A gift from the mayor of Rome
The last instalment of our column for 2020 traces a historical tradition linked to a symbolic gift between the mayor of Rome pro tempore and the Gesù Church in Rome.
Among the most requested and consulted documents – both in our archive and at ARSI – are the historiae domus. These are annual reports that were sent by each community to both Fr Provincial and Fr General, at the end of the calendar year or every three years, on what happened to the fathers during the year, their apostolate, any deaths, new destinations.
Information in chronicle form, therefore, which was very useful to the Provincial and the General in order to have a complete picture of the Province and the Company, but today is even more precious to researchers since it enables them to reconstruct the history of individual communities, may contain references to works of art, restoration work or particular historical events.
The historiae domus are still an annual document sent to the provincial historical archives and used for the government of the province.
From the reading of the historiae domus relating to the Society of Jesus in Rome, which our historical archive possesses from 1893 onwards, with some gaps, it has been possible to reconstruct the history of friendship between the City of Rome and the Society of Jesus.
Starting in the 1930s, following the Lateran Pacts, on 31 December of each year, the Mayor of Rome was present at the Gesù Church in Rome, together with some of the Municipality’s employees, to attend the end-of-year Mass and Te Deum. On this occasion, the Mayor would bring a silver chalice, sometimes accompanied by two candles, as a gift to the Rector.
Both the historiae domus and the house diaries give us an account of the organisation of this day, which was always very important for the Gesù Church and the community fathers.
The tradition of the chalice is still witnessed in the historiae domus until the 1990s, when the Holy See decided to organise the celebration of the Te Deum in the Vatican between the late 1990s and the year 2000
Today, the celebration is no longer held in our church, where the chalices received as gifts from the mayors of Rome are kept, and who knows whether in the future this tradition, which testifies to the good relationship between the Society of Jesus and the Municipality of Rome, may be revived again.
Maria Macchi
