Santa Maria delle Grazie a Casal Boccone is a modern parish church at Via della Bufalotta 674 in the zone of Casal Boccone, within the Grande Raccordo Anulare (Circonvallazione Orientale) to the north-east of the city. A picture of (part of) the church on Wikimedia Commons is here.
The dedication is to the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of Our Lady of Graces.
History[]
The parish was set up in 1985, and for 25 years worshipped in a prefab at Via Luigi Carrer 43 (this is hidden away behind an apartment block).
The permanent church was designed by the firm of Garofalo Miura, which is based in Rome, and completed in 2010.
Exterior[]
The church is a striking post-modern design. Its plan is based on a rectangle, with a square extension to the right of the altar and with ancillary buildings around three sides of a courtyard behind.
The square extension contains the so-called ferial or weekday chapel.
The exterior has blank walls juxtaposed in two colours: dark grey and apricot which give a striking contrast.
The roof of the nave has a low negative double pitch to a line parallel to the major axis on the right hand side, along which a gulley runs, and the roof of the square extension continues this pitch. This means that the entrance façade has an unusual shape, being an irregular pentagon with the roofline sloping down gently from left to right before briefly rising again.
Over the altar, on the side roofline to the left of the entrance façade and on that on the outer right hand roofline of the square extension are large cuboidal pavilions containing windows facing inwards.
Façade and pavilions are in dark grey blocks, but the side walls and walls of the extension are in apricot.
Over the entrance, which has a small flat floating canopy, is a glass etching of the Madonna and Child in a large rectangular recess. On the left hand corner of the canopy stands a cross finial in thin rods.
The campanile is to the right of the entrance, forming an enormous thin rectangular dark grey slab with the bells inserted into the top in four separate rectangular apertures. There are five bells, so one aperture has two.
Interior[]
The interior is very simple, with walls and flat ceiling painted white. However, the natural lighting is unusual since it is not direct but diffuses from the three fenestrated kiosks on the roof. This gives the interior a rather numinous feel.
The back wall of the sanctuary is revetted in polished brown travertine limestone. The altar, celebrant's seat and the lectern or ambo are in white marble veined in dark grey. Over to the right is the font, which is a limestone goblet having a steep conical cover. In the ferial chapel is the tabernacle, inserted into a free-standing slab in the same marble.
Liturgy[]
Mass is celebrated, according to the Diocese (May 2019):
Weekdays 8:00, 18:30 (additionally 19:45 Saturdays -two Vesperal Sunday Masses);
Sundays and Solemnities 8:30, 10:00, 11:30, 18:30.
There Rosary is recited at 18:00 daily, before Mass on weekdays.
External links[]
Parish presence on Facebook (the parish website is "proposed")