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Thursday, 15 September 2022 09:48

Celebrating 600 Years of Carmine in Florence

Masaccio painting the Sagra recalls the Consecration of the Basilica del Carmine Masaccio painting the Sagra recalls the Consecration of the Basilica del Carmine

1422-2022
The Carmelite Community celebrates 600 Years of the Dedication of the Basilica of the Carmine in Florence, Italy, on Sunday, September 18.

The celebration will include a greeting of the Carmelite prior general, Míceál O’Neill at 9:30 AM. At 9:45 the Mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella; the Prefect, Valerio Valenti; and the Superintendent of Florence Andrea Pessina will speak. This will be followed at 11AM with Eucharist celebrated by Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, the Archbishop of Florence. A reception follows.

Through a donation from the will of Cione Tifa Vernaccia, the Carmelites became the seventh and final mendicant community to establish themselves in Florence, which by the end of the thirteenth century was becoming the financial and cultural capital of Europe. While the Carmelites alone did not profoundly alter the history of the city, together the mendicant communities played key part in shaping the religious and social life of Florence.

The church the Carmelites from Pisa established in the Oltramo district of the city of Florence was named in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (Beatæ Virginis Mariæ de monte Carmelo). Construction began in 1268 creating a church in the form of a Latin cross. By the 14th century, the church was the seat of a number of lay fraternities.

The church and adjacent convent grew dramatically over the years. By 1400 there was a new novitiate wing, a prison, a granary, sheds, and stalls for animals, and a stable for horses.  Building continued in the fifteenth century with the construction of the second cloister (1469), a new infirmary, a guest house with its own kitchen (1440), and a novitiate, capitular hall and refectory (1464).

The church structure contains the Corsini family chapel containing the remains of the 14th century Carmelite, St. Andrea Corsini. The church is also home to the famous frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino, considered the first masterwork of the Italian Renaissance. Masolino, commissioned by a wealthy merchant, Felice Brancacci, began work on the chapel in 1425. His pupil, Masaccio soon joined him in the project. The cycle of scenes by Masolino were completed by Filippino Lippi, son a a member of the Carmelite community in Florence.

A fire in 1771 left little more than the shell of the gothic church building. It was rebuilt in the eighteenth-century style.

“While the Carmine of Florence did not compare in size or wealth to some churches of that city, its position in the economic and cultural hub of Western Europe made the Carmine one of the cardinal houses of the Order. Its history gives us a fascinating window into the life and structure of a friars' convent and enables us to see how the mendicant orders evolved from their original inspiration to become part of the ecclesiastical and social establishment against which they had originally rebelled,” according to a study of the Florentine foundation entitled Servants of Two Masters: The Carmelites of Florence 1267-1400.

To appreciate the role that the Carmine played in Florence it is necessary to examine the three major purposes which the church and convent served. The Carmine was the Carmelite community in the city of Florence, the residence of the Carmelite provincial of Tuscany, and a studium generale of the Carmelite Order. 

The church was consecrated on April 19, 1422, substantially finished, but still awaiting much of the internal decoration.

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Pictures and captions

Masaccio painting the Sagra recalls the Consecration of the Basilica del Carmine, which took place on April 19, 1422, and was attended by an "infinite number of citizens in cloaks and hoods, who go behind the procession." (Vacari, Le Vite, 1550)

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