Anastasios
We know that the Catholic Church is blessed in its history with countless religious congregations, men and women who have chosen to give their life in answer to a radical call from the Lord, to serve him sacrificing their family life, having a spouse and having children. These religious orders have contributed to human civilization, and some of them are highly glorious.
Let us consider the Franciscans, the Benedictines, the Dominicans and the Carmelites… Yes, today we want to talk about the Carmelites because here we are referring to one of their churches in Rome, a minor basilica, Santa Teresa d’Avila, dedicated to one of the greatest saints of the Carmelites and of the Catholic church.
The parish was established in 1906, by Saint Pius X. Articles were donated to this church by another church that was popular in this area called Trastevere, San Salvatore in Corte. The church still exists today and is called Santa Maria della Luce. In 1951, Pope Pius XII made this church a minor Basilica and saint John XXIII a presbyteral title.
Tullio Passarelli (1869-1941) was the architect of this church. Alessandro Capanna, in the Treccani Biographical Dictionary, so referred to this church: “The neo-Romanesque adopted for the expansion of the De Merode college, a style that was hybridized with metal coatings used for the mansard roofing of the new buildings, inserted to recall the French origin of the religious order, found a congruent application in the three churches that he built between 1903 and 1910. S. Teresa of Avila, S. Camillo de Lellis and the church of the fathers of Montfort are the author’s proof of a young but already mature designer personality. On this occasion, Passarelli chose neo-Romanesque as the language of the religious architecture of the new capital, capable of confronting the historic city and relating without competing with the Baroque tradition of the symbolic churches of Rome.”
Pope Benedict XVI referring to Santa Teresa d’Avila in a general audience in 2011 said: “It is far from easy to sum up in a few words Teresa’s profound and articulate spirituality. I would like to mention a few essential points. In the first place, St Teresa proposes the evangelical virtues as the basis of all Christian and human life and in particular, detachment from possessions, that is, evangelical poverty, and this concerns all of us; love for one another as an essential element of community and social life; humility as love for the truth; determination as a fruit of Christian boldness; theological hope, which she describes as the thirst for living water. Then we should not forget the human virtues: affability, truthfulness, modesty, courtesy, cheerfulness, culture. Secondly, St Teresa proposes a profound harmony with the great biblical figures and eagerness to listen to the word of God. She feels above all closely in tune with the Bride in the Song of Songs and with the Apostle Paul, as well as with Christ in the Passion and with Jesus in the Eucharist. The Saint then stresses how essential prayer is. Praying, she says, “means being in terms of friendship with God frequently conversing in secret with him who, we know, loves us” (Vida 8, 5). St Teresa’s idea coincides with Thomas Aquinas’ definition of theological charity as “amicitia quaedam hominis ad Deum”, a type of human friendship with God, who offered humanity his friendship first; it is from God that the initiative comes (cf. Summa Theologiae II-II, 23, 1).”
The church of Santa Teresa d’Avila in Rome, house of the Carmelites, stands as a testimony to the great deeds that God has done through the work of His saints.
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