The last pope to visit the Sancta Sanctorum was Pius IX, who went there on the eve of the invasion of Piedmontese troops that put an end to temporal papal power in 1870.
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The site last made headlines more than 20 years ago, when the restoration of late 13th-century frescoes in the private chapel at the top of the stairs known as the Sancta Sanctorum revived a debate over the origins of Renaissance art.
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The chapel acquired the Sancta Sanctorum sometime in the ninth century."The Sancta Sanctorum", Scala Santa di Roma The spelling is Sancta, the neuter plural form of the Latin adjective "holy": this is a reference to the multiple relics preserved there (i.e. "the most holy things") and to the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem, traditionally called in Latin both sanctum sanctorum (the singular form) or sancta sanctorum.
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These monuments are the Scala Santa and the Chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum.
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Replica stairs flank the original staircase, which may only be climbed on one's knees. The Holy Stairs lead to the Church of Saint Lawrence in Palatio ad Sancta Sanctorum (Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Palatio ad Sancta Sanctorum) or simply the "Sancta Sanctorum" (), which was the personal chapel of the early Popes. According to Roman Catholic tradition, the Holy Stairs were the steps leading up to the praetorium of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem on which Jesus Christ stepped on his way to trial during his Passion. The Stairs reputedly were brought to Rome by Saint Helena in the fourth century.
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Main altar of the Sancta Sanctorum, enshrining the Uronica. The Sancta Sanctorum () is a Roman Catholic chapel entered via the Scala Sancta (Holy Staircase) of the Lateran Palace in Rome. It was the original private chapel of the papacy before it moved to Avignon, and later to the Vatican Palace. The chapel is the only building from the old Lateran Palace that was not destroyed during its reconstruction.
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The Latin phrase sanctum sanctorum is a translation of the Hebrew term Qṓḏeš HaQŏḏāšîm (Holy of Holies) which generally refers in Latin texts to the holiest place of the Tabernacle of the Israelites and later the Temple in Jerusalem, but also has some derivative use in application to imitations of the Tabernacle in church architecture. The plural form sancta sanctorum is also used, arguably as a synecdoche, referring to the holy relics contained in the sanctuary. The Vulgate translation of the Bible uses sancta sanctorum for the Holy of Holies.2 Chronicles 5:7, in Latin (Vulgate): "Et intulerunt sacerdotes arcam foederis Domini in locum suum, id est, ad oraculum templi, in Sancta sanctorum subter alas cherubim".
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It was found in the church of Sancta Sanctorum Salvatore and commemorates the construction of the synagogue of the Catalan Jews in 1453, it is one of the oldest Aron ha-Qodesh in Europe.
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In his Last Will and Testament Sangiorgio named the Confraternity of the Saviour at the Sancta Sanctorum (Societas Salvatoris ad Sancta Sanctorum) as his heir, as his tombstone testifies.Allodi, II, p. 11. Allodi draws attention to the fact that the inscription does not mention the Bishopric of Parma. Forse egli un po' prima della sua morte avea renunziata questa chiesa, prevedendo di no potervi residere.... (Perhaps at some point before his death, he had renounced this church, forseeing that he would not be able to reside....).
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This form is also used more broadly in Catholic tradition with reference to sanctuaries other than the Temple in Jerusalem. A notable example is for the Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Palatio ad Sancta Sanctorum, a chapel in the complex of St John Lateran in Rome.
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Other constituent parts of the Lateran complex are the building of the Scala Sancta with the Sancta Sanctorum and the Triclinium of Pope Leo III. The Pontifical Lateran University, or simply Lateranum, is one of the pontifical universities of Rome. An ecclesiastical college in the Philippines was named after the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, founded in 1620.
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St. Peter's Basilica, also built by Constantine, had until then served primarily as a pilgrimage church. Sixtus V, more concerned with rationalized urban planning than the preservation of antiquities, then destroyed what still remained of the ancient palace of the Lateran in 1586 preserving only the Sancta Sanctorum, and erected the present much smaller edifice in its place, designed by his favorite architect Domenico Fontana.
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Sancta sanctorum, cosmateque pavement from 1278 The chapel contains a cypress wood reliquary box, placed under the altar by Pope Leo III (†816). It supposedly houses the bones of at least 13 saints (whereof the chapel derives the name "holy of holies"). The reliquary box itself is taken to represent the Ark of the Covenant in Solomon's Temple. Over the course of time, other relics were added, including the cloisonné enameled cross commissioned by Paschal I (†824).
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Idoia Estornés Zubizarreta, Julio Urquijo Ybarra entry In 1927 he was invited to Real Academia de la Lengua Española, Sección de Lenguas Regionales,this a section was created to accommodate Catalan, Gallego and Basque, see Real Academia service, available here which he joined formally in 1929.Robles Muñoz 1997, p. 44 In the 1930s his home, and especially its vast library, was considered "el Sancta Sanctorum de la tradición vasca", Urquijo himself named "su sumo sacerdote".
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The main altar, between the chancel arch and the church tabernacle, is gilded wood. The church's tabernacle and sancta sanctorum are considered a masterpiece of Baroque Spanish art in its blend of architecture, painting and sculpture. The dome that covers this area is decorated with frescoes by the Córdoba artist Antonio Palomino (18th century) representing the triumph of the Church Militant, faith, and religious life. The courtyard, with galleries of arches on Doric order columns opening on it, is centered by a fountain.
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In English (King James Version): "And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place, to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim". Hence the derivative usage to denote the Sancta Sanctorum chapel in the complex of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome. In Hinduism, a temple's innermost part where the cult image (Murti) of the deity is kept forms the Garbha griha, also referred to as a sanctum sanctorum.
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Sagrario in the Granada Charterhouse Francisco Hurtado Izquierdo y Fernández (10 February 1669 - 30 June 1725) was a Spanish architect of the Baroque period, author of the Sancta Sanctorum (sacristy) in the Granada Charterhouse. He was born and educated in Priego de Córdoba. During his youth, Hurtado Izquierdo served in the Spanish royal army and may have visited Sicily, which was under Spanish rule at the time. His architectural career was mostly focused on Granada, where he designed the sacrament chapels of the cathedral and charterhouse.
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This image, also called the Uronica,B.M. Bolton, "Advertise the Message: Images in Rome at the Turn of the Twelfth Century", in D. Wood (ed) The Church and the Arts (Oxford, 1992) p. 117 is kept in what was once the pope's private chapel, in a room now known as the Sancta Sanctorum at the top of the Scala Sancta in a surviving part of the old Lateran Palace in Rome. The legend is that this image was begun by Luke the Evangelist and finished by angels.
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The Greek New Testament retains the pre-Christian Septuagint phrase "Holy of the Holies" hágion (sg n) tōn hagíōn () without the definite article as "Holies of Holies" hágia (pl n) hagíōn () in Hebrews 9:3. In the Vulgate, these are rendered as sanctum sanctorum and sancta sanctorum, respectively. The Greek language was the common language upon Hellenization of much of the Middle East after the death of Alexander the Great, and the division of his empire among four generals. The Jews of the Diaspora spoke it.
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Records of the church reappear with the 1461 Liber Anniversariorum Sancti Salvatoris ad Sancta Sanctorum and a catalogue of Roman churches in 1492.For an online text of the Liber Anniversariorum, see here. It did not, however, last longer than a century after that. While both Lanciani and Armellini record the popular belief that the church was demolished by order of Pope Paul III in order to enable the triumphal march of Emperor Charles V through the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1536, Hülsen contests that story.
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Girolamo Nanni was a 17th-century Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome. According to Baldinucci's Notizie, he was called Girolamo Nanni Romano, also called il Poco e Buono (few and good). He is known to have frescoed in the chapel of the church of Santa Croce in GerusalemmeRoma Foto dalla Stazione Termini al Colosseo and in the chapel of the Assumption of the Virgin in Santa Caterina dei Funari.ROMA He painted in the chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum (Chapel of St. Lawrence) in the Lateran Palace.
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He was born in Rimini, and may have worked as painter as young man, working with his brother who was decorating the ceiling of the parish church of San Martino in Rimini. Giovanni Francesco studied painting with Carlo Cignani. Only one independent painting (1723) by Buonamici is known, depicting the Consecration of Monsignor Maffeo Nicolò Farsetti. He began working as an architect for the Cathedral of Ravenna under the patronage of the archbishop Farsetti. In 1731-1732, he worked on the restoration of the cappella Sancta Sanctorum in Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna.
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Around 1200 the Frangipani family took over the Colosseum and fortified it, apparently using it as a castle. Severe damage was inflicted on the Colosseum by the great earthquake in 1349, causing the outer south side, lying on a less stable alluvial terrain, to collapse. Much of the tumbled stone was reused to build palaces, churches, hospitals and other buildings elsewhere in Rome. A religious order moved into the northern third of the Colosseum in the mid-14th century Names the order: Arciconfraternita del SS. Salvatore ad Sancta Sanctorum, aka del Gonfalone.
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In 1589, Pope Sixtus V had the Papal Lateran Palace, then in ruins, demolished to make way for the construction of a new one. He ordered the Holy Stairs be reconstructed in their present location, before the Sancta Sanctorum (Holy of Holies), named for the many precious relics preserved there. The chapel also houses an icon of Christ Pantocrator, known as the "Uronica", that was supposedly begun by Saint Luke and finished by an angel. This celebrated icon of Santissimi Salvatore Acheiropoieton ("not made by human hands"), on certain occasions, used to be carried through Rome in procession.
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The chapel belongs to the tradition of lavishly decorated reliquiary chapels that include the emperor chapel in Constantinople, Sancta Sanctorum in the Lateran Palace, or Sainte Chapelle in Paris. The decoration comprises 129 (originally 130) panel paintings in four rows, portraying the half-length figures of male saints, female saints and prophets who represented the ‘Army of Heaven’ guarding the relics kept in the chapel. Several of the picture frames had small openings into which reliquaries could be inserted. The depiction of the saints in the Holy Cross Chapel was directly linked to the veneration of their relics.
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The Scala Sancta The Scala Sancta, or Holy Stairs, are white marble steps encased in wooden ones. They form the staircase which once led to the praetorium of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem and which, therefore, were sanctified by the footsteps of Jesus Christ during His Passion. The marble stairs are visible through openings in the wooden risers. Their translation from Jerusalem to the Lateran Palace in the 4th century is credited to Saint Empress Helena, the mother of the then- Emperor Constantine I. In 1589, Pope Sixtus V relocated the steps to their present location in front of the ancient palatine chapel named the Sancta Sanctorum.
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The icon of Madonna del PopoloThe name of Santa Maria del Popolo is missing in the catalogue of the churches of Rome which was written by Cencio Camerario in 1192. Later tradition held that the miraculous image of Our Lady, painted by St. Luke himself, was moved to the church by Pope Gregory IX from the Sancta Sanctorum in the Lateran. This happened after a flood of the Tiber – probably the great flood in 1230 – caused a horrible plague in the city. The pope convoked the cardinals, the whole clergy and the people of Rome and the icon was transferred in a solemn procession to Santa Maria del Popolo.
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The Latin Vulgate Bible translates Qṓḏeš HaqQŏḏāšîm as Sanctum sanctorum (Ex 26:34). Reproducing in Latin the Hebrew construction, the expression is used as a superlative of the neuter adjective sanctum, to mean "a thing most holy". It is used by Roman Catholics to refer to holy objects beyond the Holy of Holies, and is specifically often used as an alternative name for a tabernacle, due to the object being a storage chamber for consecrated host and thus where the presence of God is most represented. The Vulgate also refers to the Holy of Holies with the plural form Sancta sanctorum (2 Chr 5:7), arguably a synecdoche referring to the holy objects hosted there.
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The Latin word sanctum may be used in English, following Latin, for "a holy place", or a sanctuary, as in the novel Jane Eyre (1848) which refers to "the sanctum of school room". Romance languages tend to use the form sancta sanctorum, treating it as masculine and singular. E.g., the Spanish dictionary of the Real Academia Española admits sanctasanctórum (without the space and with an accent) as a derivative Spanish noun denoting both the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem, any secluded and mysterious place, and something that a person holds in the highest esteem. The term is still often used by Indian writers for the garbhagriha or inner shrine chamber in Hindu temple architecture, after being introduced by British writers in the 19th century.
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22 In 1670, after being housed in various locations (at the Botteghe Oscure in front of Santo Stanislao dei Polacchi, in Via della Stamperia by Palazzo Pamphilj and at Via della Lupa), the Collegio moved to its final seat at via Giulia, in a 16th century palace possibly designed by Carlo Maderno. The institution was administered by four guardiani of the Archconfraternity of the Sancta Sanctorum by the holy stairs,Baronio (1697), p. 247 and was placed under the protection of the noble Florentine family of the Salviati. When the Salviati family died out in 1794, protectors became several cardinals, including Francesco Carafa della Spina di Traetto and Joseph Fesch, uncle of Napoleon and resident not far away, at Palazzo Falconieri in Via Giulia.
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During the pontificate of Pope Sixtus V (1585–1590), Nebbia and Guerra together supervised the two major fresco decorations commissioned by this papacy: at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, construction and decoration of the Capella Sistina; and in the Lateran palace and church of San Giovanni in Laterano, the refurbishment of the Scala Sancta and the chapel of St. Lawrence. The Sistine chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore was intended as the burial chapel for pope Sixtus, which held the relic of the Nativity (the original Presepe or manger crib), and should not to be confused with the more famous Vatican counterpart, the Sistine chapel. The decoration for the church, and for the chapel, shows scenes of the Life of the Virgin. The project for the Scala Sancta involved an amalgam of structures, it comprises five parallel staircases leading to a common corridor, opening up to chapels, the central one of which was the private papal chapel of St. Laurence or Sancta Sanctorum of the gothic Lateran Palace, and held numerous relics, including the icon of Santissimi Salvatore Acheiropoieton (that is, not painted by human hands).
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