Sant'Agnese fuori le mura

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sant'Agnese fuori le mura, 1911.

Catacomb of Saint Agnes.

Sant'Agnese fuori le mura ("Saint Agnes Outside the Walls") is a basilica church in Rome, in which Saint Agnes's bones are reputed to rest. The church lies on the Via Nomentana at some distance outside the Aurelian Walls encircling the ancient city. The name distinguishes it from the other churches with the same name which are, or were, in Rome, the most famous being Sant'Agnese in Agone, erected on the location of the martyrdom of the saint. The religious complex includes this basilica and the mausoleum of Santa Costanza.

Mosaic depicting Saint Agnes, from the church.

The current church (properly a basilica), as rebuilt by Pope Honorius I in the mid‑7th century, stands over a 4th‑century catacomb, one of the most important cemeterial complexes in Rome, with over 10 kilometres (6 miles) of corridors, only a couple of which are accessible. In the fourth century the soft rock was hollowed out around Saint Agnes's tomb to create a gathering space, probably for her family to observe the anniversary of her death. The visits of her family and friends spread early to others in Rome, and the site became a place of pilgrimage. By 340, Constantina, daughter of Emperor Constantine, enlarged the underground area and built a large private mausoleum over it which is now known as the "mausoleo di Santa Costanza" (she was venerated as saint, even though she was not one officially), while the church of Saint Agnes was then built aside. The floor level of the 7th century church is at the level of the catacomb floor, and the public street entrances are at the level of the 2nd floor gallery. Mosaics from the Honorius' edifice are still present. This church was also built with a separate upper gallery for women (matronaeum), similar to that of San Lorenzo fuori le mura.

It is in this church that on the feast day of St. Agnes (January 21), two lambs are specially blessed by the pope after a pontifical high Mass; their wool is later woven into pallia, ceremonial neck-stoles sent by the popes to newly-elevated Metropolitan-archbishops to symbolise their union with the papacy. The church is ruled by a French traditionalist order.

A popular local legend says that every lord mayor of Rome secretly comes to pray to this church, on the third night after his election; in fact, there is little evidence that new sindaci really do so.

The current Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Agnetis extra moenia is Camillo Ruini.