QUEEN OF THE APOSTLES

Day 277: February 13

Queen of Apostles, Basilica of St Apollinare, Rome, Italy

According to an ancient tradition, St. Apollinaris was the first Bishop of Ravenna, consecrated and sent to evangelize that region directly from St Peter.

The first church built in his honor in Rome was completed between the middle of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth century, that is, in full Byzantine domination. Probably, the first religious who occupied the church were Basilian monks, who took refuge in Rome because of iconoclastic persecutions: it would be up to them to transfer some martyrs to the basement of the primitive Church. From 1284, however, it is the first evidence of a college of canons that lasted until 1576. The Basilica became a parish in 1562 and remained so until 1824.

From 1574 until 1773 it was linked to the Germanic College (later Germanic-Hungarian College) which had as its seat the current University Palace. The original Basilica was demolished and rebuilt on the initiative of Pope Benedict XIV, based on a project by Ferdinando Fuga (1699-1782), architect of the Sacred Palaces. Today it is a typical example of barroco-neoclassical transition. From 1825 it was the seat of the Pontifical Roman Seminary. Since 1990 it has become the seat of the Chaplaincy of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

In the portico at the entrance to the Basilica there is a venerated Marian image: the fresco, which represents the Madonna between the Apostles Peter and Paul, is of the Umbrian-Roman school of the fifteenth century. In December 1494 the fresco was covered with a layer of drab to protect it from the passage of Charles VIII's soldiers and from the dangers deriving from the struggle between the Orsini and the militias of the seneschal Belcari, who had camped in the portico. The image was thus forgotten and reappeared thanks to an earthquake that detached the plaster on February 13, 1647. Following the fall of the plaster, the fresco reappeared intact, so much so that it aroused strong popular devotion and was crowned by the Vatican Chapter in 1653.

In December 1494 the fresco was covered with a layer of drab to protect it from the passage of Charles VIII's soldiers and from the dangers deriving from the struggle between the Orsini and the militias of the seneschal Belcari, who had camped in the portico. The image was thus forgotten and reappeared thanks to an earthquake that detached the plaster on February 13, 1647. Following the fall of the plaster, the fresco reappeared intact, so much so that it aroused strong popular devotion and was crowned by the Vatican Chapter in 1653.

On the base of the throne there is an inscription that is presumed to have been affixed on the occasion of the plague of 1657: SANTA MARIA REPARATRIX NOSTRAE CONCORDIAE OMNIUM FIDELIUM CHRISTIANORUM FIDELIUM CHRISTIANORUM TU INTERCEDE PRO NOBIS APUD DEUM UT LIBEREMUR A PESTE EPIDEMIA ET AB OMNIBUS MALIS PRAESENTIBUS ET FUTURIS. AMEN. (HOLY MARY, RESTORER OF OUR CONCORD AMONG ALL THE CHRISTIAN FAITHFUL, INTERCEDE FOR US BEFORE GOD FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THE PLAGUE AND FROM PRESENT AND FUTURE EVIL. AMEN.)

The liturgical feast falls on February 13, in memory of the rediscovery of the Holy Effigy.

St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"We adore God in you, O Mary, God's Royal Palace, God's heaven, God's Mother. Welcome Him for us, love Him for us, pray for us to this God who became man in you."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 157)