|At the time (1517) Martin Luther posted his 95 theses of protest on the doors of Wittenberg Cathedral, the Holy See was occupied by the Medici prince, Leo X. This pleasure-loving humanist, ambitious politician, inveterate nepotist, and munificent patron of the arts recklessly sold indulgences along with his palace furniture in order to pay his huge debts. Unhappily, he was typical of the Popes of his day.
The Church soon recognized its need to correct those defects which had provoked the Protestant schism, and so it launched the thoroughgoing reform and revival we now call the Counter Reformation. Meeting intermittently under five Popes from 1545-1563, the Council of Trent re-examined and redefined Catholic teaching and reformed the clergy. By the end of the century, the spread of Protestantism had been checked, papal extravagance repressed, and genuine spirituality encouraged in the priesthood.
Ignatius transposed his soldierly ideals to the religious sphere, creating a tightly structured, rigorously trained, and deeply committed organization. The Society became the Pope's "army" in the Counter Reformation, using as its weapons advanced academic studies, the education of youth, and zealous missionary activities. The Jesuits almost immediately began to argue against Protestant theologians in Church councils, set up excellent schools throughout Europe, and were bringing the Gospels to Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Spiritually, Il Gesù incorporates Jesuit values and articulates Catholic doctrine as reaffirmed by the Counter Reformation. Architecturally, it marks a transition between Renaissance and Baroque. The plan of the Gesù became the model for Jesuit churches throughout the world.
Exterior: Il Gesù stands in the heart of downtown Rome, on one of the city's busiest and noisiest intersections. It is a meeting place for all classes and generations of the city's population.
"St. Ignatius placed a great deal of emphasis on the location of the Society's churches. He always built his headquarters in urban centers, where the Jesuits could easily carry out their preaching, teaching and social ministries." Father Tom Lucas, from the Jesuit University of San Francisco, is one of the Society's experts on St. Ignatius and Jesuit architecture. He was in Rome as the English Press and Information Officer for the 34th General Congregation, and agreed to a consultation with Inside the Vatican.
Father Lucas continued: "II Gesù, for instance, was situated at a perfect crossroads between the Pope and his court, the Campidoglio (center of city government), and teeming city life in a developing neighborhood, where rich and poor, Jews and Christians, the refined and the illiterate, lived and worked side by side."
II Gesù's façade served as the model for Catholic churches for centuries to come. Giacomo delta Porta's sober tripartite front has classical elements, although its enormous side volutes already anticipate the Baroque.
"This type of façade," Father Lucas explained, "achieves Ignatius' idea of the church as a gateway, through which the Jesuits emerge for their apostolic activities in the city and in the world, and through which the city is drawn into the sacramental life of the church. It stands, carefully oriented to the surrounding streets and piazza, as a great portal inviting the passerby to enter."
Interior: Any visitor is struck by the difference between Il Gesù's interior and that of earlier Roman churches. Here we have the nave as one huge hall, a shallow apse with the altar moved up front, and side chapels blocked off as separate entities (so that all attention is riveted to the altar).
Father Lucas continued: "The significance of Jesuit architecture was not its novelty, but its functionalism. Jesuit churches take earlier elements and make them into a practical package which emphasizes Church teachings, as defined by the Council of Trent. The interior accentuates the two great functions of a Jesuit church: its large central nave with the laterally placed pulpit serves as a great auditorium for preaching, and the highly visible and prominent altar serves as a theatrical stage for the celebration of the Real Presence in the Eucharist."
Decor: Il Gesù's decorations are largely Baroque, dating from the late 17th century. Father Lucas went on: "The Jesuits lacked funds and patronage in their earliest years, and originally the interior of the church was undecorated. St. Ignatius helped to plant the seeds for the Baroque, however. His 'incarnational spirituality' found God in all things beautiful, including the arts -- painting, sculpture, music, rich décor -- as revelations of God in the Here and Now. With Baroque decorations, Jesuit churches appeal to the heart as well as the head, providing splendid stage sets for celebration of the Mass."
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|Giovanni Battista Gaulli, known as "Il Baciccia," painted most of Il Gesù's ceiling frescoes between 1672-1685. (You may find these under scaffolding for restoration). But Father Lucas assures that: "The vault fresco, representing 'The Glory of the Holy Name of Jesus,' seems to open up a hole in the ceiling, through which heavenly light pours onto downwards-cascading colossal figures and into the nave and altar. Thus the Jesuit church becomes not only a gateway to and from the world, but a window into paradise." The lateral chapels, which are separated from the nave and each surrounded by lovely candlelit balustrades, are serene little corners attracting a coterie of faithful devotees.|
|More to the saint's taste, perhaps, would be the intimate little chapel (left transept) of the Madonna della Strada, which hosts an image from the façade of Ignatius' first church. In a round jewel-like setting, scenes from the Life of the Virgin by the Jesuit artist Giuseppe Valeriano (1542- 1596) circle the tiny altar.
Directly across from St. Ignatius' chapel is that of the first Jesuit missionary saint, Francis Xavier, designed by Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) and Carlo Maratta (1625-1713). A plaque tells us that the saint's arm, "which blessed so many converts in far away lands," now resides in the silver and lapis reliquary above the altar.
By the early seventeenth century, the Roman College's original chapel had become too small for its bustling 2,000 students. Gregory XV Ludovisi, who was a Roman College alumnus and had canonized Ignatius in 1622, nudged his nephew Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi into funding a new church. (The Ludovisis amply recompensated themselves by emblazoning their names and family crest throughout the church. The inscription on their tomb states: "One raised St. Ignatius to the altar, while the other raised altars to Ignatius.") Work was entrusted to the College's own mathematics professor, Orazio Grassi, and the church was opened in 1650.
Exterior: As mentioned above, the Church of St. Ignatius originally formed part of the large and complicated complex of the Roman College. It now faces on to one of Rome's most unique (rococo) and lovely piazzas. Its tripartite façade is very similar to that of Il Gesù, which, as we have said, provided the model for many Jesuit churches worldwide.
Interior: St. Ignatius' floor plan repeats that of Il Gesù, but on a greater and grander scale. The church's Jesuit rector, Father Giulio Libianchi told us: "The first characteristic of St. Ignatius is its functional quality. As the chapel for the Roman College, it also served as the school auditorium, where important lectures and conferences were held. Here famous theologians expounded on doctrinal matters and students defended their doctoral theses. In the seventeenth century, the church was also an important cultural center, hosting concerts and public ceremonies for the Roman population."
As in Il Gesù, St. Ignatius' huge nave with side pulpit was and still is ideal for such events. Father Libianchi was too modest to add that he is personally responsible for restoring to St. Ignatius its earlier cultural role. It is now Rome's preeminent church for important concerts, and for Christmas and other festivities thousands flock to hear international orchestras and choirs.
Decor: "The second characteristic of St. Ignatius," Father Libianchi continued, "is that it is the Jesuit Sanctuary for Youth. Here two of the Jesuits' most beloved young saints are buried. (St. Aloysius Gonzaga [1568-91], who refused the honor of becoming a Spanish prince to study at the Roman College, entered the Jesuit order, and died at the age of 23, after ministering in Rome's plague hospitals; and St. John Berchmans [d. 1621], a young student at the Roman College, who died here at 22 years of age)." The elaborate Baroque tombs of these appealing saints face each other from both sides of the transept.
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|Father Libianchi's eyes twinkled as he explained: "Much of the transept ceiling painting was done by young art students at the Roman College, under the guidance of their professor, Brother Andrea Pozzo. We can identify portraits the students did of each other and of their relatives. The large figure of Judith, for instance, has the face of one collegian's mother, her maid is his grandmother, and Holosfernes' severed head is the likeness of a too-strict school caretaker."|
Father Libianchi walked us under Pozzo's great vault fresco. As we progressed, the painted sky seemed to open out, figures of saints and angels went flying outwards into space, and several colossals (infidels and heretics?) tumbled downwards, desperately grappling onto the billowing clouds. The fresco shows St. Ignatius in Glory and his Apostolate in the World and has four monumental women, appropriately dressed to represent the four continents which were being converted by Jesuit missionary activity at that time.
This triumphant burst of emotion and color seems a fitting tribute to Jesuit successes and the victorious Catholic Revival, one century after Ignatius' first church was opened for worship.
by June Hager
Reprinted by kind permission of June Hager and the magazine "Inside the Vatican," published in Rome.