A Jacobite Gazetteer - Lazio

Frascati - Chiesa del Gesù

Facade

This church is located in the Piazza del Gesù to the northwest of Piazza San Pietro.

The church was once owned by the Jesuits whose college was immediately to the right of the church. When Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Jesuit college and gave it to Henry, Cardinal Duke of York (later King Henry IX and I) as a diocesan seminary, the pope also handed over this church to the new seminary.

On the inside wall of the facade, immediately to the left of the main door there is a Latin inscription:

D· O· M·
TEMPLVM HOC
HENRICVS EPISC· TVSCVLAN· CARD·
DVX EBORACEN· S· R· E· V· CANCELL·
SOLEMNI RITV DEDICAVIT
POSTR· EID· FEBR· A· S· MDCCLXXIII

To the Most High Excellent God:
Henry, Cardinal Bishop of Frascati,
Duke of York, Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church,
dedicated this church
with solemn rites,
Febrary 13, in the year of salvation 1773.

Left inscription

On the inside wall of the facade, immediately to the right of the main door there is a Latin inscription:

DEDICATIONIS HVIVS TEMPLI MEMORIAM
DECRETA DE MORE INDVULGENTIA
HENRICVS· EPISC· TVSCVLAN· CARD·
DVX EBORACEN· S· R· E· V· CANCELL·
QVOTANNIS
VLTIMA DIE DOMINICA IANVARII
RECOLENDAM ESSE CONSTITVIT

Henry, Cardinal Bishop of Frascati,
Duke of York, Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church,
by the customary decree of indulgence,
ordered that the memory of the dedication of this church
be recollected
each year
on the last Sunday of January.

Right inscription

Hanging immediately in front of the sanctuary are two silver lamps which were given to the church by Henry. They are decorated in gold with his coat-of-arms as Duke of York.

Sanctuary lamp

Coat-of-arms on sanctuary lamp

Each of the transept altars has a Latin inscription along the front side of its mensa recording that they were consecrated by Henry.

Notes