Church of Sant’Irene and the Capuchin Convent in Catignano (PE): historical and artistic profile

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Historical background

The complex stands in the Cappuccini district, just outside the centre of Catignano, on a site recorded in the charters of the Benedictine abbey of San Bartolomeo at Carpineto della Nora: the church and adjoining monastery were begun by the Benedictines between the 11th and 12th centuries.

By a bull of Gregory XIII (1579) the complex passed to the Capuchin friars, who over time added extensions and updated the decoration. After the 19th-century suppressions (1866-67) came a period of abandonment, until in the 1930s the Amigonian Fathers reopened the convent. After the Second World War the Soprintendenza promoted a "restoration" in the Romanesque sense, which involved removing the later vaults in favour of exposed timber trusses, rebuilding the side apses and simplifying the decoration. The church was then declared a National Monument in 1950.

Architecture

The church has a three-aisled plan ending in three apses; the aisles are divided by arches on pillars and cylindrical columns. The present roof has timber trusses (the result of the 20th-century restoration).

The stepped façade, in exposed masonry, is plain: it has a splayed portal with carved sides, a round-arched lunette holding a medieval sculpture (12th-13th century), two splayed slit windows and a central rose window. Inside, squat capitals with simple plant motifs reaffirm the essential vocabulary of the Abruzzo Romanesque.

The portal and signs of popular devotion

On the inner faces of the portal jambs are carved graffiti traditionally interpreted as "pilgrims' sandals" and other devotional marks; the lunette holds a small stone statue, attributed to local production of the 12th-13th centuries, variously read as the Virgin and Child or Saint Anne with the child Virgin.

Furnishings

Local sources recall an apse once entirely painted (with two large saints on either side of the window), now stripped of its decoration as a result of the 20th-century restoration.

The cult of Saint Irene and the role of the Capuchins

The complex is also known as the "Sanctuary of Santa Irene" because it holds the relics of the martyr, which came from the Catacombs of Priscilla (Rome). The records refer to the relics being entrusted to Father Enrico da Catignano in 1834; they are attested in the church during the 19th century (a local tradition recalls their display from 1847) and are now kept in a side chapel. Every year at the end of June the community celebrates their translation.

Value and critical reading

The complex retains its Romanesque abbey layout and a portal of considerable interest, but its history of interventions (Capuchin work in the early modern period and "regressive" 20th-century restorations) makes a stratigraphic reading complex today: many post-medieval features were removed to restore an image considered "original". For this reason the church is at once a document of the Abruzzo Romanesque and a testimony to 20th-century restoration practices.

Essential references

CEI – 8xmille, project sheet "Chiesa e convento di S. Irene…", with historical-architectural background and description of the façade and plan.

Pro Loco di Catignano, historical profile with the 1579 bull, 19th- and 20th-century events, notes on the portal, capitals and old paintings.

FAI – I Luoghi del Cuore, popular sheet on the three-aisled plan, roofing, the portal with graffiti and notes on the relics.

Santuari Italiani, note on its listing as a National Monument (1950) and on the painted apse.