Santa Maria Addolorata a piazza Buenos Aires

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Santa Maria Addolorata a Piazza Buenos Aires (Our Lady of Sorrows at Piazza Buenos Aires), titular church[1] and the Argentinian national church[2], on Viale Regina Margherita, Rome.

[edit] History

It was founded by the Argentinian priest Msgr. José León Gallardo with donations from the Argentinian bishops, with the first stone being laid on 9 July 1910, the centenary of Argentinian independence. Mrs. Seaz Pena, wife of the President of the Republic of Argentine, was present at the ceremony. Construction took twenty years, and the church was finally inaugurated in 1930. From then until 1989, the church was served by Mercedarian fathers; it is now served by Argentinian diocesan clergy from a community in an adjoining house.

It was built by the architect Giuseppe Astorri with a 7-storey campanile and a 2-storey façade in the style of ancient Christian architecture, with a central depiction of the Lamb and symbols of the four Evangelists.[3] The interior is also in ancient, Roman-Byzantine style, with three aisles divided by Ionic columns, a Cosmatesque-style pulpit and lectern and a polychrome marble floor (laid in geometric patterns with the national coat-of-arms in the centre, and a memorial slab to its founder which was presented by the Argentinian cardinals and bishops convened to the Second Vatican Council).

The east end has an apsidal mosaic of Our Lady of Sorrows by Giambattista Conti and a high altar decorated with onyx and covered by a baldachino supported by four granite Corinthian columns. The choir is separated from the nave by an altar ring of white marble which includes intaglia and bronze gates with the national coat-of-arms and the arms of the Order of Mercedari.

At one altar is a small statue of the Madonna of Lujan, principal patron of Argentine.

[edit] Special festivals and masses

The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is celebrated on 15 September and 15 February (due to different calendars placing the feast on different days, it is celebrated twice in this church).

Mass is celebrated in Spanish on the first Sunday in the month, and more irregularly on other occasions.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Made titular in 1967 by Pope Paul VI, with Nicolás Cardinal Fasolino as the first cardinal priest.
  2. ^ The first national church in Rome for a Latin American country.
  3. ^ There are also depictions of four palms symbolizing Paradise, of the four biblical rivers and symbols of the twelve Apostles.


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