Santo Stefano de Pinea or more commonly Santo Stefano del Cacco is a church in

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 ...

dedicated to

Saint Stephen Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ''Stéphanos'', meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", often given as a title rather than as a name; c. 5 – c. 34 AD) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first ...

, located at Via di Santo Stefano del Cacco 26. Santo Stefano del Cacco (Roma)

Name

The name "del Cacco" may refer to the

Roman deity The Roman deities most widely known today are those the Romans identified with Greek counterparts (see ''interpretatio graeca''), integrating Greek myths, iconography, and sometimes religious practices into Roman culture, including Latin litera ...

Cacus In Roman mythology, Cacus ( grc, Κάκος, derived from κακός, meaning bad) was a fire-breathing giant and the son of Vulcan (Plutarch called him son of Hephaestus). He was killed by Hercules after terrorizing the Aventine Hill before the ...

, or more likely to a statue of the dog-headed (baboon, actually) ancient

Egyptian god Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt. The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, which emerged sometime in prehistory. Deities represented natural fo ...

Thoth Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or ...

(from the temple of the ancient Egyptian deities

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

and

Serapis Serapis or Sarapis is a Graeco-Egyptian deity. The cult of Serapis was promoted during the third century BC on the orders of Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his r ...

, the

Iseum Campense The Temple of Isis and Serapis was a double temple in Rome dedicated to the Egyptian deities Isis and Serapis on the Campus Martius, directly to the east of the Saepta Julia. The temple to Isis, the Iseum Campense, stood across a plaza from the Se ...

, built in 43 BC, on whose ruins the church was originally built and twelve columns from which were re-used in the church's nave), misunderstood as a monkey or "Macaco" (later corrupted to Cacco.

History

Its construction date is uncertain, though it is assumed to have been in the reign of Pope Hadrian I (772–795). It was definitely in existence at the time of Pope Paschal I (817-824), who added an

apsidal 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''. In ...

mosaic (lost in the 1607 rebuild) of himself."Church of Santo Stefano del Cacco", Turismoroma, Dipartimento Grandi Eventi, Sport, Turismo e Moda
/ref> Under

Paschal II Pope Paschal II ( la, Paschalis II; 1050 1055 – 21 January 1118), born Ranierius, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 August 1099 to his death in 1118. A monk of the Abbey of Cluny, he was cre ...

(1099–1118) the painters Gregorius and Petrolinus were employed to work on the church's apsidal decoration. A new

bell-tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

(not visible from the street) was built in 1160, and still survives as part of the nearby monastery. In 1563 it was assigned by

Pope Pius IV Pope Pius IV ( it, Pio IV; 31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1559 to his death in December 1565. Born in Milan, his family considered ...

(1559–1565) to the Sylvestrine Fathers, by whom it is still run, and they soon carried out a minor restoration.

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

Giuseppe Bianchi, O.S.B. Silv., from Sabina, instituted the devotion of the Most Holy Name of Mary in 1685 at Santo Stefano del Cacco, and soon afterwards established the Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of MaryThe Church of the SS.mo Nome di Maria
/ref> dedicated to feeding the poor, which was formally approved in 1688. The confraternity later moved to Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano in Rome. In 1940, the church was threatened with demolition by the expansion of the central police-station in the neighbouring former monastery of Santa Marta, though this was averted.

Architecture

Paolo Marucelli (1594–1649) designed the church's travertine portal, flanked by pilasters and surmounted by a triangular pediment, and the plate above it reads: D. STEPH. PROT. CONG. MONAC. / SILVESTRINORVM ("Dedicated to St. Stephen the Protomartyr, the Congregation of the Silvestrine Monks"). On the sides of the portal were once located the two basalt lions, coming from the "Temple of Isis", and subsequently placed by Michelangelo at the base of the Cordonata."Via di S.Stefano del Cacco", Roma Segreta
/ref> The façade's second order includes a window crowned with a segmented pediment and flanking pilasters, and right at the top is a triangular pediment with a small window, a rare feature in Roman churches. Restorations and renovations occurred in 1607 (gutting the apse), c.1640 (giving the church its current baroque appearance, with a simple 2 storey façade, probably by Antonio Canziani).

Interior

There is a frescoed ''Pieta'' by

Perino del Vaga Perino (or Perin) del Vaga (nickname of Piero Bonaccorsi) (1501 – October 19, 1547) was an Italian painter and draughtsman of the Late Renaissance/ Mannerism. Biography Perino was born near Florence. His father ruined himself by gambling, ...

, and in the apse the "Martyrdom of S.Stefano by Cristoforo Casolani. In the mid-19th century, the floor was re-laid with marble salvaged from the burnt-out

San Paolo fuori le Mura The Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls ( it, Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuori le Mura), commonly known as Saint Paul's Outside the Walls, is one of Rome's four major papal basilicas, along with the basilicas of Saint John in the ...

Notes

References

Sources

Santo Stefano del Cacco

External links

(in Italian)

(in Danish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Stefano Del Cacco, Santo Stefano Baroque architecture in Rome Churches of Rome (rione Pigna)