Santa
Sabina all'Aventino was built on the site of the one of the private
residences in which Christian congregations met in the second century. It was the home
of Saint Sabina, a wealthy Roman woman who converted to Christianity and was martyred for the
faith in 126 CE. Saint Sabina’s house
was known to have been on the
crest of the hill overlooking the river, and there was a temple of Juno very
close by. Her relics were brought to the
new basilica when a titular church was dedicated to her in 432 CE.
It
is not known what happened to the property between Saint
Sabina’s death in 126 CE and the building of the present basilica three centuries later. The founder of the basilica was an Illyrian priest named Peter who took over an imperial home in ruins on the site in 425 CE. The mosaic epigraph above the
entrance translates: “When Celestine had the apostolic summit, and shone out in
the whole world as the first bishop, Peter a priest of the City, from the people
of Illyria, founded this [church] which you admire, a man worthy of the name at
the coming of Christ, who nourished poor people at [his] house, a rich man
towards the poor, a poor himself, who fleeing the good things of this present
life deserved to hope for the future one.”
Several centuries later the
basilica was given to Alberic II of Spoleto who transferred the main
entrance from the west end to the south aisle and used the basilica as a
fortress to guard the access to the city by the Tiber River from 930-54
CE. The fortress fell into the
possession the Crescenzi family in the Middle Ages, who were succeeded by the
Savelli family who updated it by added a palazzo on the east side of the church
where the park now is. In 1218 Pope Honorius III, a member of
the Savelli family, approved the foundation of the Dominican Order and gave the
church owned by his family to the friars. The Dominicans built a friary to the west and added a Romanesque
campanile. Saint Dominic lived in the
friary before his death in 1221.
In
1527 Santa Sabina was looted during the Sack of Rome by the mutinous troops of
Emperor Charles V. An architect
commissioned by Pope Sixtus V to repair and update the basilica destroyed much
of the original interior. Most of the nave
windows were blocked up and the medieval decorations were removed. The main
altar was reconstructed and several side chapels were added. More elaborate baroque
additions were added in the 17th and 18th century.
When
the Kingdom of Italy conquered Rome in 1870, they expelled the Dominicans from
Santa Sabina and confiscated the buildings for a hospital for infectious
diseases, but it was returned to the Order the early 20th century. The friars have attempted to restore it to its
original medieval style with mixed results. Nevertheless, it is one of the best examples of an ancient basilica that preserves its
original Roman architectural style.
