Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Rome

For the church in Venice, see Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.

Large view of the basilica.

Santi Giovanni e Paolo is an ancient basilica church in Rome, located on the Celian Hill. It is also called Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio or referred to as SS Giovanni e Paolo.

The church was built in 398, by will of senator Pammachius, over the home of two Roman soldiers, John and Paul, martyred under Julian in 362. The church was thus called the Titulus Pammachii and is recorded as such in the acts of the synod held by Pope Symmachus in 499.

The church was damaged during the sack by Alaric I (410) and because of an earthquake (442), restored by Pope Paschal I (824), sacked again by the Normans (1084), and again restored, with the addition of a monastery and a bell tower.

It is home to the Passionists and is the burial place of St. Paul of the Cross. Additionally, it is the station church of the first Friday in Lent.

Interior

A fresco in the Roman rooms.

The inside has three naves, with pillars joined to the original columns. The altar is built over a bath, which holds the remains of the two martyrs. The apse is frescoed with Christ in Glory (1588) by Cristoforo Roncalli (one of the painters called il Pomarancio); while below this fresco are three paintings: a Martyrdom of St John, a Martyrdom of St Paul, and the Conversion of Terenziano (1726) by Giovanni Domenico Piastrini, Giacomo Triga, and Pietro Andrea Barbieri respectively.

The sacristy features a canvas by Antoniazzo Romano of the Madonna & Child with Saints John the Evangelist & John the Baptist, and Saints Jerome & Paul. During excavations performed in the 19th-century, a series of Ancient Roman rooms were discovered under the nave of the church. Some of these rooms date back to the 1st-4th centuries. According to the writer Charlotte Anne Eaton, these rooms were dens that were part of a vivarium in which wild animals were kept before being used in entertainments held at the Colosseum. A low vaulted passage connected this vivarium with the Colosseum.

The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus Ss. Ioannis et Pauli was most recently Edward Egan. Among previous Cardinal Priests of this Title are 3 who became Pope: Pope Honorius III (Cencio Savelli, elevated to cardinal in 1198),Pope Adrian VI (Adriaan Boeyens, elevated to cardinal in1517) and Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli, elevated to cardinal in 1929). Since Francis Spellman became the new Cardinal Priest of the titulus in 1946 (after it had been vacated by Pacelli's election to the papacy in 1939), it has been held by cardinals who were Archbishops of New York. In 2012, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York was elevated to cardinal and assigned a different title, because Cardinal Edward Egan, the first-ever archbishop emeritus of New York, continued in the title of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo until death (March 5, 2015).

Excavation

The underground sites of the basilica were discovered in 1887 by Father Germano da San Stanislao, who at the time was rector of the Basilica, and was searching for the tombs of the martyrs John and Paul; he found twenty decorated rooms belonging to at least five different buildings dated between the 1st and the 4th century AD. These five buildings comprise one of the best conserved Roman era residential building complexes still standing today, and one of the best examples of domus ecclesiae ("house church") (together with Dûra Éuropos): the original frescoes can still be seen, with scenes of the martyrdom. The houses are accessed outside the church on the Clivus Scauri.

In one room, which was a nymphaeum courtyard, an elegant 3rd century AD fresco depicting Proserpine and other divinities among cherubs in a boat (3x5 meters) can be found, as can traces of another marine fresco and mosaics in the window arches. Between the 3rd and the 4th century AD some modifications were made to the rooms, and a sort of oratory was made, with Christian-themed frescoes, while in the other rooms the decorations did not specifically have Christian themes (winged genies, garlands, birds, etc.). A confession was also built in the 4th century AD in a passageway behind the Clivus Scauri; the walls of the confession were frescoed with Christian themes (Beheading of Crispo, Crispiniano and Benedetta, feminine figures and an "orante" or "person in prayer").

Bibliography

• Mariano Armellini, Le Chiese Di Roma, dalle loro origini sino al secolo XVI (Roma: Tipografia editrice Romana 1887), pp. 276-281.
• Germano Di San Stanislao, La Casa Celimontana Des SS. Martiri Giovanni E Paolo (Roma: Tipografia della pace di F. Cuggiani, 1894).
• Stanislao Dell'Addolorata, La Basilica Celimontana dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo (Roma: Bucciarelli, 1930).
• Istituto di studi romani, SS. Giovanni e Paolo al Celio (Roma : Tip. Centenari, 1956) [ Chiese di Roma, cenni religiosi, storici, artistici, 70].
• Adriano Prandi and G Ferrari,The Basilica of Saints John and Paul on the Caelian Hill: After the Restorations and Archaeological Explorations Promoted by His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York and Cardinal Titular of the Basilica (Roma 1958).
• Gioacchino Alberto De Sanctis, I Santi Giovanni e Paolo, martiri celimontani (Isola del Liri (FR) : Pisani, M., 1962).
• Bianca Maria Margarucci Italiani, Il titolo di Pammachio, Santi Giovanni e Paolo (Roma: Postulazione Gen. dei PP. Passionisti, 1985).
• Alia Englen, Case romane e Antiquarium: sotto la Basilica dei SS. Giovanni e Paolo al Celio : guida breve (Roma: L' 'Erma' di Bretschneider 2004).