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San Matteo Apostolo ed Evangelista is a mid 20th century parish church at Via Anagnina 373 in the Casal Morena zone, north-east of Ciampino Airport.

The dedication is to St Matthew.

History[]

The parish was erected, and its church completed, in 1953. The administration was entrusted to the Missionarii Identes, who are still in charge.

The Italian Wikipedia article reproduces a curious story that the suburb obtained its church, very soon after it was first settled, when a party of residents attended a public appearance by Pope Pius XII in 1951 and held up a banner asking for one. It's certainly obvious historically that other similar outer suburbs had to wait a long time after their settlement for a church -some are still waiting.

Appearance[]

The church is invisible from the street, and hides up a driveway behind a two-storey edifice with a gable roof which houses the priests' accommodation and parish offices.

It is a rather utilitarian concrete building on a simple rectangular plan, with a flat roof having the tops of the walls as a parapet. The side walls are rendered in a creamy white.

There is a free-standing steel lattice tower campanile on the right side looking just like a radio mast (perhaps it doubles up as one), with an open cage for the bells at the top. This also has a clock, with a dial facing the street.

The rectangular façade is clad in irregular stone slabs and decorated with five horizontal concrete string courses, except for a square central portion above the entrance. This is just concrete, and contains a round window with stained glass depicting St Matthew. Another, rectangular stained glass window in the same radial style in blue, purple, red and yellow (no green) shows the Dove of the Holy Spirit and is just over the entrance as a transom.

There is a notable crucifix over the altar, with the naturalistic corpus in bronze.

Liturgy[]

According to the parish website (May 2018), Mass is celebrated:

Weekdays 18:00 (plus a Mass for children at 15:00 on Saturdays);

Sundays and Solemnities 8:00, 10:00, 11:30, 18:00.

The Cappella delle Ancelle Parrocchiali dello Spirito Santo is across the road from the church. It used to host a public Mass at 7:00 daily -this was the only morning parish Mass on weekdays. However, in 2018 this Mass was not being advertised on the parish website and may have been discontinued.

External links[]

Official diocesan web-page

Italian Wikipedia page

Parish website

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