Bronte's City/Monuments - Church of Soccorso

Church of the Soccorso

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Maria SS. del Soccorso

The Maria SS. del Soccorso (of Rescue) church of probable medieval origin, is placed at the center of the most ancient part of Bronte (among the popular quarters of Soccorso and Baracche, so called as the inhabitants of the various farmhouses raised there their modest little houses after the Joining of the Casali ordered by Carlo V in the 1535 or because of earthquakes).
Is remembered as the first parish church (this supremacy is however contested by the lovers of native history which award it to the Matrice).

Dedicated to the Madonna Of Soccorso ("help") and put also under the protection of other Saints, as San Placido of whom preserves the relics, in the tradition of the faithful, it is still commonly indicated as Church Of Soccorso or Santa Lucia.

The historic reasons of this double denomination are found in a book of the church accounts where in a "Avvertimento" ("Warning"), preserved in the Archives of the Capizzi College, is asserted that originally had been built very close to an ancient chapel dedicated to Santa Lucia, and that subsequent enlargement have then incorporated in the original structure

The church during the centuries underwent several restorations and remaking.

A first intervention, going up again to the XV century, before the joining of the 24 farmhouses, had lengthened the body of the church and incorporated the contiguous Chapel Of Santa Lucia alongside which the first church had been built.
It is also owed to this period. the remaking of the principal door [on the gable is engraved the date of 1569 (I.5.LX.V.IIII)].

The sandstone columns of the ogival ancient door of pre-Romanesque style were used for the building of an arch to the entry of the annexed chapel dedicated to Santa Lucia.

The bell tower

Bronte -Chiesa Maria Santissima del Soccorso, il campanile

The bell tower's recessed volume barely rises above the adjacent buildings. The bell chamber, framed in lava stone and featuring round-arched archivolts on all four sides, stands out above them. Four decorative stone battlements stand out at the corners of the building, above the crowning; the pyramidal spire rises in the center.

The façade is very simple, likely because it remained incomplete compared to the original plans. It features a gabled roof, clad in a very rustic plaster. The only distinctive formal element, of good workmanship, is the lava stone entrance portal, the work of the local stonemasonry school.

The bell tower was begun towards the year 1580 (the biggest bell dates) and probably in that period there was a new church lengthening in the part that today which constitutes the apse.
Of the primitive structure remained only the ogival side door, the one light windows up to roof level and the niches of the altars bent towards the outside.

The new widening and the building of the bell tower caused the rearrangement of the inside which, in the same period, was adorned of those frescos rediscovered during a restoration of 1984.

What remains, even in the gaiety of the colors and drawings, highlights with simplicity and immediacy a Paleo-Christian character with tales of exemplary lives and of martyrs.

During a last renovation, between 1780 and 1788, the outside architecture of the church was completely drawn again giving new forms to the building, cleaner and regular. Chiesa del Soccorso, planimetria

The architecture of nineteenth-century style, from the clean and linear forms, was hiding, and partly still hides, the signs of remaking that have cancelled the primitive ancient structure.

The inside of the church

The inside of the church today is a rectangular hall with chorus (on the entry) and apse, articulated by the minor altars.

At the entry a big arch supports the chorus vault. On the side walls the niches of the minor altars alternate between the pillars and show above a lunetted double shutter frame.
To the right there are the altars of S. Placido, of Maria SS. of the Soccorso, of S. Francesco; to the left those of Santa Lucia, and the Crucifix.

Above the major altar, the most ancient, the picture of the Visitation of unknown author of Palermo (gift of the Venerable Ignazio Capizzi).

Chiesa di Maria SS. del Soccorso (interno)

In the photos above: the interior of the church with the wooden ceiling redone in 1970, a view of the sandstone arch leading into the chapel of Saint Lucy with the 1847 organ, the statues of Saint Lucy and the wooden statue of Saint Francis of Paola, and some details of the right wall, where ancient frescoes depicting Saint Lucy and her legend were recently uncovered and restored.

The interior of the church is characterized by the remains of decorative elements created during various construction phases. The surviving portions of the 14th-15th century frescoes are most clearly visible on the right wall, while on the left wall there are traces of stucco work created in various phases during later periods.

The three photos on the right show the right side of the church and a detail of the column of the arch leading into the chapel of Santa Lucia. The right side (click on the image to enlarge), featuring an ancient sandstone side entrance and three small pointed windows, bears witness to all the transformations made to the original building.

"Whoever wishes to understand the antiquity of this church should view it from its exposed southern side.

Contemplating it carefully, you will see that its original extension was contained within the small extension of the wall, with four small windows no wider than ten ounces and sixty ounces high; with an arched door, the width of which is not proportionate to the height. These windows and this door are evidence of its great antiquity." (p. Gesualdo De Luca, Storia della Città di Bronte)

The Captions of Saint Lucy

The fresco depicting Saint Lucy with some episodes from her legend and the accompanying captions, painted in the large aedicule carved into the right wall of the single nave of the church of Santa Maria del Soccorso, immediately after the entrance, was the subject of a study by Professor Ferdinando Raffaele entitled "Scritture esposizione in vernacular siciliano. IV. The Captions of Saint Lucy and Stories of Her Life in the Church of Santa Maria del Soccorso in Bronte", published in the "Bollettino - Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani" (Palermo, 2019).

In the article, the author examines the fresco dedicated to the Saint to whom the ancient church was once dedicated and, in particular, studies and explains the captions accompanying the still visible lateral "stories."

After first examining the painting's contents, placing them in relation to the Bronte socio-cultural environment in which it was created, he proceeds to reconstruct the original text, to examine the linguistic aspects of the various scripts, and to identify their relationship with the painting's depiction and the literary sources of the legend of Saint Lucy.

"The work," he writes, "pertains to a figurative typology of devotional subject matter particularly widespread in Sicily during the 15th-17th centuries: the iconic-narrative hagiographic painting, in which the image of the saint being honored—large in size and with the canonical iconographic attributes—occupies the central space of the painting, while panels depicting the salient events of his or her life are arranged on the sides."

The central section depicts the image of the Saint, seated on a chair covered by the flowing drapes of her cloak. In her left hand, she holds a small book and a small palm branch, while in her right she appears to be holding something—likely the small plate on which two eyes are placed, the most famous symbol of her iconography—which, however, is not visible due to the fading of the paint.

Raised above her head, then, is a crown, an icon of sanctity and martyrdom, held in both hands by an angel.

Of the original figurative narrative, only three lateral "storyttes" remain today—there were six in the original version—which, despite being damaged in several places by scratches and paint loss, are still clearly decipherable.

Each of them, including the lateral frame, covers a height of approximately 45 cm and is surmounted by an epigraphic field approximately 12 cm high containing the captions. In two cases, their writing goes beyond the confines of the epigraphic field.

This article examines the content of these pictorial narratives and the accompanying captions, providing a basic description and a synopsis of each corresponding caption, the diplomatic edition, and the interpretative edition.