THE UNINTENTIONAL WINTER SOLSTICE HIEROPHANY IN THE ”SANTI ANGELI CUSTODI” CHURCH IN ROME AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

The parish of the “Santi AngeliCustodi” (”Holy Guardian Angels”) is a church in Rome, built between 1924

and 1925 by the architect Gustavo Giovannoni. The interior has a single nave with four side chapels, above

which large windows open, and is decorated with numerous frescoes. One of these, located above the little

side door on the left side of the nave, represents a Nativity.This fresco is directly illuminated by sunlight

entering through the window, located above the Chapel to the right of the main church entrance, just at

midday of the few days between the winter solstice and Christmas, when, since the founding of the church,

the celebration of the Mass officiated by the Parish Priest begins.This coincidence may suggest that a volun

tary hierophany has been searched. However, this lighting effect is very likely due to chance alone. In fact,

the orientation of the church axis is due to the fact that the architect wanted it in line with the bridge that

crosses the Aniene river and there is no documentation or testimonies of any specific criteria for indoor dec

orative painting. On the other hand, no importance in the celebrations has ever been given to the particular

lighting effect of the fresco of the Nativity in the Christmas period. This case shows that the statistics is not

sufficient to demonstrate the intentionality of a hierophany, in the absence of historical, archaeological or

textual evidence: in fact, in this case, it was possible to establish that the lighting effect was not intentional

just because it occurs in a modern monument, on which full documentation and testimonies of living wit

nesses are available.