Arciconfraternita dei Bolognesi in Rome
Saints John the Evangelist & Petronius
The Church
History
History
The Arciconfraternita dei Bolognesi was officially established with a Bull by Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) dated 1st of April, 1576, with which the Bolognese Pope, Ugo Boncompagni, actually confirmed the association already approved orally, ‘vivae vocis oraculo‘, on 24th of September, 1575. He formally supported a desire of the Bolognese residents in Rome to establish a national brotherhood in view of the Holy Year and to welcome fellow countrymen pilgrims, but Gregory’s biographer suggests that it was the very Pope that was urging it.
Mons. Fabrizio Capanni
Rector of the Arciconfraternita dei Bolognesi
The Church
Saints John the Evangelist and Petronius of Bolognesi’s church is the result of a late sixteenth-century transformation of a previous medieval church dedicated to San Tommaso degli Spagnoli, known by this name since 1186, when, in the Urbano III’s Bull, ‘S. Thomae de Hispanis’ was recalled among the branches of San Lorenzo in Damaso. At the end of the fifteenth century, it was also called San Tommaso ‘delli muratori’ and, in the following century, San Tommaso della Catena, because, according to Panciroli, it was the seat of ‘a Company, whose brothers disciplined themselves with an iron chain,’ or perhaps due to the presence of a chain that closed Via del Mascherone.
Historical Archive
Today, the most conspicuous documentation relating to the Bolognese association is the Arciconfraternita dei SS Giovanni e Petronio (Bolognesi) collection preserved in the Historical Archive of the Vicariate of Rome (via dell’Amba Aradam, 3, box 150), where it was most likely deposited at the beginning of the 1980s, following a detailed investigation into Roman confraternities by a group of researchers led by Luigi Fiorani.
Video of the Arciconfraternita
Book presentation in Bologna
Maestro Cera’s recording session
Card. Silvestrini’s room dedication
