Cappella dei Fratelli del Sacro Cuore is an earlier 20th century Fascist-era convent chapel at Piazza del Sacro Cuore 3 in the Gianicolense suburban district. The area is called Monteverde Nuovo.
The dedication of the institution is to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
History[]
The "Brothers of the Sacred Heart" (Fratelli del Sacro Cuore) is a lay male religious congregation (that is, its members are not priests) which was founded in France for the purpose of educating boys. The founder was André Coindre, a diocesan priest of Lyon, and the first community assembled under him in 1821. The idea of a teaching congregation of unordained laymen was not a new one, but the Church in France was still recovering from the Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire which had mostly destroyed the earlier established forms of religious life in that country.
This was one of those active congregations fortunate enough to set up in the United States in its infancy, and this became its most important theatre of activity -together with Canada from 1872.
Papal recognition followed in 1894, and the Constitutions were approved in 1927. The Generalate (headquarters) was established in Rome, as was expected in the earlier 20th century of congregations with an international outreach.
The Brothers operate in all six inhabited continents. However, recently the general downward trend in religious vocations has seen their numbers drop below 1000 -they were 997 in 153 convents in 2015.
Apperance[]
The Generalate is a huge five-storey block surrounded by gardens, and away from the street. It is mostly flat-roofed, although a gabled and tiled section surmounts the central entrance section. The style is typically Fascist, vaguely neo-Classical and not very attractive. The entrance is provided with a monumental façade consisting of four pilasters supporting a pediment fronting the roof gable mentioned.
The chapel is included in the main building, but is church-sized. It occupies the right hand corner, taking up the second and third storeys and extending out in a three-storey back wing. There are four nave bays, and a semi-circular sanctuary apse. The right hand wall is exterior, and has four large vertical rectangular windows.