Day 1 - Ash Wednesday - Santa Sabina

Saint Sabina was a Roman matron who lived in the second century, during the reign of the emperor Hadrian; she was the widow of a senator, Valentinus. Sabina was converted to Christianity largely due to the witness of her slave Serapia.

Serapia had been born in Antioch in Syria to Christian parents who later fled to Italy to avoid persecution. She had many offers of marriage, but had chosen to consecrate herself only to God. When her parents died, she sold all her possessions, which was not uncommon for Christians in those early days to do, distributed the revenues to the poor, and sold herself into voluntary slavery in the service of the noblewoman Sabina.

During one of the persecutions in Rome, Serapia was commanded to offer incense to Caesar, and do homage to the gods of Rome, but she refused and so was handed over to two soldiers to rape and torture her. She resisted their advances, and Divine intervention preserved her when her tormentors became deathly ill. Because of this Divine intervention, she was charged with being a witch and sentenced to death. They attempted to set her on fire with torches, but this effort was unsuccessful, so she was beaten with rods and then beheaded.

Sabina retrieved her slave's remains and placed them in the family mausoleum. For this act of charity to her slave, Sabina was denounced as a criminal and as a Christian. She was subsequently martyred in AD125 in Vindena in the state of Umbria, Italy.

Sabina was later canonized, and in AD 430 her relics, as well as those of St. Serapia and 3 other martyrs, were brought back to the Aventine Hill, to the basilica, Santa Sabina, built on the site of her house. Initially, the church was dedicated to both Sts. Sabina and Serapia, but later limited only to Sabina.

Pilgrimage:

To reach the church from the center of the old city, we must climb the Aventine Hill (one of the seven hills of ancient Rome) with the Circus Maximus at our backs at the foot of the hill. It is thought that Santa Sabina may have been chosen for the first day of Lent because one must make an uphill climb to reach the church, symbolic of the climb to Calvary and beyond with Christ, through the journey of Lent and through our earthly journey of life as well. Pope St. Gregory the Great loved this church and called it “the gem of the Aventine.”

Below: The ancient road up the Aventine Hill to Santa Sabina

Santa Sabina was initially one of Rome’s domus ecclesiae (house churches), homes of the wealthy, large enough to accomodate all the faithful of the area. You might say these were the first Roman parishes. These homes were given the title, or titulus, of the owner, so originally, this church would have been called Titulus Sabina.

Below: View of the church of Santa Sabina from the top of the Aventine Hill

Above: Basilica of Santa Sabina - Exterior

By Rumburak - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5950126

Above: Exterior - Basilica of Santa Sabina

By Agniulka - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21141496

Above: The side entrance to the Nave which is used as the main entrance today

Above: Santa Sabina - ancient entrance portico - the original doors are to the right

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AS_Sabina_-_portico_1000013.JPG

After the legalization of Christianity, the house churches were converted into actual churches by the same name, and if that owner had become a martyr and a saint, as in this case was true of Sabina, Titulus changed to Santa, hence Santa Sabina.

Left: Rear View of Santa Sabina

By Dolfkalenders - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22874038

After centuries of neglect of the Station Pilgrimage during Lent, the Popes of the past 2 centuries have made efforts to re-establish the tradition. Since the time of John XXIII, the Holy Father typically travels to Santa Sabina to celebrate Mass here each year on Ash Wednesday.

The large windows of Santa Sabina are made of selenite, not glass, and one is struck by the amount of light that is afforded the interior of the church.

Right: The Windows of Santa Sabina

By Luc. - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20863984

Above: View of the Apse from the back of the Nave

Above: Detail of the Arches of Santa Sabina

CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=589341

Above: Choir and Apse - The relics of the martyrs are under the altar behind the mesh screen.

By Σπάρτακος - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28276570

Above: The Apse Fresco

By Tango7174 - Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12418437

By Σπάρτακος - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28276575

Below is a video you may want to watch. It will enlarge full screen by the emblem in the bottom Right corner :

In 1218, the church of Santa Sabina was given to the Dominicans by Pope Honorius III with the instruction to establish a friary. The Dominicans still serve the church, although Santa Maria sopra Minerva is their principal church in Rome today. St Dominic and St Thomas Aquinas lived and studied in the monastery here at Santa Sabina in the 13th century. After Mass, we can look for a friar to show us St. Dominic’s cell, and the orange tree descended from one planted by Saint Dominic himself.

It was almost surely at this church that Pope St. Pius V received the vision of the victory at Lepanto (1571), when the navy of the Holy League triumphed over the Muslim navy.

Left: Icon of St Dominic

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFramework_medieval_of_Saint_Dominic_in_Santa_Sabina_(Rome).jpg

Above: Scene of the Crucifixion

"SabinaCrucify"Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SabinaCrucify.jpg

Carved into the original wooden front door of Santa Sabina - one of the earliest (maybe the earliest) of surviving depictions of the Crucifixion.

Left:By Luc. - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20864175

Above: Ancient main door of Santa Sabina, the original doors from AD 430-32

By Σπάρτακος - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28276576

Left: Panel from the ancient door of Santa Sabina

By Bill Storage - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3228084

Santa Sabina was the seat of a conclave in 1287 to elect a pope, but the cardinals left the church after a plague killed six of them. They finally returned to the church in February 1288, when they elected Nicholas IV as pope. He was the first Franciscan to ever be elected pope, and was so reluctant to accept the honor that after the conclave elected him it was a whole week before he finally agreed.

Sailko [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_sabina,_veduta_dall%27aventino_00.jpg

Above: Overview of Rome from the Orange Grove - back of Santa Sabina.

Just left of center, is the dome of St Peter's in the Vatican, tiny on the horizon.

Below: You can zoom in and see St Peter's better here

Sailko [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_sabina,_veduta_dall%27aventino_01_san_pietro.jpg

Below: The Cloister of Santa Sabina

By Lalupa - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32612884 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0" CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32612881

By Lalupa - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32612882

By Lalupa - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0" - CC BY-SA https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32612885

Above: 2016 - Pope Francis receives ashes at Santa Sabina

Above: 2008 - Pope Benedict XVI receives ashes at Santa Sabina

The Collect Church of the Day (Ash Wednesday) - St Anselmo

Remember, the daily Collect Church was the church where the Pope, priests, cardinals, catechumens, and all the people, in ancient times, would gather together to process to the Station Church of the day. Just as a particular church was chosen to be the Station Church for each day of Lent, so there was a particular church chosen for the Collect Church of the day. Every year on a particular day of Lent, the Pope and the people of Rome would gather at the same Collect Church and process to the same Station Church as they did every year on that particular day of Lent.

For Ash Wednesday each year, the Station Church was always Santa Sabina. The Collect Church for Ash Wednesday in our day is St. Anselmo, chosen because it is just down the street from Santa Sabina, and doesn't require a very long procession for an often very elderly Pope. In very ancient times, however, the collect church for this day was St Anastasia, which was at the level of the Circus Maximus at the foot of the Aventine Hill, and required a brisk uphill walk to get to Santa Sabina, signifying the uphill walk through Lent that we must make until we finally climb to Calvary with Our Lord on Good Friday.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Chiesa_di_Sant_Anselmo_Roma.jpg

Sant Anselmo is the ecclesia collecta (collect or gathering church) for Ash Wednesday in our day. Traditionally, in modern times, the Pope gathers here with the people of Rome in the afternoon, and all process together to Santa Sabina. The English Mass with imposition of ashes is held early in the morning, provided by the Pontifical North American College of Rome.

Above: The procession from St. Anselmo to Santa Sabina

preceding Mass for Ash Wednesday in Rome, March 6, 2019. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

St Anselm was Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, who was archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. He is credited with being the founder of Scholasticism, and is known as the originator of the "ontological" argument for the existence of God. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Clement XI in 1720.

"S Anselmo 1000015" by Lalupa - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S_Anselmo_1000015.JPG#mediaviewer/File:S_Anselmo_1000015.JPG
"Anselm of Canterbury, statue". Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anselm_of_Canterbury,_statue.jpg

With joy, we invite St Sabina, St Serapia, St Dominic, St Thomas Aquinas, St Pius V, and St Anselm to join us on this pilgrimage through Lent, the first friends to take their places in the "cloud of witnesses"that will be gathering around us during our pilgrimage.

Tomorrow we will meet a soldier-saint, St. George.

Optional activities, videos, etc.

Below are short videos that will give you panoramas of Rome from the orange grove by Santa Sabina, and will allow you to see Santa Sabina in her setting on the Aventine Hill. Be sure to make it full screen by clicking on the icon in the bottom right corner.

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