About Saint Egidio:
Originally from Athens, Egidio was born in the 7th century. He had retreated to a hermitage in a forest of Gard, where, tradition says, a fawn visited him daily to nourish him with her own milk. One day while hunting, the King of the Visigoths followed the animal to the threshold of the grotto where the hermit lived and shot the fawn. In order to correct the sacrilege he had committed, the king had a great monastery built which would take the name of St. Gilles-du-Gard, and which would become an important stop along the path of the pilgrims going to Compostela, before itself becoming a place of pilgrimage.
Charles Martel and Saint Egidio:
Charles Martel had committed the grave sin of incest with his sister. Remorseful, he decided to go to Provenza and present himself to Egidio, already a well-known Abbott, in order to seek absolution for this sin, without actually confessing it. Saint Egidio was officiating at a Mass when an angel appeared and placed himself near the altar, carrying in his hand a book in which was written the un-confessed sin. As the celebration continued, the writing in the book faded little by little until it completely disappeared, and Charles Martel felt himself absolved.
Not quite sure how that works…seems a bit suspect to us. We prefer to confess our sins, no matter if we are ashamed.
About the Church of Saint Egidio (Chiesa di Sant’Egidio) in Rome:
The church of Sant’Egidio presents itself in an understated protobarocco style , with a facade of a single order and bright colors and is part of the monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns, dedicated to Sant’Egidio. It was built in 1630, on a former chapel, mentioned for the first time in 1123. For centuries, the monastery was flourishing. The Discalced Carmelite nuns were the founders of the nearby monastery of Regina Coeli, turned into prison after 1870.
In 1873, a vast area of the monastery of Sant’Egidio was confiscated by the state . The permanent abandonment of the monastery, which was in poor condition, however, took place in 1972.
About the Community of Saint Egidio:
The Sant’Egidio Community was founded in Rome on the initiative of Andrea Riccardi who began to bring together a group of high school students to listen to the Gospel and put it into practice. Their experience took the form of activities in favor of the poor, especially children and the elderly in the suburbs of Rome. In 1973, in the church of S. Egidio in Trastevere, community evening prayer began, which since 1998 has been held each day in the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. From the second half of the 1970s the Community spread to other Italian cities and then to other parts of Europe, Africa, America and Asia.
On 18 May 1986 the Pontifical Council for the Laity decreed the erection of the Community of Sant’Egidio as an international association of the faithful.
The Community of Sant’Egidio is a family of communities rooted in different local Churches that, with particular attention to the peripheries and the marginalised, gathers men and women of all ages and conditions, united by a bond of fraternity in listening to and communicating the Gospel.
Prayer, the poor and peace are its fundamental points of reference.
Prayer, based on listening to the Word of God, is the first work of the Community; prayer accompanies and directs its life.
The poor are the brothers, sisters and friends of the Community. Friendship with those in need (lonely and non-self-sufficient elderly people, immigrants, homeless people, the sick, children at risk of marginalisation, people with disabilities, refugees and war victims, prisoners and those sentenced to death) is a characteristic feature of the life of those who participate in Sant’Egidio. In this friendship with those who are most in need, as Pope Francis has said, “those who help mingle with those who are helped, in a tension that becomes an embrace. And the protagonist is the embrace’.
The awareness that war is the mother of all poverty has driven the Community to work for peace, to protect peace wherever it is threatened, to help find peace again, and to facilitate dialogue where peace has been lost.
Since 1973 the church, together with a portion of the ancient monastery, has become the center of the Community of Sant’Egidio which from it took its name. The church was restored in 1998 by the Community, in respect of the original elements.
Since 1973, there was held the evening prayer of the Community open for anyone to attend. Since 1998, the evening prayer of the Community has moved to Santa Maria in Trastevere, for the large number of Romans participants and pilgrims.
The restoration of the church has left in their original place some large canvases, of value, with pictures of Carmelite history, as well as the grates that at various points created communication between the church and the cloister.
The Icon of Christ’s face or Mandylion
On the central altar stands a great icon of 1600 from Russia, which depicts the Mandylion, the face of Christ, painted on a cloth held by two angels. It is the image of the face of Jesus “not drawn by human hands.” The most ancient tradition of the Mandylion is that of the legend of Abgar, king of Edessa, who, being sick, sent a servant to Jesus for healing. Jesus would have impressed the features of his face on a cloth and delivered to the servant, as soon as the king came in contact with the cloth he was healed. The Mandylion enjoyed great veneration and was later taken to Constantinople; it disappeared during the invasion of the Fourth Crusade in the early thirteenth century.
Icon of Pentecost (right of the altar)
Modern work of icon painters of the Sant’Egidio Community which offers a particular image of the Christian community, with the traits of Byzantine iconography. The upper part depicts the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples gathered around the table with the bread and wine of the Eucharist. At the center, the empty seat of Jesus, ascended into heaven, blessing from above. Below, the preaching of Peter, which generates conversion (on the right) and at the same time is rejected (the left side). Below, the embrace of peace shows that from hearing the word of God are born reconciliation and fraternal life.
Altar
In front of the altar, in the center of the church, the seventeenth century icon, depicting the Madonna of Kiev with Saints Anthony and Theodosius, the monks of the Laura of the Caves in Kiev.
Suspended above the altar, the triptych of icons with the crucified and five mourners.
On the left side the “Christ of powerlessness”, old wooden sculpture in Franciscan style, of a crucified without arms. It reminds the faithful who are called to be the industrious arms of Jesus.
In the chapel to the right of the nave, the altar of the poor who remembers the many who suffer. There is a collection of crosses, forming a “mountain of Crosses” from different countries of the world, under a large wooden crucifix.
In the chapel to the left is the canvas with Sant’Egidio abbot, by Pomarancio (Cristoforo Roncalli), 1610. Egidio was a hermit, a native of Greece, lived in France between the seventh and eighth centuries, who settled in a wooded area in the company of a doe, which provided him with the milk. The king of the Goths was going to hurt the deer, during a hunt, but the saint protected her with his hand. The king gave to Egidio land, on which he built a monastery where he became abbot. He was highly venerated in Europe, as a defender of the weak and the poor.
On the altar dedicated to the Saint there are numerous Bibles in different languages of the world
Traveling to the Church of Saint Egidio (Chiesa di Sant’Egidio) in Rome:
Click here for the official website of the Community of Saint Egidio in Rome.
Address: Piazza S. Egidio, 3/a – 00153 Roma
Tel. (+39) 06-585661 – Fax +39 06.5800197
E-mail: info@santegidio.org
Click here for the official website of the Community of Saint Egidio in Rome.