Chiesa dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo: Parish Church of San Giacomo Roncole
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Unclassified
- Eras represented
- Unclassified
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page7 sections
History
Chiesa dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo is the parish church of San Giacomo Roncole in Italy, a hamlet of Mirandola with medieval origins documented from the fourteenth century. It belongs to Pastoral Area 6, an administrative grouping of parishes, within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Carpi.
The 1799 uprising
The church became involved in the anti-French uprisings at the end of the eighteenth century. On 14 April 1799, its bells were rung as a general call to resist Napoleonic rule. The following day, republican forces attacked houses in the village and the rectory of Don Francesco Razzaboni, who was arrested and taken to Mirandola.
News of the looting led the lawyer Ruberti to travel from Concordia with people from nearby communities. Their intervention contributed to the 1799 revolt of Mirandola, which expelled Napoleonic forces and brought Austrian administration to the area for a year.
Don Zeno Saltini and the wartime massacre
In 1931, Don Zeno Saltini became vice-parish priest of San Giacomo Roncole. He founded the Opera dei Piccoli Apostoli, later known as Nomadelfia, a Catholic-inspired community created to shelter abandoned orphans. His opposition to the Nazi-Fascist regime eventually forced him into exile in central Italy.
On 30 September 1944, six Catholic partisans, members of the Italia Brigade and associated with the Christian Democratic movement, were killed in reprisal in front of the rectory. They had been brought up with Don Zeno Saltini. The men were hanged from six lamp posts along State Road 12, and their bodies remained there until 2 October as an intimidation of Don Zeno’s followers and the parish community.
Earthquake damage and commemoration
The 2012 Emilia earthquake severely damaged the ecclesiastical complex. The facade pediment and some church vaults collapsed, the associated oratory became unusable, and the bell tower suffered serious damage. A stele commemorating those killed in the May 2012 earthquake was inaugurated in the parish garden in 2016. On 2 April 2017, Pope Francis visited the site at the end of his pastoral visit to the Diocese of Carpi and paid homage to the memorial.
Remains
The church presents a tripartite, gabled facade in the Neoclassical style. Its central section is considerably wider than the two side sections, and the composition is crowned by a triangular pediment. At the center, an architraved portal, a doorway framed by a straight lintel, opens into the church. A large rectangular window directly above it provides light to the main hall.
Facade and bell tower
The bell tower stands forward of the main church on the right-hand side. The 2012 earthquake seriously damaged the tower and caused the facade pediment and some of the church vaults to collapse. The oratory belonging to the complex was also left unusable after the earthquake.
Parish garden memorial
The parish garden contains a stele inaugurated in 2016 in memory of those who died in the May 2012 earthquake. The memorial was the focus of Pope Francis’s homage during his visit on 2 April 2017.
