The back-and-forth has been going on uninterrupted for seventy years. This time, however, the issue will end up directly on the table of the Minister of Culture, Giuli, who will be called to resolve a very thorny dispute between the Jesuits and a very tenacious Roman parish priest. Basically, on one side, there is the Society of Jesus, which opposes returning a large 18th-century painting to its original location, which has always belonged (and is still owned by) the Basilica of San Vitale in Rome. On the other side, there is the parish priest who, like all his predecessors from the 1960s to today at San Vitale, has no intention of giving up. That painting, explains Father Elio Lops, has always been at San Vitale until, during the 1930s, it was entrusted to the parish of San Saba, run by the Jesuits, and since then the Society does not want to hear reasons to return it.
The latest act for the return of the large canvas depicting Saint Ignatius in ecstasy at Manresa has arrived in recent days with the negative opinion of the Superintendency of Fine Arts. The Special Superintendent of Rome, Daniela Porro, called to shed light, justifies the ‘no’ with the fact that the current location of the work would have ‘become historicized.’ Moreover, ‘the Society of Jesus itself has expressed doubts about the move precisely because it would involve tearing away the only Jesuit element at San Saba.’ Porro adds, finally, that the 18th-century painting, ‘attributed to Giuseppe Odazzi or another painter from the school of Carlo Maratta, is stylistically and thematically unrelated to the other 16th-century images present at San Vitale dedicated to figures of early and medieval Christianity.’
In short, the canvas must remain where it is, but since Father Lops has no intention of resigning, he has announced that he will make a further appeal, but this time to Minister Giuli. ‘I will appeal to him because it is a matter of justice; that canvas does not belong to the Society of Jesus but to San Vitale and the Diocese of Rome. For seventy years, all my predecessors have been asking for its return. Moreover, it is not certain that the canvas is 18th-century, as argued by Dr. Porro, because according to eminent experts consulted at the time, it seems that under the current painting there is another, older one, probably the work of Giovan Battista Flammeri, a Jesuit painter,’ stated the parish priest, also referring to the opinion of Professor Claudio Strinati, former Superintendent. In 1992, as head of the Superintendency, he gave a favorable opinion for the return of the canvas to San Vitale.
In 2023, the Jesuits had a formal dialogue with Father Lops in which they explained that ‘beyond the difficult historical events to clarify, which saw the painting moved to San Saba, it is certain that the placement in this location was a choice of pertinence. The Church of San Saba was recognized as having that Jesuit identity that made the most appropriate arrangement within a context entirely relevant to the theme of the painting.’
San Vitale, in addition to being one of the oldest paleochristian basilicas, in the 16th century was the site of the first Vicariate of the Jesuits in Rome, established by Ignatius of Loyola, who in 1554 began to use it as a headquarters for religious and educational activities. This complex, in the meantime, became an important center for the educational and spiritual activity of the Order. The Jesuit fathers themselves created the pictorial cycle and the entire fresco system of the basilica, conceived as a Theological Chair for the formation of the Jesuits. The Jesuit imprint is also evident from the carved wooden portal made for the Jubilee of 1600, which depicts not only the lives of Saints Vitale, Valeria, Gervasio, and Protasio but also that of Saint Ignatius and Saint Francis Xavier. According to all the parish priests who have succeeded one another at San Vitale, ‘the relocation of that canvas in the basilica would enhance this extraordinary educational and spiritual function, honoring its history.’
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