Church of the Holy Family (Alcamo)

The Church of the Holy Family (also called Half church O CURVGED , due to its modest dimensions) is a church located in Alcamo (in the province of Trapani) on the ground floor of the former Jesuits college, in particular under the wing of the college that dominates Piazza Ciullo. ^[first]

The construction of the Church is due to Father Vincenzo Abbati, who disappeared in 1654. After his death, his body was buried first in the Star Church and then translated into the Church of the Jesus after it was completed.

On April 25, 1745, the Congregation of the Madonna del Lume (also called the bourgeois, that is, small landowners) was established within the church), addressed only to men. According to the chronicles of the time, the congregates met every Sunday at Vespers. The congregation was abolished by real decree on 28 July 1770.

The church was managed by the Jesuit order until their expulsion, which took place in 1860. Subsequently (more precisely starting from 1866, in conjunction with the subversion of the ecclesiastical axis) the management of the Church passed to the congregation of the Holy Family, which He had been founded within the Jesuit College on November 15, 1824 by Father Domenico Maria Lo Jacono, who was director and catechist. After the expulsion of the Jesuits, it also seems that the Congregation of the Madonna del Lume had moved to the church of Santa Maria del Rescue.

In 1901 the female congregation of the Madonna del Lume was founded in the church, which moved to a chapel of the mother church in 1942, ^[2] Where a canvas dedicated to the Madonna del Lume by Giuseppe Renda is placed on the altar. The feast of the Madonna del Lume in Alcamo was celebrated on the fifth Sunday after Easter, that is two weeks after that of the patronage.

In 1947 Monsignore Giuseppe Barone was appointed Rector. Many modernization works were brought under his work.

The church was closed in 1968, due to the damage suffered during the Belice earthquake. Subsequently, the restoration and cleaning of the Church was carried out thanks to the financing of Nicolò Cassarà, followed by the reopening of the church.

The church shows up with a single nave with three altars: a larger altar (in white marble adorned with red stucco columns, around 1860) and two side altars (in polychrome marble, made and inaugurated in 1937):

• On the high altar until 1952 there was the canvas of the Alcamese painter Giuseppe Renda (1772-1805), now kept in the sacristy and replaced in that year by a wooden statue of the Holy Family, the work of the company Luigi Santfaller of Ortisei (Bolzano) and the gift of the Alcamese Nicolò Cassarà. For this reason, the wall has been transformed, building an oval niche, where it has been placed and embellishing two other red stucco columns similar to those already existing. In a marble case positioned under the main altar there are the relics of San Benedetto il Moro, San Paolino da Nola, and San Casimiro.
• On the left altar there is a crucifix of an unknown author (which according to tradition was in the attic of the former Jesuit college), restored in 1901.
• On the right altar the canvas of the Madonna del Lume ^[3] (of an unknown author, located on the altar in 1740), also restored in 1901. In an image of 1969, the silver crown of the Madonna, the child and other silver ornaments are attacked to the canvas: two earrings, one tights and a pin.

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  Painting on canvas of the Holy Family (preserved in Sacgestia)

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  Statue of the Holy Family on the main altar

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  Marble custody under the main altar

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  Painting of the Madonna del Lume

To the right of the main altar is the “chapel of passion” (built at the behest of the congregation of the Blessed Crucifix), where the statues of Jesus are placed in the garden of the olive trees, the Addolorata, flag Jesus linked to the column e On the lower plan dead Jesus, from a group of statues that were previously kept in the former church of Santa Maria dello Stellario.

Next to it is a picture representative San Michele Arcangelo, to whom Father Pugliese ignited the candles to leave the rain during the feast of the patronage, which took place on the third Sunday after Easter, on the occasion of which a lunch was offered to poor families in Piazza Ciullo .

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  Jesus praying in the garden of olive trees

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  Flagellated Jesus linked to the column

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On the side walls there are four oval canvases of the Partinicese Gioacchino Special (1923-2004), made in 1955 to replace other crims:

• The presentation of Jesus in the Temple
• the Annunciation
• The marriage of the Virgin
• The escape to Egypt.

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  Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

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On the vault the ascension to the sky of Mary and his son Jesus (as an unknown author) is depicted.

The pulpit in decorated wooden pulpit dates back to 1926, where the carpenter’s tools (pincer, hammer, and saw) on both sides and on the pediment, the coat of arms of St. Joseph, that is the sun, stars and ears seen in Giuseppe’s dream are carved. The right, all surmounted by a wooden pavilion intoned to the style. The same year this pulpit won the first prize in an exhibition in Montecatini. It was accessed through an external wooden ladder, which was replaced by a more comfortable masonry dug in the wall and hidden by a door. At the corners of the pulpit there are two columns adorned with corinthian capitals that surmouns two angel heads; Behind the wall there is a large spiral stucco as an ornamental reason.

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  The ascension to the sky of Mary and his Son Jesus

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  Detail of carving on the pulpit

The Cantoria, which is accessed through a ladder dug in the wall, is equipped with a Harmonium and is adorned with a wooden balustrade.
To increase the brightness of the church, in 1954 a new wooden antiporta was placed under the cantoria with large glass in four parts, that is, two lateral ports and two plants with the sign of the Cross inscribed in a circumference in the center, work by Vito Fulco . For the occasion, the Cantoria was also redone, making it place it on cement columns with marble base. During these works, the first electrical system was also replaced (dating back to 1912) and two red marble fountains were placed for blessed water.
Outside one of the two windows of the Canetoria there are two bells.

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  Bells on the cantoria window

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  Marble fountain for blessed water

The confessional of the church is equipped with two kneeling and is placed in a niche excavated in the right wall of the church.

The sacred furnishings of the Church, which were made thanks to the charity work of Francesco Guarrasi Anna (born in 1825 and appointed “very special benefactor brother”), are:

• the white, red and purple wallpapers, worked in gold;
• the large gold stucco armrest and red velvet, with four stools and a platform;
• the silver cantegrateloria with the coat of arms of the church for the main altar;
• the Turkey;
• the silver spacecraft;
• the Gothic style piss;
• the triangular velvet processional banner with gold fringe;
• a silver tray;
• An aquasatterar with Assersorio.

To these are added the external gothic door with the steps, the work of the Capomastro Geraci, also made thanks to the benefactor Guarrasi Anna.

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  Coat of arms of Francesco Guarrasi Anna reported on a stool

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The congregation of the Holy Family, which operates within this church, organizes the feast of the patronage every year, which takes place in Piazza Ciullo. ^[first] During the party, a stage in front of the Church of the Jesus is set up where some indigent people who represent the Holy Family are accommodated, to which lunch is offered, served by the same members of the congregation. ^[4]

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  Vintage photos of the Patronage Festival in Alcamo

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  Figures with the clothes of the Holy Family within the Church on the occasion of the feast of the patronage