Thursday, May 24, 2018

St. BASIL THE GREAT


S. BASILIO
Built in the years 1680/82
Expanded with the convent in 1692 by Francesco Carlo Bizzaccheri (1655/1721)
In 1874 the monastery became the property of the Italian State
It is dedicated to St. Basil who lived in Turkey between 329 and 379. He defended orthodoxy against the Arian heresy
 It is part of the Italo-Greek Catholic Church depending on the Abbey of Grottaferrata
It is a peculiar Catholic church that uses the Byzantine Rite. It is autonomous and its members are concentrated in Southern Italy and Sicily

NAVE
Paintings by anonymous artists of the seventeenth century:
On the right “Death of S. Joseph” and on the left “Virgin Mary and Child with Saints” where there is the representation of S. Nile offers the model of the Abbey of Grottaferrata, still run by the Basilian Monks
“Memory of Cardinal Basilios Bessarion (1403/72)”

“He contributed to the diffusion in Italy of the study of the Greek language and especially of the Platonic philosophy, and in defense of Plato (...) he wrote (...) against Thomistic Aristotelianism. (...) He translated into Latin the Metaphysics by Aristotle. He left letters, prayers, theological essays, rich in doctrine, supported by great balance of thought. He strove with great fervor, with writings and words, with extensive and skillful diplomacy, for a crusade to win back Constantinople, fallen into the hands of the Turks in 1453. In 1463 the alliance of Venice with Pope Pius II, obtained by Bessarion, seemed to make the crusade possible, but the death of the pope (1464) brought Bessarion to move away from the Curia and to continue alone diplomatic relations in Europe. His rich library of Greek manuscripts, donated to Venice (1468), was the first and most important collection of the Biblioteca Marciana” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

Huge “Iconostasis” of the end of 1800s from the church S. Lorenzolo ai Monti destroyed for the opening of Via dei Fori Imperiali
In all the churches with Italo-Greek Catholic rite the presbytery reserved for the clergy is separated from the rest of the church with a large iconostasis or barrier of dark wood adorned with sacred images
MAIN ALTAR
Canvas “St. Basil” by an anonymous artist of the seventeenth-century

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