Sacro Cuore di Gesù in Prati (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

for "Sacred Heart of Jesus in Prati"), also known as Sacro Cuore del Suffragio (

for "Sacred Heart of the Suffrage"), is a

catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church in the centre of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

(

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

), rising in the

rione A (; plural: ) is a neighbourhood in several Italian cities. A is a territorial subdivision. The larger administrative subdivisions in Rome are the , with the being used only in the historic centre. The word derives from the Latin , the 14 su ...

Prati Prati is the 22nd ''rione'' of Rome, identified by the initials R. XXII. It belongs to the Municipio I since 2013, while previously, along with Borgo and ''quartieri'' Trionfale and Della Vittoria, it was part of the Municipio XVII. Its coat of ...

, hosting the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

with the same name, entrusted to the

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC; la, Missionarii Sacratissimi Cordis; french: Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur) are a missionary congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1854 by Servant of God Jules Chevalier (182 ...

. The church, designed by engineer Giuseppe Gualandi, is sometimes referred as the ''little Milan Cathedral'', due to its rich neogothic style.

History

In 1893, the

Missionary of the Sacred Heart The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC; la, Missionarii Sacratissimi Cordis; french: Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur) are a missionary congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1854 by Servant of God Jules Chevalier (182 ...

Victor Jouët, born in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, founded in

the ''Associazione del Sacro Cuore del Suffragio delle Anime del Purgatorio'' (

for "Association of the Sacred Heart of the Suffrage of the Purgatory Souls"), having the aim to spread the worship to the Sacred Heart and to the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

. The former oratory of the Association rose in Via dei Cosmati; a second one, used between 1896 and 1914, was located in Lungotevere Prati, into a ground that the founder had bought in order to build a bigger church, whose foundation stone was blessed in 1894 by Joseph-Jean-Louis Robert, Bishop of Marseille. The construction of the new church began in 1908 and the design was committed to engineer Giuseppe Gualandi, who chose a style inspired by

French Gothic architecture French Gothic architecture is an architectural style which emerged in France in 1140, and was dominant until the mid-16th century. The most notable examples are the great Gothic cathedrals of France, including Notre-Dame Cathedral, Reims Cathedra ...

. In 1914, the Association moved to the church of St. Joseph Calasanz in Via Cavallini, since the old chapel was partially demolished in order to allow the completion of the new church; the building, completed in 1917, was blessed and opened to worship on November 1 of the same year. The parish was founded on December 10. On May 17, 1921 the church was consecrated by Pietro Benedetti,

Archbishop of Tyre The see of Tyre was one of the most ancient dioceses in Christianity. The existence of a Christian community there already in the time of Saint Paul is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. Seated at Tyre, which was the capital of the Roman provi ...

, its first vicar.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

visited the church on February 1, 1998.

Description

Façade

Sacro Cuore di Gesù in Prati rises in Lungotevere Prati, between Via Ulpiano and Via Paolo Mercuri, close to the Palace of Justice. The façade with salients, entirely made with reinforced concrete, underlines the internal subdivision into three naves thanks to six quadrangular piers, each surmounted by a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

. In the lower part there are three portals, whose embrasure is decorated by little columns made of

red Verona marble Red Verona marble is a variety of limestone rock which takes its name from Verona in Northern Italy. It includes internal skeletons of ammonites and belemnoidea rostra in a fecal pellets matrix. It has been quarried from Red Ammonitic ''facies' ...

; each portal is surmounted by a

wimperg In Gothic architecture, a wimperg is a gable-like crowning over portals and windows and is also called an ''ornamental gable''. Outside of immediate architecture, the wimperg is also found as a motif in Gothic carving. Etymology The word has ...

and decorated with a marble lunette hosting a

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

: the central lunette portrays the ''Souls of Purgatory'', the one on the right the ''Deposition of Christ'' and the one on the left the ''Resurrection of Christ''; the wimperg above the central portal shows a high-relief portraying the ''Sacred Heart of Jesus between two Angels''. In correspondence to each of the side naves there is a high triphora, while the central nave corresponds to a big esaphora including a rose window showing a richly decorated trestle. The façade ends aloft with a thin octagonal bell tower: it is surmounted by a cross that hosts an earth-shaped

ex-voto An ex-voto is a votive offering to a saint or to a divinity; the term is usually restricted to Christian examples. It is given in fulfillment of a vow (hence the Latin term, short for ''ex voto suscepto'', "from the vow made") or in gratitude o ...

, donated by Victor Jouët. The decorations of the façade, formerly made with artificial stone, has been replaced, starting from 1960+, by statues made with St. Gotthard stone, though identical to the original ones. They include gothic-inspired architectural features and nineteen statues of saints, personally chosen by Pope Pius X; they are positioned within recesses above the slopes of the central nave (from the left: ''St. Augustine'', ''St. Peter Apostle'', ''St. Joseph'', ''Our Lady of the Sacred Heart'', ''St. John Evangelist'', ''St. Paul Apostle'' and ''St. Odo of Cluny''), of the nave on the right (from the left: ''St. Victor'', ''St. Francis of Assisi'' and ''St. Nicholas of Tolentino''), of the nave on the left (from the left: ''St. Francis Xavier'', ''St. Dominic of Guzmán'' and ''St. Michael Archangel'') and close to the six pillars, placed on shelves (from the left: ''St. Bernard of Clairvaux'', ''St. Gregory the Great'', ''St. Margaret Mary Alacoque'', ''St. Catherine of Genoa'', ''St. Anthony of Padua'' and ''St. Patrick''.

Interior

The interior of the church, slightly rotated in respect with the axis of the façade, has three

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

s with six bays each, covered with a

groin vault A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Lau ...

and divided by pointed arches which rest on polystyle pillars with carved capitals; the pillars and the ribs of the vaults are decorated with stripes of gray stone and red bricks, while the floor shows inserts of

. The external light enters from the three windows of the façade, as well as from eighteen biphoras with stained glass windows; the ones in the nave on the right show, starting from the entrance, ''St. Frances of Rome and St. Catherine of Genoa'', ''St. Bridget and St. Ambrose'', ''St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas'', ''St. Ephrem and St. Peter Damian'', ''St. Joan of Arc and St. Sebastian'', ''St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Francis of Sales''. Along the two side naves, in correspondence of each span, there is a barely deep, rectangular

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

; the second and fourth chapel of each side host a marble altar, while the other ones show fine wooden neo-gothic

confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall in which the priest in some Christian churches sits to hear the confessions of penitents. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches, but si ...

s. The first altar on the right is dedicated to St. Michael Archangel and is surmounted by an altar piece by Alessandro Catani portraying the Saint; the

predella In art a predella (plural predelle) is the lowest part of an altarpiece, sometimes forming a platform or step, and the painting or sculpture along it, at the bottom of an altarpiece, sometimes with a single much larger main scene above, but oft ...

shows seven musician Angels, painted by the daughters of the artist. The following altar is dedicated to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and is surmounted by a

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...

by Giovan Battista Conti portraying the ''Vision of the Heart of Jesus to Margaret Maria Alacoque'' (1923), while the predella shows, from the left, ''St. Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal'', ''St. Margaret Maria Alacoque surrounded by the souls of the Purgatory'', ''St. Margaret Maria Alacoque shows to the novices the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus'' and ''St. Francis of Sales''. The first altar on the left is dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua: the altar piece, by Giuseppe Burgo, portrays ''St. Anthony as the saint of charity'' and rests on a predella showing, from the left, ''St. Gerolamo Emiliani'', ''St. Vincent de Paul'', ''St. Camillus de Lellis'', ''Jesus the Saviour parting the bread'', ''Blessed Anna Maria Taigi'', ''St. Elizabeth of Hungary'' and ''St. Louise de Marillac''. The following altar is dedicated to St. Gregory the Great and is surmounted by an altar piece inspired to the legend of the monk Justus: it shows ''St. Gregory the Great celebrating mass for the soul of the monk Justus'' and, above it, the ''Blessed Spirit'' and, on the top of the frame, the sculpture ''God the Father''; the predella shows, from the left, ''St. Michael Archangel'', ''St. Gregory the Great and poor people'', ''St. Gregory the Great dictates the Gregorian chant'' and ''St. Gabriel Archangel''; the work is by Giovan Battista Conti. In the last span of the side nave on the left, placed against the wall, rises the ''Funeral monument to Monsignor Pietro Benedetti'' (1932), made with polychrome marbles, completed by a bronze "Piety" in the lower part and a bronze bust of the same Bishop in the higher. Both side naves end with a polygonal

, which contains a marble altar whose slab rests on little columns and closed by a balustrade decorated with trilobate arches. The chapel in the nave on the right is dedicated to St. Joseph and corresponds to the second oratory of the Association of the Sacred Heart of the Suffrage of the Purgatory Souls; its altar is surmounted by an altar piece by Giuseppe Brugo portraying ''St. Joseph with Jesus as a child between two angels, St. Teresa and St. Bernard''. The chapel on the opposite side is dedicated to

Our Lady of the Rosary Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, is a Marian title. The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, formerly known as Feast of Our Lady of Victory and Feast of the Holy Rosary is celebrated on 7 October in the General Rom ...

and the altar is surmounted by the altar piece by Francesco Notari ''Our Lady of the Rosary between angels, St. Dominic of Guzmán and St. Catherine of Siena''; the frame is decorated with ''God the Father'' (in the middle) and the ''Annunciation'' (on both sides), while the painted

shows on the left ''St. Zita, St. Agnes and St. Cecilia'', on the right ''St. Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori, St. Bernardino of Siena and St. Cyril of Alexandria''; the tabernacle is decorated with the ''Sacred Heart of Jesus''. The frame was designed by Notari and manufactured by carpenter Giuseppe Fallaci, wood carver Arturo Grossi and gilder Giovacchino Corsi. The central nave ends with a deep polygonal

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

, enlightened by two orders of ogival windows; in the centre of the apse rises the marble high altar, decorated with gilded bronzes and surmounted by the tabernacle Behind the altar there is the altar piece ''The Sacred Heart and the Souls of Purgatory'', by Giuseppe and Alessandro Catani.

Pipe organ

Close to the counter-façade, above a wooden cantoria whose bulwark is decorated with a series of ogival arches, rises the pipe organ, built by ''Fabbrica Organi Ruffatti'' after 1960+ in place of a former one, coming from the church of Santa Brigida.

Museo delle anime del Purgatorio

Next to the church, within the sacristy, is the

Museo delle anime del Purgatorio Museo may refer to: * Museo, 2018 Mexican drama heist film *Museo (Naples Metro) Museo is a station on line 1 of the Naples Metro. It was opened on 5 April 2001 as the eastern terminus of the section of the line between Vanvitelli and Museo. ...

("Museum of the Souls of Purgatory"), whose entry is a door in the sixth span of the nave on the right. On July 2, 1897 a miraculous occurrence happened in the Chapel of the Association of the Sacred Heart of Purgatory Souls' Suffrage, when, during a fire, the soul of a deceased appeared to the attendance and his effigy was impressed on the wall; hereafter Victor Jouët decided to search for testimonies (documents and looms) about the appearances of the souls of

Purgatory Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...

and to collect them in a museum close to the church.

Notes

Bibliography

* * } * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sacro Cuore di Geus in Prati 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Gothic Revival church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Rome

Cuore The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE , also ) is a particle physics facility located underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Assergi, Italy. CUORE was designed primarily as a search for neutrinoless dou ...