An Ancient Tradition Renewed
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, marks a distinctive day in the life of the Church. Dating back to the earliest days of the Order, Dominicans have occupied a distinctive place in the Church’s celebration of Ash Wednesday, though this participation has been renewed only within the past sixty years or so.
Before Santa Sabina became the headquarters of the Dominican Order—serving as the home for the Master of the Order and his Curia, the friars who assist the Master in governing the Order—it was already among the most venerable churches in Rome. The church was built on the Aventine Hill in the fifth century, on a site associated with the martyr St. Sabina, a Christian Roman matron, executed in the early second century. Its construction incorporated materials from nearby ruined houses and the Temple of Juno; it remains the oldest existing Roman basilica of this style.
It has many claims to fame, including its fifth-century wooden doors, which contain the earliest known image of Christ’s crucifixion. It is also historically one of Rome’s stational churches; according to tradition, Pope St. Gregory the Great, before the full rigors of Lent began, would stop at Santa Sabina as the first of these churches, which the Holy Father would then visit in sequence over the course of Lent.
This tradition was still in effect when the Dominicans were given care of Santa Sabina in the early thirteenth century, and so the friars would have received the pope on Ash Wednesday for almost a century thereafter. Documentary attestation for this practice is limited, as the record-keeping style of the period focused more on rubrics to guide events than on the documentation of annual events. In the early fourteenth century, as the papacy moved to Avignon, many distinctly Roman traditions were lost, and this tradition, along with many others, fell into disuse.
In 1962, seeking to restore an ancient Church custom, Pope John XXIII revived the tradition by visiting Santa Sabina on Ash Wednesday.
This revived practice has continued to the present day. As Pope Leo XIV journeys to Santa Sabina for the first time as pope, perhaps he will bear in mind his education at the hands of the Dominicans at the Angelicum, and ask, as did many popes of the thirteenth century, to be strengthened by the prayers of the friars. As he visits, Dominicans can marvel as well, recognizing and giving thanks for our unique place in the Church’s life.
Fr. James Pierce Cavanaugh, OP
