San Leone a Boccea is a 20th century convent church at Via di Boccea 60 in the Aurelio quarter to the west of the city. Pictures of the church on Wikimedia Commons are here.
The dedication is to Pope St Leo the Great.
History[]
The church was built in 1931 for a convent of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception (Figli dell'Immacolata Concezione), nicknamed the "Conceptionists". The architect was Clemente Busri Vici.
This is a dependent church of the parish of Santa Maria Immacolata di Lourdes, but has an active liturgical life in its own right and has a ministry to the expatriate Filippino community.
Exterior[]
Layout and fabric[]
The church is a small, simple single-naved neo-Romanesque building standing in its own grounds away from the street. It has a gabled and tiled roof, with an external rectangular apse having its own lower roof. There is a small campanile or bellcote perched over the far wall of the nave, on the right hand side.
The fabric is in brick, rendered in a dull orange throughout.
Façade[]
The façade is very unpretentious. There is an exterior porch, on a square plan and approached by steps. It has three identical, completely undecorated arched portals on the three sides, and its own gabled and tiled roof. Over this is a round window without a frame, and on either side is a square window with a yellow frame. That is all.
Interior[]
The interior is equally straightforward. It is in white, with an open raftered roof which is in unpainted wood. The side walls have rectangular windows with round windows above, separated by blind pilasters.
The sanctuary is also undecorated, as is its triumphal arch. The only artwork it contains is a copy of the famous crucifix at San Damiano in Assisi.
There are two little apsidal side chapels, flanking the entrance.
Liturgy[]
The church has a good provision of Masses. The times are (according to the Diocese, May 2018):
Weekdays 7:30, 8:30, 17:30 (not Saturday) 18:30,
Sundays 7:30, 9:00, 10:15, 11:30, 12:30, 16:00 (in Tagalog), 18:30.