Transformations of the Santa Christina basilica in Bolsena. From the worshipped tomb to the plaсe of Eucharistic miracle

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the evolution of the religious building’s complex that was formed firstly in Bolsena (Latium) around the tomb of Christina, early-Christian martyr, and from the second half of the 13^th century – around the place of Eucharistic miracle of 1263. Also the author studies the evolution of ways of veneration of those sacred places and relics connected to them. Starting from the middle of the 3^rd century, the lower catacomb complex in Volsinii Novae, where the worshipped tomb is located, began to attract pilgrims. The built up area center was gradually shifted down towards the south, and by the 7^th century the first Volsinii Novae Christian church, located in the building of the forum basilica, was abandoned in favor of the so called “Small Church”, cut in the rock around Christina’s tomb. Saint Christina’s basilica was mentioned as one of the 79 stops on the way to Rome by Via Francigena in the itinerarium belonging to the bishop of Canterbury Sigeric in 990. In 1077 due to large pilgrim influx the “Big Church” was rebuilt and by the beginning of 12^th century passage from the Small Church to the Big was designed in the form of covered corridor. But the supposed theft of Christina’s relics by the French pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land in 1099 left Bolsena without the worshipped hallows. The situation changes in the end of the summer 1263 because of the Eucharistic miracle with bleeding Host and stained corporal in Bolsena. However, the Bolsena passing under the control of the Bishop of Orvieto, which has taken place a century and a half earlier, also foredoomed the fate of that relic – it was immediately moved to the diocese capital. Starting from the end of 15^th till the 18^th centuries saint Christina’s basilica complex was gradually returning its lost status. The saint’s tomb and the altar of The Miracle were topographically separated. The pilgrims were offered some shrines “alternative” to the corporal (the sacred objects witnessing the Miracle – by new mode in exhibiting marble slabs, stained with the Host blood). Finally, in 1815 the permission was obtained to carry one of the slabs in the Corpus Domini procession as the corporal in Orvieto used to be carried.