Church and Convent of the Cappuccini

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Church and Convent of the Cappuccini

The convent

The convent of the Capuchin fathers of Bronte was the 34th convent of the order. Before, however, the friars lived in the convent of the PP. Riformati Conventuali of S. Francesco (today it remains only the name "Conventazzo").

They remained there only for three years because of the cold and dampness, and because the convent was starting to crumble away, having been built on clayey ground.

The building of the new convent was begun in 1629 in the old suburban quarter of San Silvestro. To complete the building not quite finished, in September of 1635 the old convent was sold and new funds were raised to bring the work to completion.

In an unspecified epoch on the North-West side two big buttresses were built in masonry to garrison the building, visible from the Corso Umberto open to traffic entry.

As it results from Bronte's documents of 1714-17, the convent in 1714 was lodging sixteen friars, in 1748 twenty-six, of which fifteen from Bronte.

The building is shaped as a large "U". The entry from the Piazza Cappuccini leads to the small internal cloister with colonnade on two sides.

In the center there is a basin of water, not used any longer and to the corners four very high palms. From the arcade can be accessed the Capuchin church, the large room with a stage (little theatre) and the service premises of the convent. From a small corridor can be gained access to the wide and beautiful room of the refectory.

Above, inside small lunettes, there are frescos (1950) representing some saints' life. Above the entry lunette a Last Dinner. On the first floor long corridors disengage the rooms (the monks' cells) that look on the internal cloister. From this floor can be accessed the cantors zone of the church.


The church

The church ("Sancto Felici Dicatum"), built together with the convent by the Capuchin fathers, one introduces to a beautiful perspective position on the homonymous square.

The prospect, simple and of late Renascence inspiration, is composed by two superimposed orders of pilasters with capitals: the first set up on a low plinth, the second on a molded big frame. A triangular tympanum with decorations to relief closes in high the building. In the shared out plant, to the first plan, opens a window framed and surmounted by a triangular tympanum.

The entry of the church is set up on a little flight of steps in lava stone.
The original entry, with a railing and a re-entry on the prospect, had been modified towards the middle of the XX° century and replaced with a rectangular one of reduced dimensions.

In the three images above: next to the title, the convent of the Capuchin Fathers in a drawing from the late 19th century and the two buttresses erected next to the secondary entrance, accessible to vehicles, from Corso Umberto. In this frame: the convent as it appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, before the arrangement of the square in front and the staircase and the modification of the original archivolted entrance with gate and recessed on the façade. As can be seen in the photo on the right, the perspective view of the building has remained almost unchanged even if it has lost much of its original majesty and beauty.

Two historical images of the Convent of the Capuchin Fathers: on the left, the Convent in a map from 1850, located, like the nearby church of the Madonna del Riparo, in the open countryside and, following, in a painting dipinto di G. Politi from 1832. In the other two photos, the small and simple cloister that characterizes the interior of the Convent.


Inside the church

has a single nave, a side chapel and seven altars with decorations in bas-relief.

The succession of the pilasters pronounces the rhythm of the full funds and the empty spaces in which the minor altars are inserted.

On top the flat frame, on a continuous series of sails and vaults, is set up the white barrel vault. Beyond the flat frame, on a continuous series of sails and times, it is set up the white time to barrel. The church contains worthy of note works.

A picture where stand out two figures of friars (San Felice from Cantalice and the blessed Crispino from Viterbo) a picture of the XVIII century with the Virgin with the saints Fedele and Giu­sep­pe, the big picture of the major altar with a group of saints (S. Felice, Sant'Agatha, Santa Chiara, S. France­sco and, below, the Etna smoking and a delicious drawing of the small town Bronte saved for intercession of San Felice.

padre Gesualdo De LucaTo see also the polychrome inlays of the major altar, works of a friar, executed in the traditional style of the holy vessels of the Capuchin fathers.

The little bell of the Capuchin church comes from the ancient convent suppressed "Con­ventazzo".

The urn with the statue of the Dead Christ which takes part to the traditional proces­sion of the Venerdì Santo (holy Friday) is preserved in the little side chapel of the church. In the convent there is an ancient library, with manuscripts and rare and valuable books, that shows the high cultural level reached in Bronte by the Capuchin brothers and the important contribute given by them to the education and formation of the Bronte’s young people.

Particularly in the convent are preserved manuscripts by father Gesualdo De Luca (photo on the right), general guardian, Capuchin Prior and author of several, learned theolo­gical, canonical and historic works.

The interior of the church is simple and austere as is the tradition of the Capuchin friars. Following the choir above the entrance to the church and the painting of the Deposition with San Felice da Cantalice and the blessed Crispino da Viterbo; in the center the high altar with the painting depicting the Deposition (1669) which in the past during the Easter period with a complicated device was superimposed on the painting of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
At the bottom center of this last painting (photo on the right) is painted Bronte threatened by the lava of Etna (eruption of 1654 which tradition says was stopped and diverted through the intercession of S. Felice).

 

1650, Report of the place of the Capuchin Friars Minor of the Land of Bronte

«The Convent of the Capuchin Friars Minor of the Land of Bronte, of the Province of Messina, located outside the Walls of the said Land, about one hundred paces from the said Land, Diocese of Monte Reale, was founded in the Year 1627, with the consent of the Diocesan Ordinary, at the request of those People, and with their Alms built, and erected according to the poor Capuchin form, with twenty-nine Cells.

The Church has the title and invocation of the Blessed Felice.

The said Convent, in addition to the adjacent garden, which is of the Apostolic Chair, as is also the Convent itself, does not have an income.

New friars live there in private: Guardian: the Father brother Arcangelo da Tusa - Priests: the Father brother Giov. Battista della Limina, the Father, Brother Giuseppe Maria da Tusa, the Father Brother Francesco da Tusa - Cleric: Brother Francesco di Linguagrossa - Laymen: Brother Sarafino da Venetico, Brother Marco da Tusa, Brother Isidoro da Francaviglia, Brother Felice da Bronte;

who are supported by the alms administered by the piety of the People, and the sick are cared for in the same Convent. The said Convent has no weight.

Bronte. On the day of March 1650

We, the undersigned: I Brother Arcangelo da Tusa, Guardian, confirm ut supra - I Brother Giovanbattista della Limina, priest, confirm ut supra - I Brother Giuseppe Maria da Tusa, Priest, confirm ut s.a. - Seal: B. Felix a Cantalicio, stans, et litterae B. et P. super caput eius.»

((Source Friars Minor Capuchin of Messina) 

In the photos, the statue of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, placed in the square in front of the Capuchin church. A dream that the Bronte devotees of Padre Pio have crowned and that they have cherished for a long time. It was inaugurated in September 2002; the monument was erected with the contribution of the Bronte faithful.

Some details

In the photos on the right, how the prestigious library of the Capuchin Fathers was and, next to it, the large and austere refectory with the vaults frescoed with figures of Saints.
Until a few years ago, the precious library housed precious and rare books and also the manuscripts of Father Gesualdo De Luca, General Custodian and Capuchin Prior and author of numerous and learned theological, canonical and historical works. The polychrome inlays of the high altar are attributed by some to Fra Felice da Bronte (in the world Pietro Paolo Costanzo).

S. Calì in his volume on the Custodie france­scano-cappuccine in Sicilia (Franciscan-Cappuccine Custodies in Sicily, Catania 1967), reports a passage from a manuscript work in which “Mastro Nunzio padre and Mastro Francesco Paolo figlio” Màvica are named, cabinetmakers from Bronte who towards the end of the last century worked on some altars of the Capuchin church in their town.
The urn with the Dead Christ is part of the traditional Good Friday procession carried on the shoulders of members of the Confraternity of the Third Order of St. Francis (founded by Father Gesualdo De Luca).

1850, the memories of Capuana

«(...) And I remembered the grim story – heard in Bronte, when I was in college there and was only eleven years old – which told of the beautiful daughter of an administrator of Nelson's property, carried as if dead to the Church of the Capuchin Fathers, awakened from her lethargy during the night, jumped down from the bier where she had been laid awaiting burial, and found shivering with terror, curled up in a corner, by the sacristan friar who had come down early to sweep the church. At that time, however, the popular belief persisted that extreme unction made one sacred to death, and that the revived person had to be killed again, with blows of a blessed cross.
They said that the friar had done so. And so does Lena's husband in Linares' story, and goes mad with horror. Today the superstition has disappeared; it's a pity that art has not managed to fix its tragic terribleness forever!»
L. Capuana, La Sicilia nei canti popolari e nella novellistica contemporanea (Sicily in popular songs and contemporary novels)

September 2010, the Convent closes

As stated above, the presence of the Capuchins in Bronte dates back to 1627. Almost 4 centuries later, in September 2010, the convent of the Capuchin Fathers, the 34th convent of the Order, which after four hundred years of uninterrupted activity had become an important point of reference for all the people of Bronte (young and old), closed its doors with the transfer of the last two remaining friars to another location.

The decision was determined, as the friars themselves wanted to explain in a letter addressed to the Bronte community, by «the serious lack of vocations» which would have forced the Capuchins to make the choice. «The convent to date - they specified - is not canonically closed, however a stable fraternity will not be established there. To follow some commitments, a friar from the closest convent will periodically come».

The Convent is not "canonically closed" but the cold bureaucratic phrase cannot hide the reality: with the departure of the last two friars (in 1650 at the opening there were 9, in 1748 twenty-six, of which fifteen from Bronte) in Bronte an era and an important point of reference for young people and for the entire local community have definitively ended. The prestigious library has been moved to the Convent of the Capuchin Friars Minor of Messina.

Translated by Sam Di BellaITALIAN VERSION


     

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