The Chancellery of the Royal Commission for Italy of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George has announced that the Solemn Pontifical Mass of Saint George the Martyr will be celebrated on Saturday 20 April 2024 at 11.00 am at the Royal Pontifical Basilica of San Francesco di Paola in Naples.
The Mass will be celebrated by His Eminence Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Bailiff Grand Cross of Justice of the Constantinian Order, in the presence of the Grand Master, HRH Prince Pedro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria, Count of Caserta, Head of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies, and the Grand Prefect, HRH Prince Jaime of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Noto.
At the end of Mass, the Grand Master will proceed with the ceremony of awarding the diplomas of appointment and promotion of the postulants, knights and dames.
The Eucharistic Celebration will be followed at 1.00 pm by a confraternal meal at the Circolo Nazionale dell’Unione (Teatro San Carlo), which will be attended by Their Royal Highnesses.
The Grand Master’s program in Naples
On Friday 19 April 2024 at 5.30 pm, the day before the Pontifical Mass, the Grand Master of the Constantinian Order, HRH Prince Pedro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria, Count of Caserta, Head of the Royal House of Two Sicilies, will visit the Abbey of Sant’Antonio Abate, accompanied by the Grand Chancellor of the Order, H.E. Ambassador Carlos Bárcena y Portolés, Bailiff Grand Cross of Justice with Collar, and by His Eminence Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, Bailiff Grand Cross of Justice, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Member of the Ecclesiastical Council of the Constantinian Order’s Royal Commission for Italy.
The Grand Master will be welcomed by the parish priest Father Mario D’Orlando and by high officials of the Royal Commission for Italy of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, led by the President H.E. Prince Flavio Borghese, of the Princes of Sulmona and Montecompatri, Knight Grand Cross of Justice, and the Delegate for Naples and Campania, Nob. Manuel de Goyzueta di Toverena, of the Marquises of Toverena and Trentinara, Knight Grand Cross of Justice.
The church of Sant’Antonio Abate, an ancient Constantinian commandery, in via Foria in Naples (at the beginning of the village of the same name in Naples, near Piazza Carlo III) was recently reopened, after several years of interior restoration, with the façade restored to its former glory thanks to European funds.
The history of the origins of the Abbey of Sant’Antonio Abate is characterized by an inexplicable scarcity of information. In 1905 Benedetto Croce, having noticed this enormous gap, sent a reporter to the abbey to describe in detail the structure and the artistic works contained therein, and then reported them in the cultural magazine Napoli Nobilissima. Aside from this very valuable account, very few sources are available: a diploma from King Robert of Anjou dated March 1313, a brief from Pope Pius IX, a mention in Galante’s Sacred Guide and two lithographs, one of which in color dating back to 1890, the other by the 18th century French painter Remond. Legend has it that the church, located at the origin of the village of the same name, was founded at the behest of Queen Giovanna I of Anjou. However, a diploma from King Robert of Anjou demonstrates that a church and hospital already existed in March 1313, and that in this place those sick from the disease called “sacred fire” or St. Anthony’s Fire were treated with a product made from pork fat. Most likely the original complex dates back to the end of the 13th century, but it was enlarged and in some parts rebuilt as part of a vast religious and welfare building program commissioned in 1370 by Queen Giovanna I. A fact which had enormous value for the purposes of urbanization of the village and the road of the same name which, through Porta Capuana, represented the main access route to the city.
Towards the end of the fourteenth century, therefore, the complex already consisted of the church, the hospital and the convent, and was run by the Antonian Hospital Monks, who prepared the sacred tincture which was used to treat herpes zoster. The habit of raising piglets to donate them to the monastery thus spread among the Neapolitans. The custom lasted until 1665 when, during a procession, a pig slipped between the legs of the bishop who, enraged, declared the city’s pig breeding illegal. After a first remodeling dating back to 1370, a second remodeling in the 17th century erased part of the original structure. At the behest of the Archbishop, Cardinal Antonino Sersale, the structure underwent a further modernization in 1779. The original complex could boast four buildings. In addition to the church there were the lazaretto, the convent, the tower with the bell tower, a courtyard and a vineyard that extended throughout the surrounding area. Increasing urbanisation, demographic growth and the housing crisis brought about a profound and radical change in the area between San Carlo all’Arena, via Foria and Arenaccia. The old road called “del campo” which connected Piazza Carlo III with the station was completely rebuilt in the years of the Redevelopment, and major changes also took place in the village of Sant’Antonio Abate. The widening of the road led to the demolition of one side of the church; the new buildings built in via Foria were superimposed on the ancient Antonian convent and the old cells of the monks and the rooms of the poor people suffering from herpes were illegally occupied by other poor people evicted from one day to the next due to the advent of the construction work.
Starting in the 17th century, the phenomenon of the merging of hospitals managed by the various religious orders and the improvement of hygienic conditions in Europe (which led to the disappearance of the great epidemics that had plagued the old continent in previous centuries) brought to an end the existence of the Antonians, already increasingly divided by internal disputes and conflicts. Thus in 1774, two years before the suppression of the Order, the General Chapter of the Antonians decided to unite with the Order of Malta, which also had, among its aims, the assistance and care of pilgrims . On 17 December 1776, Pope Pius VI with the bull Rerum humanarum conditio definitively approved the abolition of the Antonian Order, whose assets passed largely to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and, in the Kingdom of Naples, to the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George .
On Saturday 20 April 2024 at 4.30 pm, the day of the Pontifical Mass, the Grand Master will visit the Santobono-Pausilipon Hospital. A year ago, the Royal Circle Francis II of Bourbon and the CIS-Corpo Internazionale di Soccorso OdV, with the support of the Royal Commission for Italy of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George and the State Archives of Naples, organized a fundraiser to contribute to the creation of the first Pediatric Burn Center in Southern Italy, in agreement with the Santobono-Pausilipon National Hospital.
On Sunday 21 April 2024 at 10.30 am, the day following the Pontifical Mass, at the Real Monte and Archconfraternity of San Giuseppe dell’Opera di Vestire i Nudi, Magistral Church of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George in Naples, a solemn Holy Mass will be celebrated in Latin, presided over by the Chief Chaplain of the Constantinian Order’s Delegation of Naples and Campania, Fra’ Sergio Galdi d’Aragona, OFM, Chaplain of Justice, General Commissioner of the Holy Land in Naples, in the presence of the Grand Master, HRH Prince Pedro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria, Count of Caserta, Head of the Royal House of Two Sicilies; of the Grand Prefect, HRH Prince Jaime of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Noto; of the High Officers of the Constantinian Order’s Royal Commission for Italy; and of the Delegate and the Council of the Delegation of Naples and Campania of the Order.
The liturgical music will be curated by the Chorale di San Giuseppe dei Nudi.
This will be followed by a buffet in the garden of the San Giuseppe complex.
PHOTOGRAPHS BELOW: the Royal Pontifical Basilica of San Francesco di Paola in Naples
