It is an ancient church, one of the oldest left standing of the originally purposed Christian churches. It was built in the late 400’s AD and is another of the minor basilicas of Rome. It was built on a circular plan said to be inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
In keeping with the layered theme of the tour, the church was built on the site of another mithreaum from the second century which is being excavated, but which is not open to visitors. The church stood on the site of a former military barracks which housed the soldiers who would have been the followers of Mithras. They have revealed bits of the original Roman era floor for people to see.
By far, the stars of the show in the "modern" church are a group of wall paintings commissioned by Gregory XIII in the 16th century which are currently being restored. As Amy explained it, at about that time the Catholic Church was being challenged by the teachings of Martin Luther and other reformation preachers. The Catholics launched the counterreformation to convert those unexposed to the church and reconvert those who had broken away. The murals show a veritable who’s who of martyrs, each depicted in all of their gory glory, to rise the blood and send the missionaries off in the proper spirit of righteous zeal. There are 34 scenes painted around the room depicting every cruel thing one human can do to another. Amy challenged each student to find their favorite. I myself couldn’t pick just one, being partial to a person being crushed under a huge stone with eyes popping out of their sockets,
a group of people in a bathtub full of molten lead
and the famous inverted crucifixion of Peter.
If those don’t float your boat, there were various beheadings, stabbings, tongues cut out, hands cut off,
breasts removed, slicing with a hatchet, etc.
If that doesn’t do it for you, then there were also the standard being drawn and quartered and pulled apart on the wheel, If animals do it for you, then you could be fed to the lions, fed to the bears or savaged by dogs.
All in all, a bloody good time.
Our final stop of the day was also our third basilica of the day, the Basilica di Santa Sabina all’Aventino. It is the mother church of the Dominicans and stands atop the Aventine Hill a short distance from the headquarters of the Knights of Malta. It is the oldest Roman era church built on a rectangular plan which remains today. It too, has a layered history, being built on the ruins of temple to Juno. It has original wooden doors showing the earliest examples known to exist of some important Christian iconography.
The interior is very restrained and simple.
Well, at least by some church standards.
One of the interesting features is the windows, made of the mineral selenite rather than glass.
It is still an important church in Rome as evidenced by the fact that Pope Benedict will celebrate mass there on Ash Wednesday.
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