Tag Archives: basilica

Fr. Sebastian Kolinovsky, C.P. (1919-2011)

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Fr. Sebastian Kolinovsky, C.P., 92, a Passionist priest of St. Ann’s Shrine Basilica, Scranton, died on Monday, November 28 after a long illness. He resided at St. Mary’s Villa Nursing Home, Elmhurst for the last four years.

Fr. Sebastian was born Joseph M. Kolinovsky in Harryette, Ohio, the son of the late John and Barbara Podracky Kolinovsky. He grew up in Taylor and was a member of St. John’s parish. He attended Taylor High School and graduated from Central High School. He joined the Passionists in 1942 and received his early education in the Passionists at Holy Cross Preparatory School, Dunkirk, NY. He professed his vows in 1945 and after studying theology in various Passionist Monasteries Fr. Sebastian was ordained a priest by Most Rev. James McNulty at St. Michael’s Monastery, Union City, NJ on February 27, 1951.

Fr. Sebastian’s first ten years of priesthood were spent preaching missions, novenas and retreats both in Slovak and English. He served as Assistant Superior of St. Joseph’s Monastery, Baltimore, MD from 1962-1968 and was Rector of Cardinal Spellman Retreat House, Riverdale, NY from 1968-1978. Fr. Sebastian was the Mission Procurator for the Passionists from 1971-2004. He worked out of the Passionist Community of St. Michael’s residence from 1978-2004. He moved to St. Ann’s Monastery Scranton in 2004.

An amiable and gracious man, Fr. Sebastian as Mission Procurator and fund raiser for the Passionists Overseas Missions, spent many hours at his desk writing personal letters of acknowledgement to benefactors, offering condolences to the bereaved, encouraging the sick, caring for the unemployed and those weighed down by life’s burdens and establishing long lasting bonds with many of the people who supported the Passionist missions.

During his time at St. Mary’s Villa Residence Fr. Sebastian enjoyed the company of the other residents and staff. His family and Passionist community are very grateful for the care and love they gave to Fr. Sebastian during these last years, especially the staff at St. Mary’s Villa Nursing Home who cared for him with great devotion.

Fr. Sebastian is survived by a sister, Madeline Yarima, Scranton, a brother John, Milton, Florida and a brother Clement of Scranton. and several nieces and nephews and grand nieces, nephews and cousins. Along with his parents he was preceded in death by his two sisters, Ann Bierchinski and Mary Tremko.

Fr. Sebastian’s body will be received at St. Ann’s Shrine Basilica on Thursday, December 1 at 2:00 PM. His body will lie in repose for viewing until 7:30 pm. This will be followed by a Vigil service, lead by Very Rev. James Price, C.P., Rector. A viewing will also take place on Friday morning from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. The funeral mass will be at St. Ann’s on Friday, December 2 at 10:30 AM, celebrated by Very. Rev. Robert Joerger, C.P., Passionist Provincial. Burial will follow at St. Ann’s Monastery cemetery. Funeral arrangements are being coordinated by Thomas J. Hughes Funeral Home, 1240 St. Ann’s Street, Scranton.

 


In lieu of flowers please make donations in Fr. Sebastian’s memory to the Passionist Retirement Fund.

Passionist Missionaries Inc.
526 Monastery Place
Union City NJ 07087-3398
Tel: 888/806-6606
E-mail: AGardiner@cpprov.org

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An Old Story-teller: SS John and Paul, A Shrine Church of Rome (Part 5)

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Medieval fresco of Christ found in the scavi beneath the Basilica.

Churches share the fate of the cities in which they are built. The Church of Saints John and Paul shared in Rome’s decline following the invasion of the Visigoths in 410. Other barbarian invaders swept through the empire after them, and Rome’s population dwindled from about 800,000 in the year 400 to perhaps 100,000 by 500. Most of the wealthy families from the Coelian Hill fled to the safety of Constantinople or Ravenna. The remaining population either moved from the city or relocated in its westward section, leaving the hill largely abandoned and depopulated. It remained that way until the end of the 19th century.

After a brief shining period as a center for early Coelian Christians, the Church of Saints John and Paul became the charge of the papal court located at the Lateran area nearby, and depended upon the fluctuating resources of the popes. An annotation from the Liber Pontificalis in the 8th century says that Pope Hadrian I (772-795) “began to renovate the titulus Pammachii, of Saints John and Paul, which had become run down over the years.” Through the dark ages, to medieval times, till today, the church was kept standing by popes, cardinal protectors, religious communities and benefactors who mended, altered or restored its fabric.

By the 6th century, Saints John and Paul was no longer a thriving parish church, but an isolated martyrs’ shrine in an abandoned area of the city. Yet, as Rome under the popes of the 7th century became a magnet for pilgrims flocking to the city’s shrines (especially those of Saints Peter and Paul), the church of the soldier martyrs on the Coelian Hill also attracted visitors.

From the 11th to the 13th centuries, cardinal protectors provided the popular church with a beautiful bell tower, solid walls and enlarged monastic buildings. Pilgrim guidebooks of the time give the church a place of honor because, uniquely, it contained martyrs’ tombs within the city walls. The 12th century historian and guide, William of Malmesbury, writes: “Inside the city, on the Coelian hill, John and Paul, martyrs, lay in their own house, which was made into a church after their death.”

18th Century: The Passionists
From the 8th century onward, various monastic and religious communities resided next to the shrine.  The latest religious community making a home there is the Passionists whose founder, St. Paul of the Cross, was a zealous Italian preacher and mystic of the 18th century.

Pope Clement XIV, a friend and admirer of the saint, asked him in 1773 to take over the ancient monastery and church. With seventeen Passionist religious, Paul moved into the monastery of Saints John and Paul, and it has been the seat of administration for his worldwide congregation ever since. Paul spent his last years and died there on October 18, 1775.

Paul of the Cross was proclaimed a saint on June 29, 1867. On April 25, 1880 his remains were brought to the beautiful classical chapel built in his honor on the right hand side of the basilica of Saints John and Paul. The rooms where he lived and died, overlooking the piazza, are carefully preserved in the old monastery.

Incorrupt body of St. Paul of the Cross

Besides the saintly founder, other Passionists honored by the church are associated with the place.  Among them are: Saint Vincent Strambi (1745-1824), former superior of Saints John and Paul, who was named  Bishop of Macerata and suffered during the Napoleonic occupation;  Blessed Dominic Barberi (1792-1849), who received John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church; Blessed Bernard Mary Silvestrelli (1831-1911), a superior general of the Passionists, who prepared for their worldwide expansion in the 20th century; and Blessed Eugene Bossilkov, a Passionist Bishop martyred by the communists in Bulgaria in 1950. Today the monastery is a residence for Passionist students from many countries, and also the site of the community’s administration.

- Fr. Victor Hoagland, C.P.

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An Old Story-teller: SS John and Paul, The Soldier Martyrs (Part 4)

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St. Pammachius, Roman Senator and builder of the Church of SS John and Paul.

Originally, the church and the house beneath it bore the senator’s name. It was the church of Pammachius, whose house was a “titular” church – which means his name hung outside the main door: “titulus Pammachii.”  It is listed among the twenty-five early house– churches: homes or apartments adapted for Christian use in the city.

His house–church had another distinction. Bodies of Christian martyrs were buried and honored there even before the upper basilica was built. Two soldier martyrs, John and Paul, said to have been put to death by the Emperor Julian the Apostate in 362, are the most prominent of the group. By the time of the church synod in Rome in 595, the church of Pammachius was also known as the Church of Saints John and Paul.

Scholars are still puzzled by the stories of the martyrs John and Paul. Different versions have appeared, the earliest from the 6th century. According to the earliest “Passion” (an account of martyrdom), John and Paul were two Christian officers of the Emperor Constantine, who made them guardians of his daughter, Constantia. Thanks to his generosity, the two brothers bought a house on the Coelian Hill and retired there.

When Julian the Apostate became emperor, he called the two brothers back into imperial service as his aides. But they refused, since the emperor had betrayed the Christian faith into which he was baptized.  Julian, incensed at their refusal, gave them ten days to reconsider; unless they complied with his request, he would charge them with impiety, which was punishable by death.

During the next ten days, the brothers prepared for their martyrdom by giving away their possessions to the poor.

The martyrdom of John and Paul, by Guercino, 1630-2.

Fearful that open persecution would antagonize the Christians, Julian chose to deal with the two soldiers privately. So he sent one of his captains, Terentianus, to their home to command their obedience and sacrifice to the gods. When they remained firm, they were beheaded and secretly buried in their home.  To conceal their deaths, officials began the rumor that they were sent into exile. Three other Christians, the priest Crispus, the cleric Crispinianus and the woman Benedicta were martyred along with the brothers.

The small Confessio created on the platform above the martyrs’ tombs is decorated with precious Christian paintings from the second half of the fourth century. These are traditionally connected with SS. John and Paul, and also with SS. Crispus, Crispinianus, and Benedicta.

Soon after, the truth came out, and John and Paul, as well as the others, were honored at a shrine built over their graves in the apartments along the Clivus Scauri, which may have been their home. Later, a stairway connected the shrine to the church built above.

The cult of the two soldier saints grew as miracles were reported through their intercession. By the 6th century, their names were listed in the ancient Roman Canon; their feast was celebrated in Rome, Milan and Ravenna on June 23rd (which may be the day of their martyrdom). The two martyred soldiers would have been favorites of the soldiers stationed on the Coelian Hill, who passed their shrine on the Clivus Scauri regularly. They also reminded Christians – who were becoming increasingly more comfortable in Roman society – that those who follow Jesus must be ready to bear their cross.

- Fr. Victor Hoagland, C.P.

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An Old Story-teller: SS John and Paul, Faith for a New Age (Part 3)

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Emperor Constantine

Once the Emperor Constantine embraced it, Christianity’s role in Roman society grew. Previously, Christians had been cautious because of persecution; now they advanced their faith boldly. Now, splendid churches, displacing their modest community centers or renovated houses, rivaled Rome’s great temples and shrines. To win over the powerful Roman majority, they promoted the Christian scriptures, freshly translated by St. Jerome, along with his learned commentaries. The new faith, St. Augustine argued in his City of God, far from causing the empire to fall (as its enemies claimed), was God’s providential gift to save it.

The Church of Saints John and Paul was a sign of this new Christian assertiveness. It was built in the “show” area of the imperial city, close to the Roman forum. Until then, new Christian building was confined to the city’s edge (the Lateran Basilica is an example) or to the shrines of martyrs outside the city, in order not to offend the Roman majority, many of whom resented the new faith. Saints John and Paul, however, was built near the heart of the city, next to the Roman temple of Claudius. It was a visual statement that Christianity had arrived.

St. Pammachius (340-410), Senator and Builder
Fittingly, Pammachius, a respected senator and one-time leader of the senate, was the builder of the Church of Saints John and Paul. He came from a patrician family linked to other noble families. His wife was Paolina, daughter of the influential noblewoman St. Paula, who accompanied St. Jerome to the Holy Land.

Clivo_di_Scauro

They had no children, and when Paolina died in 360 Pammachius dedicated himself to the spiritual life, promoting scripture study and caring generously for the poor. St. Jerome, his long-time friend and regular correspondent, admired the Roman nobleman’s deep faith and keen mind. Another friend, St. Paulinus of Nola, called Pammachius the “most generous patron the church could have.”

Early in the 5th century, the Roman senator built a Christian basilica on the hill slope in the shadow of an impressive temple dedicated to the Emperor Claudius. He used three existing buildings for its foundation, two of them 3rd century apartment houses facing the Clivus Scauri.

- Fr. Victor Hoagland, C.P.

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An Old Story Teller: SS. John and Paul on the Coelian Hill (Part 2)

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Model of 4th Century Rome (partial view). The Church of Saints John and Paul stands today where the Roman aquaduct follows the lower wall of Temple of Claudius. (Museo de Civilta Romana)

The Coelian Hill in the 5th Century

Churches tell stories and the Church of Saints John and Paul, like other old Roman churches, has many stories to tell.

Saints John and Paul is an early 5th century “titular” church, nestled on the western spur of the Coelian Hill, one of Rome’s seven fabled hills. Across from it is the Palatine Hill, where the palaces of Roman emperors once stood; nearby are the Roman Forum and the Colosseum,  remains of a powerful empire.

The church was built a few years before the Visigoths, led by Alaric, invaded Rome on August 24, 410 A.D. and plundered for three days the city that was thought unconquerable. In far-off Bethlehem, St. Jerome grieved over Rome’s fall and the plight of his Roman friends: “…the bright light of all the world was put out…the Roman Empire was decapitated…the whole world perished in one city.” Rome recovered from the raid, but its rapid decline had begun.

Before Alaric’s invasion, the Coelian Hill was an quiet residential enclave close to the heart of the imperial city, where wealthy senatorial families lived in walled mansions, while they managed enormous investments in lands and farms in Africa, Sicily and Gaul. In addition to the mansions of the rich, apartment houses (insulae) for the poor and middle classes stretched out along the roads crossing the hill. Imperial troops were quartered on the Coelian — one garrison stationed near the Church of Saints John and Paul  —  to be near the seat of government.

Emperor Marcus Aurelius

Important figures of old Rome had homes on the Coelian. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius (160-180) was raised there. The Emperor Constantine (312-337) and his mother, Helena, owned extensive properties on its eastern edge. After Constantine gave the Christian church freedom in 312, he gave large land grants to the Christians on the Coelian — a minority on the hill at the time. He built the impressive Basilica of the Savior (now known as Saint John Lateran) with its connecting baptistery, and donated his Lateran Palace to Pope Melchiades (311-314) for a residence. Constantine’s benefactions turned the Coelian Hill into the first major site of Christian buildings within Rome’s walls and the center of church administration until the sixteenth century, when the popes moved their residence to the Vatican.

Prominent Christian families lived on the Coelian Hill. The property next to Saints John and Paul belonged to the patrician family of St. Gregory the Great (590–604), the most notable of the early popes.  His grandfather, Pope St. Felix (483-492) and another relative, Pope St. Agapitus (535-536) preceded him as bishops of Rome. Gordian, the father of Agapitus, was a priest of the Church of Saints John and Paul.

St. Melania the Younger, from one of Rome’s richest families, lived near Saints John and Paul. Shortly before Alaric’s invasion, she sold her home and lands on the Coelian, and gave the money to the poor. Then she left for Africa with her husband to join Augustine and his community at Hippo. Eventually they settled in Bethlehem with the religious communities begun by St. Jerome and St. Paula, a wealthy Roman Christian widow.

From the late 4th century on, Christians from the Coelian Hill, were leaders of the Roman church with ties to a lively spiritual and intellectual network that reached throughout the Roman world. Among their spiritual guides were St. Jerome (a frequent guest in the homes on the hill), St. Augustine, the bishop of Hippo in North Africa, and spiritual teachers from the Egyptian desert, who brought the wisdom and asceticism of the desert to the Coelian.  The Coelian Christians gave important support to the Church of Saints John and Paul.

- Fr. Victor Hoagland, C.P.

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