Church of Sant'Egidio Abate
The Church of Sant'Egidio is dedicated to the patron saint of the city and stands on the level where via Libertà and via Sant'Egidio meet and is perhaps the oldest in Linguaglossa.
The church of Sant'Egidio Abate was for four centuries the mother church of the town and the most important ceremonies, linked to the history of the city, took place in it.
The feudal lords of the land of Linguaglossa swore in it starting from Crisafi in 1392, up to Orazio Bonanno in 1504. In the small church of Sant'Egidio there is the red thread of the most significant events in the city, from the joyful and pompous ones to the sad, of the harsh reality.
From the different styles of construction that have remained, it can be said with certainty that the church was built over a very long period, with notable transformations and additions, such as that of the bell tower and the sacristy. What we know is a lot, but that's not all.
The Gothic portal, in fact, inserted on the east wall of the transept, with an allegorical figure holding the two snakes in his hands, is the find that most fascinates and invites to further investigations. From here we must start to undertake further studies on the primitive construction of the church and on the frescoes, recently brought to light, after having been haunted for centuries.
The church is in the shape of a Latin cross and is very bright, with a barrel vault, decorated with simple stuccoes.
The part that amazes a lot is that of the transept and the tympanum which in the past has been identified with different names, now the Mother Church dedicated to Santa Maria, now the church of the Holy Souls, now the Church of Sant'Egidio.
The more than 450 meters of frescoes, adorning the entire transept and tympanum, describe the religiosity of a people who find their comfort in the contemplation of the Passion of Christ and that sixteenth-century wooden Crucifix, which dominates the left side of the transept between the Addolorata , San Giovanni and La Maddalena.
The Crucifix of the church of Sant'Egidio, now placed for safety in the sacristy of the Matrice, is to be seen at the same time as the vision of the frescoes, because neither is the key to the reading.
On the right side of the transept we find other frescoes representing the Fathers of the Church who with their teaching illuminated the faith of the Christian people and preserve it from ignorance and other errors. In the central part, in the tympanum, we have the Coronation of the Virgin Mary by the Trinity with contained elegance and brightness and below are the holy apostles Peter and Paul, columns of the Church, authoritative teachers of the Christian people.
At the high altar, built with an abundance of colored marble in the second half of the nineteenth century, by the will of the Archpriest Francesco Maria Previtera, who became Bishop of Patti in 1888, there is the venerated sixteenth-century wooden statue of Sant'Egidio Abate, which is carried in procession every year, on the first of September, with the participation of the Confraternity and the devoted and grateful people of Linguaglossa, on a gilded percolo of neoclassical style, with six columns, pulled by the devotees.
Currently, on the walls of the church where in the past there were other altars, you can admire paintings: that of San Vincenzo Ferrer by Sebastiano Grasso from 1848, the Martyrdom of Sant'Apollonia by Domenico Provenzani and a "Pietà" by Agata from Catania. Etna piston.
(Text source: https://comune.linguaglossa.ct.it/)
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Photo: Wikipedia
Information contributions: Ignazio Caloggero / Web
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