Visitors to the Eternal City will be well aware of the fact that if you look most anywhere in that esteemed city you will find monuments and memorials. They can be found on the walls and floors of churches to the very streets and buildings of Rome itself. It would be easy to miss these, so full of treasures and delights as Rome is, but just as there is the saying that one can miss the forest for the trees the opposite is equally true. What I mean, of course, is simply that in looking at the greater whole of a church or a building, it can be very easy to forget about the little details that make up its parts. Monuments certainly fall into this category.
I was very pleased to discover that the firm of Duncan G. Stroik Architect is still pursuing monuments in the classical tradition when I was sent photos of a monument to Blessed Columba Marmion that they executed. This monument is situated in Rome in the church of Sant'Agatha dei Goti -- Raymond Cardinal Burke's titular church.
Duncan G. Stroik Architect comments as follows about the monument:
I was very pleased to discover that the firm of Duncan G. Stroik Architect is still pursuing monuments in the classical tradition when I was sent photos of a monument to Blessed Columba Marmion that they executed. This monument is situated in Rome in the church of Sant'Agatha dei Goti -- Raymond Cardinal Burke's titular church.
Duncan G. Stroik Architect comments as follows about the monument:
"The carrara and giallo di siena marble monument was installed in the side aisle at Sant’ Agatha dei Goti in Rome and dedicated by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke October 25, 2012. It celebrates the holy life and work of Blessed Columba Marmion, O.S.B., Benedictine abbot of Maredsous Abbey in Belgium. He was ordained a Catholic priest in the Church of Sant’ Agatha in 1881 before joining the Benedictine order in 1886 with the permission of his bishop. His written works include Christ, the Life of the Souland Christ in His Mysteries. Blessed Columba Marmion, O.S.B., was declared “Blessed” by His Holiness Blessed John Paul II in the year 2000, and the monument placque was commissioned by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke. The bas relief of Blessed Columba in statuario marble was sculpted by sculptor Giuseppe Ducrot of Rome."As you will see, it is marvellously executed:
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| Detail of the portrait |
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| The monument in full |
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| The Latin inscription |
If you want to see the monument in its proper context, here it is:
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| Sant'Agata dei Goti. The Marmion monument seen to the right. |
