St Stephen of the Abyssinians ( it, Santo Stefano degli Abissini) is an Ethiopian Catholic church located in

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

. The church dedicated to Stephen the Protomartyr is the national church of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The liturgy is celebrated according to the Alexandrian rite of the

Ethiopian Catholic Church The Ethiopian Catholic Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ካቶሊክ ቤተ ክርስቲያን; la, Ecclesia Catholica Aethiopica) is a metropolitan ''sui iuris'' Eastern particular church within the Catholic Church, established in 1930 in Eth ...

. It is one of the only standing structures in the Vatican to survive the destruction of

Old St. Peter's Basilica Old St. Peter's Basilica was the building that stood, from the 4th to 16th centuries, where the new St. Peter's Basilica stands today in Vatican City. Construction of the basilica, built over the historical site of the Circus of Nero, began dur ...

(c. 1505), and thus it is the oldest surviving church (in terms of architectural history) in Vatican City.

History

The church was, by tradition, built by

Pope Leo I Pope Leo I ( 400 – 10 November 461), also known as Leo the Great, was bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 until his death. Pope Benedict XVI said that Leo's papacy "was undoubtedly one of the most important in the Church's history." Leo was ...

(ca. 400–461), and named ''Santo Stefano Maggiore''. In 1479, Pope Sixtus IV restored the church and assigned it to the Coptic monks in the city. It was at this time that the name was changed to reflect that it was served by Ethiopians (Abyssinians). Situated behind Saint Peter's Basilica, Santo Stefano had long been associated with the Ethiopian diaspora. To Italians, it was known as Santo Stefano dei Mori (

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

), degli Indiani ( Indians), and degli Abissini. To Ethiopians, it was Däbrä Qeddus Esṭifanos (), or the Mount of Saint Stephen. By the 1530s, it was the most famous community of free Africans in Europe and

Leo Africanus Joannes Leo Africanus (born al-Hasan Muhammad al-Wazzan, ar, الحسن محمد الوزان ; c. 1494 – c. 1554) was an Andalusian diplomat and author who is best known for his 1526 book '' Cosmographia et geographia de Affrica'', later ...

referred to it in his Descrittione dell'Africa (1550), describing "certain religious who are friars and have their faces branded; they can be seen throughout Europe but especially in Rome." The most notable Abyssinian monk at St. Stephens was Abba Täsfa Ṣeyon, also known as Pietro Abissino, a monk of Shewan origin who had served in the royal court of

Dawit II Dawit II ( gez, ዳዊት; – 2 September 1540), also known by the macaronic name Wanag Segad (ወናግ ሰገድ, ''to whom the lions bow''), better known by his birth name Lebna Dengel ( am, ልብነ ድንግል, ''essence of the vi ...

. "The peak of Santo Stefano's intellectual influence was the mid-16th century, for it was in this period that Täsfa Ṣǝyon, who'd arrived in Rome by 1536 and died there in 1552, tirelessly disseminated knowledge of Ethiopian language and culture."Kelly, S. and D. Nosnitsin 2017. "The Two Yoḥannəses of Santo Stefano degli Abissini, Rome. Reconstructing Biography and Cross-Cultural Encounter Through Manuscript Evidence," Manuscript Studies. A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, 2/2 (2017), 392–426, 2017 It was altered under Pope Clement XI (1700–1721), and again in 1928.

Exterior

The façade is in the style of the early 18th century. The 12th century doorway, decorated with the ''Lamb and the Cross'', has been preserved.

Interior

The church has a single

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

with ancient columns along the sides. The most important work of art is a fresco of the ''Madonna with Child'' in the Roman style from the 15th century.

Liturgy

The Feast of St. Stephen is celebrated on 26 December.

Notes

References