heart," drawn and moved by grace to
respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first. Ps 51:17
1429
St. Peter's conversion after he had denied his master three times bears witness
to this. Jesus' look of infinite mercy drew tears of repentance from Peter and,
after the Lord's resurrection, a threefold affirmation of love for
him.Lk 22:61 The second conversion also has a communitarian dimension, as is
clear in the Lord's call to a whole Church: "Repent!" Rev 2:5, ⇒ 16
St. Ambrose says of the two
conversions that, in the Church, "there are water and tears: the water of
Baptism and the tears of repentance." St. Ambrose, ep.
41, 12: PL 16, 1116
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