San Barnaba apostolo

About

The collegiate basilica of St. Barnabas is the main place of Catholic worship in the city of Marino, in the metropolitan city of Rome Capital and suburbicarian diocese of Albano. The basilica, built out of the devotion of the Colonna family, is one of the largest churches in the diocese, as well as one of the most important: it was the seat of the venerable archconfraternity of the Gonfalone of Marino, founded around 1271 by Bonaventure of Bagnoregio; moreover, the chapter of St. Barnabas was the most important in the diocese along with that of the collegiate church of Santa Maria Assunta in Ariccia, as was established in the diocesan synods of 1668 and 1687.

Originally the patron saint of Marino was Saint Lucy, whose feast day is still celebrated in the town on December 13 each year.

A church was dedicated to St. Lucy, located in the lower-medieval part of the town, and erected probably in the 12th century on a Roman cistern, but rebuilt in the early 13th century at the behest of Jacoba of Settesoli. Part of this church, the only example of Gothic architecture in the Roman Castles, houses the Umberto Mastroianni Civic Museum.

St. Barnabas would become the patron saint of Marino following a natural calamity that struck the Marinese countryside: on June 11, 1615, a violent hailstorm devastated the crops of the people of Marino. The following year another hailstorm, on the same day, fell on the Marinese countryside. Finally, in 1617 a third hailstorm ravaged the local fields and vineyards again on June 11. In order to put an end to this scourge, a plenary popular assembly was convened on February 2, 1618, which voted to write a letter to Cardinal Francesco Sforza, cardinal bishop of Albano, asking to be allowed to venerate St. Barnabas, whose feast day falls precisely on June 11, as patron saint "appended to His Divine Majesty." On June 4, 1619, Cardinal Sforza responded affirmatively, and from that date the feast of St. Barnabas began to be solemnly celebrated.

At the beginning of the 17th century Marino was divided into two parishes : the aforementioned parish of St. Lucy and the parish of St. John the Baptist, the parish church of which was located in what is now the Castelletto district, that is, in the early medieval part of the town, and of which only a few remains remain encompassed by houses. The latter parish was the oldest. Then the duke of Marino Filippo I Colonna and his son, Cardinal Girolamo Colonna, opted for the dissolution of the two parishes and the unification of them into a single parish title whose church was dedicated to St. Barnabas. This choice, endorsed by the ecclesiastical authority, was also inspired by reasons of public reason, since it seems that quarrels and fights were constantly breaking out between the residents of the two parishes.

Thus, on Oct. 28, 1636, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Altieri, vicar general of the suburbicarian see of Albano, by an act of visitation abolished the two Marinese parishes of Santa Lucia and San Giovanni Battista, amalgamating their rents and benefices into the constituting parish of San Barnaba. Duke Filippo I Colonna immediately allocated some funds to start the construction work, from which, however, the official treasurers of the Community of Marino drew, committing an almost sacrilegious crime, taking advantage of that money to "stroll to the taverns" of Rome. Despite the theft, the foundation stone of the new parish church was solemnly laid on June 10, 1640 with the blessing of Cardinal Girolamo Colonna and in the presence of Duke Filippo I Colonna and other members of the Colonna household.

Pope Urban VIII on December 3, 1643 issued the bull Exclesa merita Sanctorum, by which he not only confirmed the suppression of the two ancient Marinese parishes in favor of the new parish church under construction, but also elevated the latter to the title of perinsigne collegiate church and to the nullius abbey dignity, thus endowed with a chapter of twelve canons plus six benefactors with the right to the choral habit presided over by an archpriest abbot parish priest with the privilege of cappa magna : the archpriest abbot parish priest was also to be assisted by two "perpetual coadjutors" for the care of the souls of the parishioners. The privileges of canons and abbot parish priest were expanded in the following centuries by the Pontiffs: in 1748 Pope Benedict XIV granted the abbot parish priest the use of the pontifical habit and the canons the use of the rochet and the purple mozzetta ; on August 12, 1828, on the other hand, Pope Leo XII authorized the canons to wear the cappa magna, as a reward for the fidelity of the Marinese clergy to the Holy See during the events of the French occupation; finally, on November 17, 1843, Pope Gregory XVI granted both the abbot parish priest and the canons the use of the silk purple collar.

On June 5, 1642 the chamberlain 's officer of the feud of Marino informed Duke Filippo I Colonna that all the pillars of the erected church and the vaults of the eight chapels had been put in place. Some measurements of the building: length to the facade, 58.75 meters; width to the transept, 24 meters; height of the dome to the lantern, 36 meters. Up to that date 12,000 scudi had been spent on the construction, and as many scudi would be spent later, until 1655, totaling about 30,000 scudi.

Work on the church, which lasted fifteen years, was supposedly completed in 1655: however, the consecration of the place of worship could not proceed due to the devastating plague that afflicted Marino and the Ager Romanus in 1656. The plague exterminated many of the people of Marino, leaving the fiefdom devastated, which had to be repopulated with vassals of the Colonna house from Abruzzo : the population of Marino, estimated before the plagues at about 2,000 inhabitants, was reduced in a few months to a few hundred people.

The first sung mass was celebrated in the new Collegiate Church only on October 22, 1662, by Monsignor Carlo Tarugi, vicar general of the suburbicarian see of Albano and the first abbot parish priest, Don Agostino Gagliardi. In fact, the plaque affixed by Cardinal Girolamo Colonna on the counterfacade dates from that date, recalling how the church is under the perpetual iuspatronatus of the Colonna family. However, the official consecration of the Collegiate Church was celebrated only on May 14, 1713 by the archbishop of Naples Monsignor Antonio Sanfelice.

On December 10, 1662, the image of Our Lady of the Rosary nuncupatam de Populo was moved from the old church of Santa Lucia to the new collegiate church.

After the events of the Roman Republic (1798-1799), in which Marino had actively participated, in 1799 the Neapolitan liberation troops encamped in the Roman Castles and also in Marino, celebrating a solemn mass in suffrage of their fallen precisely in the Collegiate Church of St. Barnabas.

The elevation to a minor basilica dates back to 1851, at the behest of Pope Pius IX, without prejudice to the city's aggregation to the suburbicarian see of Albano, which had already been confirmed by Gregory XVI when he elevated Marino to the rank of city in 1835.

After 1870 in Marino the anti-clericalism of the majority republican part of the population erupted, which fiercely opposed the parish community with events such as the Carnevalone. In 1899 the then abbot parish priest thus also wanted to show his hostility toward the republicans and toward unified Italy itself by forbidding the entry of the Italian flag into the basilica, on the occasion of a mass in suffrage for those who died in the battle of Adwa.

From the turn of the century to World War II

The 1902 earthquake caused some deep cracks in the basilica's structure, so the civil engineers of Rome in 1909 completed some much-needed consolidation work by reinforcing the architraves of the two side aisles with round arches, strengthening the pillars and renovating the floor and plaster.

In the early twentieth century, the parish was ruled by abbot parish priest Attilio Pandozzi, a priest openly aligned with the strong anti-clerical majority, who went so far as to write a pamphlet against the Catholic Church and the Pope ; therefore, he was suspended a divinis and removed from the parish. The cardinal bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Albano Antonio Agliardi, in order to rebuild a "disheartened and scattered" community after the parenthesis of the "unfortunate apostate parish priest," chose Fr. Guglielmo Grassi (1868-1954), a priest originally from Genzano di Roma, who would remain at the head of the parish until his death in 1954. In 1937 he would be appointed bishop of Damietta by Pope Pius XII, however, he would continue his work as pastor in Marino. Monsignor Grassi is credited with the founding of the congregation of the Little Disciples of Jesus, the creation of a kindergarten for parents in need during World War I, the opening of the Vittoria Colonna hall-theater, the encouragement of theatrical activity, the founding of the St. Barnabas Parish Oratory in the 1920s, the fruitful collaboration with the Servant of God Zaccaria Negroni that led to the growth of the parish oratory and the founding of the congregation of the Little Disciples of Jesus and the St. Lucy Printing House.

On the night of Friday, Nov. 17, and Saturday, Nov. 18, 1911, the venerated image of Our Lady of the People kept in the second chapel on the right side of the basilica was subjected to a sacrilegious theft: thieves entered through a small side door in the choir and took away much of the most precious ornaments and votive offerings. The perpetrators of the theft were identified almost immediately as three anarchists : two Marinese, Tullo Ostilio Ciaglia and Enrico Testa, and an outsider, Proietti Giovanni. They were sentenced to three years in prison. A second sacrilegious theft occurred a few years later, in 1914, and the thieves penetrated the basilica again through the same little door, which had been left unattended due to "the insipience of the Clergy." The valuables that had survived the first robbery were stolen: the perpetrators were not identified this time.

During World War II, on February 2, 1944 at about 12:30 p.m., a number of North American B-25 Mitchell bombers of the 15th United States Army Air Forces, weighing 1360 kilograms of bombs each, bombed the historic center of Marino. On this occasion, the basilica was spared; numerous evacuees took refuge in the basilica's basement, in the Vittoria Colonna hall-theater and in the church of the Coroncina, at which some municipal offices were also located, without a seat after the bombing of Palazzo Colonna. At the Coroncina were also located the post office and the San Barnaba Cooperative Credit Bank, and at one time also a food warehouse.

On May 31, 1944, four Anglo-American air raids hit the basilica: the roof -already falling in- and an arch supporting the dome were broken through, causing severe damage to the paintings in the interior.