San Menna

About

The church of San Menna, formerly San Pietro, is a Catholic place of worship in Sant'Agata de' Goti, in the province of Benevento and diocese of Cerreto Sannita-Telese-Sant'Agata de' Goti. The church, dedicated on Sept. 4, 1100 by Pope Paschal II and built a few years earlier at the behest of Count Robert of Alife, holds within it important testimonies of Romanesque art in southern Italy, such as the oldest presbyteral structure with most of the original elements still in place, as well as the oldest opus sectile floor, both modeled after the Desiderian basilica of Montecassino.

Menna, a hermit on the Taburno Camposauro near Vitulano, already had a reputation for holiness during his lifetime and died around 538/584. In 1094, wishing to give greater luster to the Caiazzo Cathedral, Count Robert of Alife had the saint's remains transferred there; however, due to disagreements with the bishop of Caiazzo Constantine and the insistence of the metropolitan archbishop of Benevento Roffredo, on April 11 of a year between 1102 and 1007 (presumably 1103 or 1006) the relics were transferred to Sant'Agata de' Goti. There they were received in the pre-existing church of St. Peter, located at the southern end of the town, immediately inside the town wall, which was attached to a Benedictine men's monastery and served as a comital chapel. The mortal remains of St. Menna in Sant'Agata de' Goti became a pilgrimage destination, and the saint was attributed multiple miraculous healings.

The aforementioned church of St. Peter is to be identified with the present church of St. Menna. It was built at the behest of Robert of Alife between the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the next, and had presumably been completed in 1108, the year of the oldest document that makes express mention of it as “ ecclesiæ beati Petri apostuli site infra munitionem nostri castelli civitatis Sanctæ Agathes. ” The pre-existence of the building would also be supported by the presence within it of the relics of Saints Brizio and Socio, which therefore would have been venerated there even before the arrival of those of the hermit saint. The church was dedicated on September 4, 1100, by Pope Paschal II, who was in Samnium to strengthen relations with the Norman counties; it was dedicated to Jesus the Savior, the Virgin Mary, the True Cross and Saints Peter, Paul and Menna, as recorded in the dedicatory epigraph still visible in the building:

† ANNO AB INCARNATIONE D(omi)NI M C° X° / II NONAS SEMPTEMBRIS INDICTIONE QUARTA / HEC ECCL(esi)A CONSECRATA FUIT IN HONORE<m> / D(omi)NI SALVATORIS S(anc)TEQ(ue) MARIE VIRG(inis) / ET S(an)C(t)E CRUCIS S(an)C(t)ORU(m)Q(ue) AP(osto)LORU(m) PETRI ET / PAULI ET S(an)C(t)I MENNE CONF(essoris) P(er) MANUS / D(omi)NI PASCHALIS S(e)C(un)DI P(a)P(e) P(rae)SENTIBUS / TAM CARDINALIBUS QUA(m) COEPIS EAMQ(ue) D(omi)N(u)S PAPA SUB IURE ROMANE ECCL(esi)AE / BEATI PETRI AP(osto)LI IN SUA DEFENSIONE / SUSCEPIT EI DONANTE ATQ(ue) CONCE / D(e)NTE DO(mi)NO R(oberto) COMITE HUIUS AECCL(esi)AE FUN / DATORE TAM P(ro) SEQUAM S(ui) Her<e>DIB(us) / UND(e) BENEFICIENTES BENEDICTIONI DONAVIT / IBI VERO MALEFICIENTES EXCOMMUNICATIONE DAMNAV(it) "In the year 1100 from the Incarnation of the Lord, on the second day of the ninth of September, in the fourth indiction, this church was consecrated in honor of the Lord Savior, the Holy Virgin Mary, the Holy Cross, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and St. Menna the Confessor, by the hand of the Lord Pope Paschal II in the presence of both cardinals and bishops. The Lord Pope took it under the authority of the Roman Church of the Blessed Apostle Peter to defend it, which the Lord Count Robert, founder of this Church both for himself and for his heirs, had given and granted to him; from which he bestowed blessings on the benefactors, while condemning to excommunication the malefactors (who) would go there." —Plaque commemorating the dedication of the church.

Between the 12th and mid-15th centuries the interior of the church was enriched with wall paintings on several occasions, so much so that it was described during the pastoral visitation of 1702 as “everywhere adorned with ancient paintings.”

In the minutes of pastoral visits in the first half of the 16th century, the church and abbey are indicated as no longer being entrusted to the order of St. Benedict, but to the Augustinians. They remained there until the suppression of the congregation in 1575 at the behest of Pope Gregory XIII, following which Pompeo Bozzuto was appointed commendatory abbot, on whose death (1584) the church with its annuities was entrusted to the Scottish Jesuit college in Rome, to which it remained subject until 1773; in 1590 San Menna became curacy of the parish of Sant'Angelo de Munculanis. In 1674 the altar of the church was desecrated by a certain Giacinto Cacciapuoti, who had rented the premises of the former abbey, who violated it in the hope of finding precious objects inside. For the greater safety of the relics that were instead kept there, they were moved to the cathedral; in 1701, at the request of the chapter, the bishop of Sant'Agata de' Goti Filippo Albini subjected them to a canonical survey.

During the 18th century the church underwent some major alterations since, as evidenced by the record of the pastoral visit of 1702, it was in very poor condition. To reinforce the structure, in 1779 or 1789, the columns dividing the naves were incorporated within masonry pillars on which new arches, less wide than the medieval ones, were set; presumably in the same circumstance, the atrium and the outer rectilinear termination of the apses were built, and the frescoes were plastered white; in the Baroque period, moreover, the altar was provided with a stucco altarpiece. In 1846-1847 Abbot Filippo Ventapane unearthed the ancient wall paintings, which, however, upon his death (1892) were covered over again at the behest of the royal bursar's office.

In 1921 at the behest of Domenico Mustilli a masonry excavation was carried out in one of the pillars, which brought to light the column underneath. Between 1955 and 1957 major restoration work was carried out under the direction of Riccardo Pacini and Antonio Rusconi, as part of which all Baroque additions were removed. The 1980 Irpinia earthquake caused the roof of the left aisle to collapse, necessitating a restoration carried out in 1990-1992 and directed by Flavia Belardelli. In 2010, on the occasion of the ninth centenary since the dedication of the church, the relics of Saints Menna, Brizio and Socio, which were already kept under the altar of the church, were brought back there; on that occasion, Cardinal Secretary of State of the Holy See Tarcisio Bertone presided over a Eucharistic celebration on September 12. The following year a canonical survey was conducted on the relics, which, using the carbon-14 method, established the authenticity of the relics of St. Menna, while it ruled out the belonging of those of St. Brice to the bishop of Tours of the same name, who died in 444, since they were traced back to the period of the founding of the Santagatese church.

The church of San Menna is located at the southern edge of the ancient town of Sant'Agata de' Goti, on a small hillock close to the Lombard town wall, opposite the comital castle and near the main gateway to the town. Its orientation along the north-south axis (with the apses to the north) rather than the usual east-west is attributable to the presence of pre-existing buildings.

The church is Romanesque in style, with a three- nave plan separated by arcades on columns, covered with wooden trusses and each ending in a semicircular apse. The early Christian basilica structure, despite the absence of the transept present in the prototype, is reminiscent of that of the Desiderian basilica of Montecassino (1066-1071), with a layout similar to that of several coeval buildings, such as the basilica of Sant'Angelo in Formis near Capua (1072-1087), the church of Santa Lucia in Gaeta (late 11th century) and the church of Santa Maria in Foro Claudio in Ventaroli (before 1087). In addition, San Menna would be the result of the readjustment of the architectural modules of the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Sant'Agata de' Goti in its primitive layout in the last years of the 11th century, which, however, was Latin cross -shaped even then.

Despite the considerable elevation of the presbyteral area, the church of San Menna lacks a crypt ; however, below the apses there are still some rooms intended for secular use, which can be accessed from outside the building, from the rear elevation.

Below are the main measurements of the church, with reference to the interior of the building:

Externally, the building has integrally plastered light-colored walls, with pitched roofs with brick tiles.

The main facade, facing south, is salient and traces the building's internal layout. Leaning against it is the Baroque atrium, from the late 18th century, which is preceded by a coeval garden carved out of the space between the church and the wall in front, of which some remains are still visible in that section. Access to the pronaos, therefore, takes place laterally; while the western entrance (toward the area of the ancient monastery) is devoid of decorative elements, the eastern one (toward Piazza Castello) is characterized by a monumental staircase leading to a portal with stucco molding and cornice, surmounted by an arched niche and inserted in a façade that ends, at the top, with a triangular tympanum in which an oculus opens. The atrium opens toward the south with four asymmetrical arches on quadrangular pillars, of which the second from the left, located at the doorway to the interior of the church, is wider than the others; of the four bays into which the room is divided, only the main one is barrel-vaulted, while the remaining three are cross-vaulted. Above the first left arch of the atrium rises a two-arched bell gable tower, presumably dating from the 1955-1957 restorations; it replaces the old bell tower located on the left apsidiole, which was mutilated in the 20th century. A rectangular window opens in the upper part of the façade wall, at the nave.

The rear elevation of the church, on Viale Vittorio Emanuele III, consists of the wall that incorporates the three apses, dating from the late 18th century, an architectural feature that is absent everywhere in Campania's Romanesque context. The prominence of this wall with respect to the termination of the aisles is emphasized by the single-pitched roof sloping toward the north. A splayed and rounded monofora opens at each internal apse.

Originally, the church had two entrances, of which the minor one, from the cloister, is found in the excavation in the outer wall of the left aisle, at the fifth arch. At present, the only portal is placed in the façade, along the longitudinal axis of the church. Its notable prominence from the counter-facade wall is attributable to its insertion, originally, within a forepart to which the Baroque atrium would later, in the 18th century, be attached, which replaced a prothyrum on columns, perhaps not dissimilar in its general configuration from that of the side portal of the former church of Santa Lucia in Gaeta. The portal, which in its present state is the result of reworkings, has a structure similar to those of the cathedral of Sant'Agata de' Goti, the former cathedral of Saints Bernard and Martin in Carinola and the basilica of Sant'Angelo in Formis near Capua. The opening, rectangular, is framed by a molding that, on the architrave, bears the following inscription:

CRIMINA DIMITTAT QUI LIMINIS ALTA SUBINTRAT TEMPLUM SI POSCAT / SUB PETRO PRINCIPE NOSCAT QUOD CUM FUNDASTI ROTBERTE COMES DECORASTI Let him who crosses the steps of the threshold forsake his sins. If (anyone) asks, let him know that the temple is placed under Peter, Prince (of the Apostles), and that you, Count Robert, having founded it, have adorned it worthily. —Inscription on the architrave of the portal.

This text, in Romanesque capitals, was formulated both as a call to conversion, as a reminder of the apostle Peter, the ancient titular of the building, and with it the universality of the Church, as well as a celebration of the building's founder, Count Robert of Alife. Above the architrave is the raised-arch lunette, around which is a semicircular projecting cornice resting on two elephant-shaped corbels, which are badly damaged. The archivolt is divided into five bands ornamented with bas-reliefs: the outermost one, which is wider than the others, is ornamented with a double wavy shoot with fruits and plant elements, projecting from the gaping jaws two sea serpents, placed at the ends; the next one with an oval and beaded motif; the third with a dice motif; and the fifth with a spiral relief.

Internally, the three naves are separated by two rows of six semicircular arches each, which rest on ten reclaimed columns in different varieties of marble, and at the end on quadrangular half-pillars with simple stucco cornices. Of the columns, only four have ancient capitals : these are the two Ionic ones of the first two on the left, and the Corinthian ones of the third on the left and the fourth on the right. The first two capitals on the right are composite, specially made to compensate for the reduced height of the underlying shafts and to harmonize with the Ionic artifacts in front; the third capital on the right and the fourth on the left, on the other hand, are the result of a medieval reinterpretation of the Corinthian order. Finally, the column in each row closest to the apse features the reuse of a capital with geometrically interwoven decoration datable to the mid-11th century. The columns were composed in such a way as to allow the springing line of the arches to rise progressively in the direction of the chancel, according to a scenographic rather than structural purpose.

The aisles are lit by narrow arched monoforas that open six in the minor aisles, and five on each side in the major one. A monofora also opens in the center of each of the three apses. The walls are plastered white except for the arches between the aisles, which are left with exposed stonework. Halfway down the left aisle is a small quadrangular niche in which various stone artifacts found in the garden in front of the church atrium, including floor tiles and epigraphic fragments, have been placed.