Description
The Church of San Giovanni di Malta, next to the Prefecture building in the centre of Messina, is what remains of a great church of the Knights of Malta. Today it is a small treasure chest: it holds the relics of Saint Placidus, the city's co-patron, and a treasury museum.
Of the old church with its nave and two aisles, the 1908 earthquake left only the area around the high altar. In the small apse there are early 17th-century stuccoes with statues of Saint Benedict and the martyr saints Flavia, Eutychius and Victorinus.
Above the altar hangs the painting of the Madonna della Lettera with Saint Placidus and Saint Roch, made in 1745 in thanks for the end of the plague. In a side chapel is the tomb of Francesco Maurolico, with a bust attributed to Rinaldo Bonanno.
A monumental staircase leads up to the Shrine of the Relics of the Martyrs, built between 1616 and 1624: an inlaid floor, chests holding the relics and a ceiling rich in frescoes. In the courtyard is a knight's tomb from 1715, with two prisoners in chains, one in white marble and one in black.
The Treasury Museum of San Placido displays silverwork by some of the greatest silversmiths of the 17th century and silk vestments embroidered with gold and silver thread. From beneath the church flows the water of Saint Placidus, considered healing and given free to anyone who asks for it.
The story of the site begins in 535, when Saint Benedict sent the young monk Placidus to found the first Benedictine monastery in Sicily here. Six years later pirates arrived: Placidus refused to renounce his faith, his tongue was cut out and he was killed along with his brothers, his sister and some thirty monks.
The relics came to light again in 1588, during work on the new church. A marble tomb held several bodies with phials of blood, and Placidus's was recognised by a small jar containing his tongue.
For more than seven centuries, until 1806, the church was the Sicilian seat of the Knights of Saint John, later called the Knights of Malta. When it was decided in 1908 to pull it down to make room for the Prefecture, the archbishop managed to save the altar and the martyrs' shrine. Today's façade is by Cesare Bazzani.
Of the old church with its nave and two aisles, the 1908 earthquake left only the area around the high altar. In the small apse there are early 17th-century stuccoes with statues of Saint Benedict and the martyr saints Flavia, Eutychius and Victorinus.
Above the altar hangs the painting of the Madonna della Lettera with Saint Placidus and Saint Roch, made in 1745 in thanks for the end of the plague. In a side chapel is the tomb of Francesco Maurolico, with a bust attributed to Rinaldo Bonanno.
A monumental staircase leads up to the Shrine of the Relics of the Martyrs, built between 1616 and 1624: an inlaid floor, chests holding the relics and a ceiling rich in frescoes. In the courtyard is a knight's tomb from 1715, with two prisoners in chains, one in white marble and one in black.
The Treasury Museum of San Placido displays silverwork by some of the greatest silversmiths of the 17th century and silk vestments embroidered with gold and silver thread. From beneath the church flows the water of Saint Placidus, considered healing and given free to anyone who asks for it.
The story of the site begins in 535, when Saint Benedict sent the young monk Placidus to found the first Benedictine monastery in Sicily here. Six years later pirates arrived: Placidus refused to renounce his faith, his tongue was cut out and he was killed along with his brothers, his sister and some thirty monks.
The relics came to light again in 1588, during work on the new church. A marble tomb held several bodies with phials of blood, and Placidus's was recognised by a small jar containing his tongue.
For more than seven centuries, until 1806, the church was the Sicilian seat of the Knights of Saint John, later called the Knights of Malta. When it was decided in 1908 to pull it down to make room for the Prefecture, the archbishop managed to save the altar and the martyrs' shrine. Today's façade is by Cesare Bazzani.