www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Any Byzantine Churches in Rome or Italy?

Grazie for the photographs, Antv!

The iconostasis in the Serbian Church is breathtakingly beautiful!

Buon Natale,
Alice

I was just going to show it to my husband, and then noticed that it disappeared! Does anyone know what happened to it????

Sorry, I had problem in posting.

The name of the Serbian church in Trieste is San Spiridione. You can find the photo by google images with "Altar of San Spiridione church" or similar

I know there is a very little presence of them in Torino: Chiesa Ortodossa Russa di Rito Antico � Concordia di Bielaja Krinitza Parish of San Nicola il Taumaturgo, Largo Cassini, 10129 Torino.

In Milan there is a an Orthodox Church that is active since 20 years, and for a long time has been the only one in the town serving the Slavic Orthodox. Here the link. [digilander.libero.it]
I've been a couple of times (without taking communion).
The official name is "THE ORTHODOX AUTONOMOUS CHURCH OF WESTERN EUROPE AND AMERICAS". For sure it is not in Communion with Rome, but I've no idea of its relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

There's a pleasant and interesting chapel on the ground floor of the Oriental Congregation - Palazzo dei Convertendi, via della Conciliazione, very close to Saint Peter's Basilica. If you ask pleasantly, and produce a letter from your parish priest, you may be able to get in (ask for the new Prefect, whose name escapes me at the moment). On the second floor (which in Europe is called the first floor) the corridor has a nice exhibition of the service-books published by the Congregation, and paintings of beautiful Russian churches destroyed by the Bolsheviks.

Fr. Serge

The Milan Synod are schismatic, and not in communion with anybody.

Alexandr

There is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Rome. There is also the Pontifical Russian University the Russicum which is near the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. There is also the General House of the Sisters of Saint Basil the Great with a nice chapel! There may be a few Russian & Greek Orthodox churches in Rome. Seventeen years ago this week I was in Rome for a canonization. The motherhouse of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother behind the Vatican has a magnificent chapel which is basilica like in design.

Peace,

John Doucette

Do the Ukrainian Catholics really have a cathedral in Rome? Or was that a typo?

I know that the Ukrainian nat'l church in Rome is SS. Sergio e Baccho across the street from the world's worst pizza parlor which is connected (the church, not the pizza parlor) with the Collegio Ucraino a.k.a. the Ruthenicum.

Strictly speaking, Saint Sophia on Via Boccea in Rome is a Catholicon. It functioned as the Pro-Cathedral of the Church of Kyiv-Halych and all Rus until the Patriarch's return to Ukraine (1991, I think).

Fr. Serge

Fascinating! An extra-territorial pro-cathedral--very rare indeed!

I thought that I read that the UGCC has a Bishop assigned in Rome as a representative of the Patriarch to the Vatican.

Saint Sophia on Via Boccea was consecrated by Pope Paul VI. Over the years, some memorable services were held there - I was honored to serve with Patriarch Joseph for the Divine Liturgy at the death of the Vicar Capitular of the Eparchy of Peremyshl'. Later, when the situation changed for the better in Ukraine, I served again at Saint Sophia with Patriarch Myroslav-Ivan, Metropolitan Volodymyr, and the rest of the first complete synod of the Hierarchy of the Church of Kyiv-Halych and All Rus' since before World War II.

Archbishop Ivan (Buchko) is buried in the crypt - Patriarch Joseph was himself interred there, but the relics were returned to L'viv after the restoration of the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine and after an incredible seven days of continuous lines of people visiting Saint George's to pray at the relics, Patriarch Joseph was interred again, in the crypt of Saint George's, next to Metropolitan Andrew and Cardinal Sembratovych (who sent the first Greek-Catholic priest to the Western Hemisphere).

Saint Sophia's remains an obligatory stop for Ukrainian visitors to Rome, and major services are still held there - nowadays there is a large Ukrainian community in Rome.

Yes, there is normally a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic bishop resident in Rome to represent the Church of Kyiv-Halych as Apocrisiarius at the Holy See.

Fr. Serge

Wow! Wish I had know about this last time I was in Rome...

It should not be surprising at all!

If Rome can donate Churches to the Orthodox (Romanians, Bulgarians, and Russians), particular Eastern Catholic Churches can have theirs, too!

Once upon a time, the four Eastern patriarchates in the pentarchy were assigned their respective patriarchal basilicas in Rome when their patriarchs would come to visit. (St. Peter's Basilica was assigned to the Patriarch of Constantinople.) However, all four basilicas have been "transformed" into Papal Basilicas.

Amado

(1) St. Peter's Basilica, to the Patriarch of Constantinople;

You forgot:

2.) The Lateran Basilica a.k.a. the Archbasilica of Our Most Holy Savior a.k.a. the Cathedral of Rome to the Patriarch of the West;

3.) The Liberian Basilica a.k.a. St. Mary Major to the Patriarch of Antioch;

4.) The Basilica of St. Paul-without-the-Walls (a.k.a. St. Paul-outside-the-Walls) to the Patriarch of Alexandria;

5.) The Basilica of St. Lawrence-without-the-walls to the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

But these were all assigned to the Latin Titular Patriarchs as far as I understand... Can someone clarify?

The Greek-Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and All the East has its representation to Rome at the minor Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, close to the Forum. I had the joy of serving with Patriarch Maximos V there several times.

Nobody "gave" St. Sophia to the Ukrainians - Patriarch Joseph raised the money everywhere in the diaspora to build it. Don't miss it; it's a beautiful church with glorious and fascinating mosaics.

Fr. Serge

Let's not forget that there are Italo-Albanian Greek Catholic parishes throughout Italy. I know for a fact that there is one such church in Milan. A few years ago, I met a Capuchin priest who serves them-Angelo Milocco (don't know if he's still there). Fr. Angelo has a bi-ritual faculty (I believe he told me the two rites involved are Ambrosian and Byzantine-but I could be wrong about that). Interestingly, he is a convert to Catholicism from Bolshevism. He grew up in a Communist family, and even held a high position with the Communist Party of Milan. Then, he had a conversion experience and ended up as a Capuchin friar!

Dn. Robert