San Lino

English name:	St Linus
Dedication:	Linus, Pope
Denomination:	Roman Catholic
Built:	1999
Address:	Via Cardenale Garampi 60

San Lino is a late 20th century parish and titular church with a postal address at Via Cardinale Garampi 60, in the Primavalle quarter just west of Via della Pineta Sacchetti. The main entrance is off the latter road.

The dedication is to Pope St Linus.

History

The parish was erected in 1957, but had to wait a long time for its permanent church. This was completed in 1999, the architect being Renato Costa.

The church was made titular in 2007, with the first cardinal deacon being Giovanni Coppa. He died in 2016, and was replaced by Giovanni Angelo Becciu in 2018.

Exterior

Layout and fabric

The plan is irregular, being based on an irregular heptagon (seven sides). The relatively narrow entrance façade and the altar end wall are parallel, and are symmetric on the major axis. The two diagonal side walls to the right meet at a right angle at the far right hand corner of the church, and the near one has a tall tower campanile attached to it.

The near left hand side wall runs off at an identical angle from the façade as the right hand one, but then meets a corner with a short longitudinal wall. The far side of this is connected with the altar wall not with a straight wall, but with a series of right-angled steps on the plan which are of differing sizes. The sides of these steps which are parallel to the major axis contain large windows in clear glass, and there is another large rectangular window in the right hand side of the altar wall.

The fabric is in pink brick, infilling a concrete frame. The roof is actually in laminated wood, covered on the outside by a dark grey composition. It has two pitches running off a gable on the major axis, and a hip at the altar wall. It also forms a separate, higher gable over the entrance canopy (see below).

Façade

The church is situated well off the street, and is approached via a courtyard neatly paved in white bricks.

The façade is dominated by an enormous entrance canopy formed by this extension of the roof. It has the profile of a truncated triangle, and is supported by a concrete column either side of the single entrance. The latter is approached by a flight of five steps, which are not in a symmetrical layout as a ramp for disabled access is to the right.

Above the door lintel is a concrete block bearing the epigraph Anno Domini MIM, iubileo bis millenario adveniente ("AD 1999, the Jubilee of two thousand years arriving"). This block is seamless with a wide frieze running across the entire façade: D[eo] O[ptimo] M[aximo] et in honorem beati Lini vicarii Petri dicatum ("To God the best and greatest, and dedicated in honour of blessed Linus the successor of Peter").

Above the entrance are two large windows together forming an arrow pointing upwards, with the window forming the arrowhead tucked into the underside of the canopy. These windows are covered by brown diapered gratings, with the lower rectangular one bearing an outline cartoon of the Madonna and Child.

The façade brickwork is embellished by four pairs of empty rectangular outlines in red brick, two either side of the door and two either side of the window forming the arrow shaft. The inner ones are doubled, one nested inside the other. The top outer ones are stepped under the canopy slope.

Campanile

The tall campanile attached to the near right hand wall has seven storeys with five above the roofline. The first storey contains an access door. The rest of the tower consists of a concrete frame of stacked white cuboids, one above the other and decreasing in individual height upwards. The uppermost of these is the bellchamber. The rectangular voids of the frame are filled with brown diapered grids of the same sort as cover the façade windows. The tower's cap slightly overhangs, and is in grey. Each face has a truncated gable in the same style as the façade, which surround a tall and thin pyramidion spirelet.

Interior

The interior has a traditional layout, with rows of pews facing the altar at the far end. The interior walls are rendered in a pale yellow.

The roof is in laminated and varnished wooden planks, with rafters. It is borne by four engaged square concrete piers, which support two longitudinal slab-beams and two exposed transverse horizontal truss beams outlining a rectangle on which the central part of the roof sits. The truss beams have diagonal concrete beams above them, forming trusses corresponding to the pitches of the roof.

The sanctuary is raised on three steps. Behind the altar a ceramic relief of the Last Supper is affixed to the wall. This wall has a large vertical rectangular alcove in its right hand side, the far wall of which is entirely taken up by a stained glass window with red, yellow and blue quarries in an abstract pattern. This alcove is the Blessed Sacrament chapel, and is raised on a further three steps. There is a hidden skylight, which sheds natural light on the tabernacle.

Liturgy

Church

Mass is celebrated (parish website, June 2018):

Weekdays 7:00, 9:00, 18:00 (19:00 in summer);

Sundays and Solemnities 7:30, 9:00, 10:00, 11:30, 18:00 (19:00 in summer).

Here, summer starts with June.

Chapels

The parish has two external Mass centres:

Beata Celestina Donati or Cappella Calasanziane at Via delle Calasanziane 6:

Sunday Mass at 8:00 (not July and August) and10:00.

Cappella Bracelli at Via Mattia Battistini 256 (this is the chapel of a school, the Istituto Virginia Centurione Bracelli, and has no architectural identity):

Sunday Mass at 8:30 (not 15 July to 15 September).

External links

Official diocesan web-page

Italian Wikipedia page

Parish website

Info.roma web-page

Beweb web-page