MONASTERY OF SANTA ROSA

THE HISTORY

The monastery of Santa Rosa, located in the historic center of Viterbo, annexed to the sanctuary of the same name, has its roots in the distant 13th century.
The oldest attestation of the existence of the monastic complex dates back to 1235, when Matteo, bishop of Viterbo and Tuscania, wrote to the nuns of the monastery of Santa Maria Vergine of the Order of San Damiano granting them exemption from the bishop’s jurisdiction. The document puts us in a de facto situation: the monastery appears to already exist, dedicated to Santa Maria, linked to the order of San Damiano and recognized by the prelate. The forty-day indulgence granted by Gregory IX on 18 September 1239 to the supporters of the monastery building and the adjoining church shows that the construction of this complex was still underway (see Casagrande, Da sorores minores).
The monastery, built near the city walls in the district of Porta San Marco, was probably built by exploiting in part the ruins of the palace of Frederick II, once built there.
The thirteenth-century parchments of the Archives of the monastery of Santa Rosa show a community in solid and decisive affirmation: it comes into possession of vineyards and mills, acquires gifts, acquires movable and immovable property. It remains pertaining to the Damianite order until the sixties of the thirteenth century, when it embraces the rule of Santa Chiara written by Pope Urban IV: in acts of 1267 and 1268 the community of the Viterbo monastery is, in fact, now qualified as the Order of St. Chiara. From this moment on, the nuns became Clarisse Urbanists (cf. Casagrande, Da sorores minores). The naming of the monastery in Santa Rosa appears only at the beginning of the fourteenth century. In 1309, in the context of a complex inheritance issue between a certain John and the monastery, this was referred to as the monastery of the domine di Santa Rosa (see Casagrande, Da sorores minores).
The investigation in partibus promoted by Pope Innocent IV in November 1252 and the transfer of the body to the present-day monastery of Santa Rosa ordered by Pope Alexander IV, probably in 1258, helped to fuel the cult and the city fervor for the Viterbo virgin and the growth of the monastery.
In 1357 a fire heavily damaged the church. Another fire in 1410 caused the collapse of the dormitory and of all the main buildings. It was possible to rebuild and repair the building devastated by this last fire only in 1437, thanks to a donation of 100 ducats offered by Francesco Menici. The following year, the Papal Chamber also restored the city walls adjacent to the monastery.
The first half of the fifteenth century saw, therefore, an intense ferment around the monastic complex, but it was 1450, the year of the Jubilee announced by Pope Nicholas V, that made the difference. In fact, about 5,000 gold ducats were collected with which it was possible to finance the reconstruction and embellishment of the monastery. In addition to the restoration of the small cloister, the portico and other rooms, the temple was equipped with an organ and the balcony, painted by Paolo Romano, was rebuilt to house it, as well as the stained glass window in the ogival apse.
In the chapel of the Saint a new ark was built to house the Holy Body and a well made iron gate was adapted, the work of the Viterbo masters Simone and Ducato di Giovan Battista. The ceiling of the church was decorated by the Viterbo painter Valentino Picca and, moreover, a polyptych was commissioned to Francesco di Antonio Zacchi, known as the Balletta, who also requested the decoration and gilding of the new urn of the Saint. Finally, Benozzo Gozzoli was also called to paint the frescoes that would have adorned the apsidal basin of the Sanctuary until the first quarter of the 17th century. (Signorelli, Santa Rosa, pp. 223-224; Rava, Bella memoria anticha).
In 1632 it was necessary to expand what had become too narrow a space for the multitude of pilgrims who visited the body of Santa Rosa. It was therefore decided to expand the rooms of the church and also demolish the wall where the frescoes by Gozzoli had been painted (1646); the entire façade of the church, the bell tower was rebuilt in peperino and the interior of the hall of worship was reorganized, on the right side of which, some grates allowed the cloistered nuns to attend religious services (see Signorelli, Santa Rosa, p . 245).

Also in the 17th century, a new fire, triggered this time by a candle, involved the uncorrupted body of Santa Rosa at the time kept in a wooden box. Clothes and objects were burned by the stake, the gold and silver of the ark melted, but miraculously the body of Santa Rosa was saved, although it remained blackened. The nuns had a new wooden box temporarily built to house the Holy body (now preserved in the museum of the Casa di Santa Rosa), and then entrusted in 1699 to a great master, Giovanni Giardini da Forlì, silversmith of the royal house of England, the construction of the urn which definitively welcomed the Saint and which can still be admired in the chapel of Santa Rosa. The monastic complex continued to develop over the centuries between ups and downs linked to the cult of the Saint. In the shadow of Rosa flowers of holiness and charitable works blossomed: in recent times, for example, we are witnessing the birth of Italian Catholic Action by Mario Fani (1867). In 1922 Pope Benedict XV proclaimed Rosa patroness of the Women’s Youth of Catholic Action. Twenty-seven Supreme Pontiffs visited the Body of the Saint and took special care of it. Among these Paul VI, who did so much for the redemption of the monastery and the Sanctuary which took place in 1971. During the last restoration work carried out in 1998, regarding the corridor and the staircase that leads from the entrance to the chapel of the Saint, they came to the light an ancient window, the wheel and a door dating back to the fourteenth century. Along the entire corridor, which was once made of exposed stone, you can still see traces of the fourteenth-century fire. On that occasion, the ancient portico of the sixteenth century was also found. There are five well-preserved columns with their respective arches that had been closed by previous architectural interventions. The cloister was formed by a colonnade with columns and arches, all frescoed with arabesques of which only a part has been brought to light so far. In it was inserted a smaller portico with eight columns with capitals decorated with amaranth leaves and now partially destroyed, as we read in a manuscript of the monastery’s archive, following the explosion of the gunpowder that the nuns kept for the fireworks for the feast of Santa Rosa. In 1924, the entire church and monastery complex was declared a national monument by Royal Decree.
From 1263 the Poor Clares of the monastery of Santa Rosa managed the monastic structure, preserving the body of the Saint in all aspects, until December 2015 when they left the great and onerous task to the Franciscan Alcantarine nuns. The arrival of a community of active life allowed the doors of the enclosure to be opened and much of the now conventual structure open to the public, thus allowing you to savor the exciting atmosphere of bliss and holiness.

DESCRIPTION – EXTERNAL / INTERNAL

Upon reaching the Sanctuary of Santa Rosa, to the right of the grand staircase that leads to the church, is the entrance to the monastery where the Alcantarine Franciscan nuns currently live.
The entrance to the monastery is the typical one of cloistered monasteries: a large wooden door where the figures of Santa Chiara and Santa Rosa stand out and the grates that with the wheel delimited the boundary between the inside and the outside.
On the ceiling there is a fresco by an unknown artist ascribable to the seventeenth century with the depiction of Santa Rosa and the Miracle of the roses.
On the left the large gate, after which you get to the Urn that houses the body of Santa Rosa.
Before entering the Urn, in the wall on the left, two windows were placed to protect ancient finds brought to light dating back to the fourteenth century: the access door of the ancient church of S. Maria dell’Ordine di S. Damiano and the wheel, both walled up after the fourteenth-century fire.
The Urn of Santa Rosa, made of gilded bronze with two praying angels on the sides, dates back to 1699 and replaces the two previous wooden cases, one of which is kept in the adjacent Casa di Santa Rosa. The tondi of the walls around the urn, the work of an unknown artist, represent Scenes from the life and miracles of the Saint. The body of the Saint, blackened by the centuries and by the fire, is miraculously intact and covered with a silk robe that was periodically replaced by the nuns. The last change of dress in chronological order dates back to February 13, 1998. Relics are packaged for the faithful with the discharged habit. The dress that covers the body of St. Rose is gray, formerly the color of penance. The author of the Urn of Santa Rosa, Giovanni Giardini di Forlì was the silversmith of the royal house in London.
On the left side of the chapel that houses the urn there are two reliquaries: one donated by Pope Pius XI in 1929 which contains the heart of Santa Rosa, separated from the rest of the body during the first reconnaissance which took place in the year 1921, and one which contains the grape seeds found at the level of the basin and probably part of the remains of the last meal consumed by the Saint.
On 2 September of each year the reliquary containing the heart of Santa Rosa is carried in procession through the streets of Viterbo preceded by the prestigious historical procession and by the porters of Santa Rosa
Behind the Urn a permanent exhibition has been set up entitled From the Relic to the relics: the visible and tangible holiness of Rose (Rava-Sedda, From the Relic to the relics).
Continuing the path, you will come across the ancient Chapter Hall, a place where the nuns gathered in chapter to face the management of daily life as a community. To embellish the room are a series of wooden seats from the 18th century, two frescoes that close the room on the short sides and two canvases positioned in the center of the long walls.

The frescoed scene on the north wall, by an unknown artist, represents The Holy Trinity, a work of the seventeenth century, while on the south wall, also by an unknown artist, the Virgin of Sorrows is depicted, pierced through the heart by a pain symbolically represented by seven swords that recall , in fact, the seven sorrows of the Virgin evoked by the Gospels: the prophecy of the elderly Simeon on the Child Jesus; the flight into Egypt of the Holy Family; the loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple; the meeting of Mary and Jesus along the Via Crucis; Mary at the foot of the cross while Jesus is crucified; Mary who welcomes dead Jesus into her arms; Mary who sees Jesus buried.
The canvas on the west wall, from the 17th century, represents a crowned Nobleman seated on a throne (the crown and the paper cutter with the lily may refer to either the local Farnese family or the Medici family or even the French royal family of the Valois). On the opposite side is another 17th century canvas with the scene of the Flagellation.
In the center of the ceiling a fresco dating back to the sixteenth century with the depiction of the Coronation of the Virgin.
Going down a short flight of stairs you have access to the Ancient Choir: a place where the nuns gathered in prayer and now the Alcantarine Franciscan nuns open the doors so that the faithful can live moments of prayer with them: Holy Mass, praises and vespers. The furniture of the choir is all in wood and is from the end of the 16th century or the beginning of the following one and was made by the will of canon Scacciaricci. The stained glass window in the choir dates back to the 1980s and was made by the Roman Guarnieri placed towards the east and depicts the patron saints of this holy place: the Virgin Mary, St. Francis, St. Clare and two nuns who symbolize consecrated life.
From the chapter house you enter the Ancient Refectory (17th century), characterized by a large room covered by barrel vaults, in which the contemporary wooden stalls prepared by unknown artists are preserved. Both the wooden canteens and the large fresco that closes the hall on the south side with the subject of the Last Supper dated A.D. date back to the same period. M.DGXI, closed at the top by the writing inside a cartouche: SACRUM CONVIVIUM DD; and the other on the opposite side with the scene of the Madonna with Child and Saints made by unknown artists above this a scroll houses the inscription FONSICEMENTUM PERENNIS. Also unknown are the wooden ciborium placed in the center of the long side of the hall and the fresco in the lunette above with the Assumption of Christ into heaven. In the center of the vault a heraldic coat of arms overpainted with the weapon of Cardinal Muti.
Tradition has it that the perimeter walls of the refectory were placed on the old castle of Frederick II. At the moment, access to these premises is not open to the public, as the room has been declared uninhabitable by the competent authorities.
The ancient refectory leads to the hall of columns – so called because of the mighty columns in the center of the hall. At the moment the room is under restoration and not accessible. From here it is possible to access the upper floor, the 15th century hall, characterized by a large rectangular room supported by four large pointed arches in peperino, with a roof made of wooden beams and terracotta tiles. Even these places are not, for the moment, open to the public. Fragments of frescoes emerge from the whitewashed walls of the room. On the left side a Madonna with Child of the fifteenth century, on the right side, around a rectangular niche, which presumably served as a sacred olea, a fake architecture with floral spirals. At the beginning of the large rectangular room, on the right side, there is a door above which we find a fresco that reproduces an epigraph on fake marble that shows:
PRED. NONAS. SEPTEMBRIS MDCCCLV6 / QUOD. PIUS. IX PONT. MAX. / IN HAC. CELL / ONE. CUM. IV. CARDINAL. ET COENOBEI ABATISSA / MIRA. ORIS. ET. ADLOQUII. FAMILIARITATE [. ] / [. ST] [C] ENIACULUS REFECCBIT / NE. LOC: DECUS. SNTES [… ST ..] / SANCTIMONIALES [ACE]
Next to the epigraph, there is a fresco with a Madonna and Child from the 18th century, not to be related to the 19th century inscription.

Once past the wooden door at the entrance, past a flight of stairs, we find a loggia / corridor, characterized by a colonnade that opens to the left towards the cloister and a roof with cross vaults completely frescoed with plant and rose motifs. in 1787 as attested in the lunette above the portal (ANNO MDCCLXXXVII), which leads to the different rooms of the monastery.
On the left of the loggia / corridor is the cloister. The garden, built in a rhomboid shape, preserves a peperino fountain in the center, with a larger square polylobed cup. A peliche column stands in the center of the fountain, decorated with a fish scale motif, above which is the smaller cup with a circular section. From this, two floral rose decorations and two female faces opposite each other in the external flare in the four cardinal points, retain as many spouts from which the water flows into the cup below. The fountain probably dates back to the reconstruction work that involved the church in 1646 (Piana Agostinetti, Fontane, pp. 106, 114). Large peperino roses are obtained on the ground in the four paths leading to the fountain. Regular hedges, trees and a rose garden delimit the two paths in the cloister that intersect with the fountain in the center.
To the right of the carriage door of the monastery is the Sala del Pellegrino used to welcome groups and give hospitality to pilgrims, temporarily closed to the public for imminent restoration work. The renovation of the premises adjacent to said room will also begin shortly, where a museum center will be set up. The monastery is surrounded by terraced gardens where all kinds of roses bloom and where all kinds of fruit trees have been planted.
In the convent garden, located on the east side, we find another fountain, stylistically referable to the seventeenth century. There is no documentation of this either (Piana Agostinetti, Fontane, pp. 106, 114). Made of peperino, it is composed of two overlapping cups. At the base, four lion paws support the whole structure. Above two sloping cups. The largest is decorated with a simple lobed hem in the flare. The second, smaller, has a simple decoration made with four roses positioned at the top, from which, in the center of each, comes the torch that supplies the water to the pool below. At the top, the decoration is closed by a sort of overturned lily on the top of which a small rose is carved. Also in the garden on the north-east side, we find a series of small chapels built close to the city wall against the perimeter walls.
Attached to the internal access of the convent, we find the laundry rooms (washhouse and drying room). On the terrace below, on the south side, a large round basin, perhaps once used as a container / cistern – alloy for the distribution of water and for the crops that once existed at the monastery.
At the monastic complex of Santa Rosa da Viterbo there is also an exhibition space on the tradition and worship of Santa Rosa where it is possible to buy gadgets: the Casa di Santa Rosa, which has now become the Casa di Santa Rosa Museum. There are some documents preserved in the archive of the monastery to inform that only in 1661 was purchased by the nuns what was already referred to as the house of Santa Rosa, a pilgrimage destination since the fifteenth century (Signorelli, Santa Rosa p. 224; Casagrande-Rava , Santa Rosa and the phenomenon of confinement, p. 1023). This place of devotion has remained unchanged over time. Today those small blackened rooms are dedicated to meditation and prayer. The small garden leads to the house consisting of two small rooms on the ground floor and a small room on the first floor.Several works are exhibited inside, including a wooden statue of Saint Rose laminated in gold, a reliquary box, numerous religious testimonies, vestments and sacred furnishings, chalices, reliquaries, candlesticks; there are also numerous ex-votos in silver, painted on canvas, on tablet or in the form of sketches depicting the life of Santa Rosa (see Rava-Sedda, For grace received). One of the two small rooms was used as a chapel with the construction of a small altar where Holy Mass is occasionally celebrated.
Lastly, but of fundamental importance is the Archive of the monastery of Santa Rosa, a precious and unlimited container of documents and objects related to the cult of the Saint. Since 2011 the archive has been protected by the Centro Studi Santa Rosa da Viterbo Onlus, an association that was born with the primary purpose of protecting and enhancing the Archive of the monastery of Santa Rosa in Viterbo, giving impetus to art and culture and promoting historical research on the Saint, on the monastery that takes its name from her, as well as on the social, political and religious history of Viterbo (centrostudisantarosa.org).

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abate G., S. Rosa da Viterbo, terziaria francescana (1233-1251), Roma 1952
Andreucci A. G., Notizie Critico-Istoriche dell’Ammirabile S. Rosa Virgine Viterbese, Roma 1750
Beaufays p. I., Sante Rose de Viterbe: Propagandiste de L’A.C., Bruxelles 1937
Cappelli S., Santa Rosa: tradizione e culto (3 voll.), Manziana 1999, 2000, 2001
*Casagrande G., Da ?sorores minores’ a monastero di Santa Rosa, Centro Studi Santa Rosa in corso di stampa.
Casagrande G. – Rava E., Santa Rosa e il fenomeno della reclusione urbana a Viterbo, in Hagiologica: studi per Règinald Grégoire, ed. A. Bartolomei Romagnoli – U. Paoli – P. Piatti Fabriano 2012, pp. 1017-1032.
Cenci P., Rosa: Eroica, Giovanetta, Santa, Viterbo 1981.
Clarisse del Monastero di Santa Rosa, Santuario di Santa Rosa, Viterbo s.d.
Coretini P., Istoria della Vita di S. Rosa, Virgine Viterbese, Viterbo 1702
Farperdue G., La Santa dei Viterbesi, Grotte di Castro (Viterbo) 2002
Finzi A. – Gonzales Redondo P., Sulle tracce di santa Rosa. Diario di viaggio in Spagna, Viterbo 2014
Kerval L. de, Saint Rose: sa vie et son temps, Paris 1896
Menestò E., Rosa da Viterbo, in Il grande Libro dei Santi. Dizionario Enciclopedico, diretto da C. Leonardi, Cinisello Balsamo 1998, pp. 1742-1747
Pellegrini p. S., Santa Rosa e il suo Monastero, Padova 1967
Piacentini p. E., Il libro dei Miracoli di Santa Rosa da Viterbo, Roma 1991
Piana Agostinetti C., Fontane a Viterbo, 1985
Plens f. U., Santa Rosa de Viterbo, «Cadernos Franciscanos» ano VI, n. 1, fascículo 29 (1980)
*Rava E. – Sedda F., Dalla Reliquia alle reliquie: la santità di Rosa visibile e tangibile, Viterbo 2012
*Rava E. – Sedda F., Per Grazia Ricevuta. Le tavolette votive di santa Rosa, Viterbo 2013
*Rava E. – Sedda F., Santa Rosa nei libri, nei documenti, nelle immagini, Viterbo 2011
Rava E., Santa Rosa: la misericordia nel tessuto cittadino, in La Misericordia: da frate Francesco al francescanesimo, Assisi 2016, pp. 73-87
Rava E., Bella memoria anticha, Viterbo 2016
Signorelli M., Santa Rosa da Viterbo, Viterbo 1963
Vacca A. M., La menta e la croce. Santa Rosa da Viterbo, Roma 1982
*Vauchez A., Rosa una santa per la città, Viterbo 2015

The works preceded by * are published for the types of Centro Studi Santa Rosa da Viterbo Onlus.

Sources for the reconstruction of the life of Saint Rosa

(Rava-Sedda, Santa Rosa in the books)
1) Title: Vita I
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Diplomatico s.n.
Period: second half of the 13th century.
The so-called Vita I was written by an anonymous man in the mid-13th century, as confirmed by the compositional style and the language. It is preserved in a single parchment fragment, mutilated in its beginning and its end, preserved in the Archives of the monastery of Santa Rosa. This Vita is rather concise, without too much emphasis and quite plausible. Given the author’s temporal proximity to the facts narrated, Life I was not contaminated either by hagiographic rhetoric or by the improbability of popular tradition. It contains the last part of the life of Saint Rosa and some miracles she worked in life (see E. Piacentini, The book of miracles, pp. 46-48; Abate, Santa Rosa, pp. 139-58) .

2) Title: Vita II
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, ms. 2 palch. 7 n. 163, cc. 57-74
Period: first half of the 15th century.
The so-called Vita II was composed by an anonymous in the first half of the fifteenth century and is preserved in the original Latin version within the Callist process in cc. 57-74. The critical edition was edited by Father Abate and the Italian translation by Paolo Cenci. All subsequent biographies are based on it. The author does not strictly adhere to ancient sources, but amplifies and transforms them to the detriment of historical truth (see E. Piacentini, The book of miracles, p. 48; Abate, Santa Rosa, pp. 232-53).

To increase devotion: between preaching and literature
(Rava-Sedda, Santa Rosa in the books)

1) Author: Girolamo Vittori
Title: Life of Saint Rosa
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, ms. 2 palch. 2 n. 191
Period: 1616
It is the first biography of the Saint written in the Italian vernacular. The author, a canon from Viterbo, composed her life in 1616 and dedicated it to the nuns of the monastery of the Poor Clares of Viterbo, of whom he was confessor. Life is unpublished and includes 46 rather short chapters in which she tells of her life, of the process of canonization and above all of post mortem miracles. The sources from which Victor draws are Life II and the Callistian process. The work cannot be considered a critical biography also due to gross errors (see Abate, Santa Rosa, p. 118).

2) Author: Pietro Coretini
Title: Historia di s. Viterbo rose. Collected from her trial and from other authentic memories and composed by Signor Pietro Coretini of Viterbo with five rosaries of pious meditations on the life, death and miracles of the same Saint, in Viterbo, for Diotalleui, 1638
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, C palch. 5 n. 71, 1 Signed B
Period: 1638
The author is a layman and scholar from Viterbo. Life, while presenting very beautiful pages and a fluid and pleasant reading, cannot be considered a critical biography due to an erroneous chronology of the Saint that cannot be reconciled with the documents we know of. The author also indulges in a series of free and imaginative interpretations of the sources. Many subsequent biographies were inspired by it, dragging with him his historical inaccuracies (cf. Abate, Santa Rosa, pp. 119-20).

3) Author: Pietro Coretini
Title: History of the life of St. Viterbo virgin rose. Collected from her trial, and from other authentic memories, already described by Mr. Pietro Coretini in this second revised impression, and enhanced by new miracles, and other notable things, in Viterbo, in the printing house of Giulio de ‘Giulii, 1702.
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, C palch. 5 n. 70-1, Signed Period: 1702.
The second edition of Coretini was glossed in the margin with bibliographic references that tried to correct the inaccuracies of the first edition. However, this second edition shows the great diffusion and interest that Coretini’s biography aroused, which certainly influenced the construction of the image of the Saint in the hearts of his fellow citizens.

4) Author: Giovanni Selli
Title: Life and miracles of the Virgin Saint Rose of Viterbo. Historical-sacred compendium of doctor Giovanni Selli, Viterbo, by Camillo Tosoni, 1828
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, C palch. 6 n. 74-1, Signed B
Period: 1828
The author is a doctor from Viterbo, who draws heavily on Coretini’s biography. The declared purpose of this work is to increase devotion to the Saint, which is why the author prefers the description of the miraculous graces of the Virgin from Viterbo and the spread of the cult in Viterbo and beyond (cfr. Abate, Santa Rosa, 123 ).

5) Author: Mons. Antonio Briganti
Title: S. Rosa di Viterbo and her century, Venice, Emilian Typography, 1889
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, D palch. 8 n. 9, Signed A
Period: 1889
It is an uplifting narrative for apologetic and moral purposes, of considerable interest for the knowledge of the time in which the Saint lived. The historical information on Rosa was then common and all second-hand (cf. Abate, Santa Rosa, p. 126).

6) Author: p. Girolamo da Rassina, o.f.m. Postal Code.
Title: Santa Rosa da Viterbo the prodigy girl, Viterbo 1945
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Moderno s.n.
Period: 1945
The subtitle indicates that the author’s purpose is to present the cult and miracles of the Saint from Viterbo (see Abate, Santa Rosa, p. 128).

7) Author: prof. C. ° Francesco Felli
Title: Wreath of poetic flowers to the heroine of Viterbo Santa Rosa, Viterbo 1901
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Moderno s.n.
Period: 1901
Author in 1881 of a translation of a hymn by Prudentius in praise of St. Ippolito martyr and in 1893 of a guide to the Borghese Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore, in 1897 he composed the lyric drama Santa Rosa di Viterbo, set to music by Ernesto Guerra and in 1901 the work on display, Serto di fiori poetici.

8) Author: Maria Castiglione Humani
Title: Rose from Viterbo. The holy warrior, Rome 1941
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Moderno s.n.
Period: 1941
She is a learned and sensitive Franciscan writer, she is the author of numerous biographies on holy women including, in addition to Rosa from Viterbo, Angela from Foligno, Francesca Romana, Chiara da Montefalco and others.

The ‘critical’ biographies: nineteenth and twentieth centuries
(Rava-Sedda, Santa Rosa in the books)

9) Author: Bassiano Sbigatti
Title: Life of Saint Rosa virgin from Viterbo of the Third Order of Saint Francis brought in an increased compendium of annotations, and an appendix on the year of her blessed death by Bassiano Sbigatti priest from Palermo dedicated to the noble woman Agata Lambertini Selvi, in Viterbo , for Domenico Antonio Zenti, 1772
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, C palch. 6 n. 72, Signed B
Period: 1772
The author, a priest from Palermo, wrote this biography with purity of language and clarity of expression. The chronology established critically by the Bollandist fathers follows. At the end of the work he composes a hymn to the Saint in Latin, also providing the translation into Italian (see Abate, Santa Rosa, p. 123).

10) Author: Bernardino Mencarini
Title: Tales of the life of the prodigies and the cult of the Virgin Saint Rose of Viterbo exhibited by Bernardino Mencarini, Viterbo, in the Poggiarelli printing house, 1828
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, C box 6 n. 73, Signed B
Period: 1828
Serious work and deserving of praise for the critical rigor and historical sense of its author. The author also has the merit of placing the biographical story of the Saint in the historical context of Viterbo (see Abate, Santa Rosa, p. 124).

11) Author: Filippo Monaci
Title: Life of the Virgin Saint Rose of Viterbo described by Fr. Filippo Monaci, Frascati, Tip. Tuscolana, 1889
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, C palch. 6 n. 76, Signed B
Period: 1889
The author is a Jesuit from Viterbo; his biography was remarkably successful as evidenced by the various reprints. He intends to leave out folk tales with no historical foundation in favor of a more critical biography, while not being free from inaccuracies, as the Abbot notes. Noteworthy is the appendix added in the 1889 reprint, which deals with the cult of the Saint (see Abate, Santa Rosa, p. 124).

12) Author: Anonymous
Title: Life of Virgin Saint Rose of Viterbo, Viterbo, Tip. Donati and Garbini, 1895
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Antico, C palch. 6 n. 75, Signed B.
Period: 1895
Despite the purely pietistic character, the biography of the Saint from Viterbo is very good for those times (cf. Abate, Santa Rosa, p. 126).

13) Author: Gavino Polo
Title: Rosa, Viterbo 1948
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Moderno s.n.
Period: 1948
Viterbo painter attentive to the conservation of the earth’s cultural heritage through his art and explanatory and conservative interventions of collective memory.

14) Author: Fausta Casolini
Title: The seraphic s. Rosa da Viterbo, Rome 1952
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Moderno s.n.
Period: 1952
In addition to the figure of Rosa, the author has dedicated several essays to Franciscan topics.

15) Author: p. Giuseppe Abate o.f.m.conv.
Title: St. Rose of Viterbo, Franciscan Tertiary (1233-1251). Historical sources of life and their critical review, Rome 1952
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Moderno s.n.
Period: 1952
The Friar Minor Conventuale, historian of the Order, engages in a critical essay in which, in addition to the historical reconstruction of the chronology of the Saint, he presents and edits for the first time in a single collection the primary sources on the Virgin of Viterbo.

Far from viterbo: Santa Rosa in the world
(Rava-Sedda, Santa Rosa in the books)

16) Author: Abbè D. Barascud
Title: Sainte Rose de Viterbe, Paris, Librairie Ch. Poussielgue, 1862
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Moderno s.n.
Period: 1862
The biography was written in a pleasant and devoted style, although it does not lack some historical imperfections. The author knows the main bibliography of the time, as demonstrated by drawing on various works (see Abate, Santa Rosa, p. 125).

17) Author: L. de Kerval
Title: Santa Rosa from Viterbo. Italian translation published by the Superior Council of the G.F.C.I., Milan 1921.
Location: Viterbo, Monastery of Santa Rosa, Fondo Moderno s.n.
Period: 1921
It is judged by Abate as the best biographical text, even if it does not lack some inaccuracies on the chronology. While not bringing new sources, he uses those known and published, exposing them with brevity and clarity. The French edition dates back to 1896, the Italian translation is by the Superior Council of the Italian Catholic Women’s Youth (see Abate, Santa Rosa, 126-27).

18) Author: Friar Minor Manoel do Sepulchro
Title: Rosa franciscana. Treated by prodigious vida da virgem s. Rosa de Viterbo, filha professa da veneravel ordem Terceira da Penitencia de N.P. seraphico s. Francisco, Lisboa, Na Officina de Antonio Rodriguez d’Abrev, 1673.
Location: Private collection
Period: 1673
Friar Minor (1592-1674) wore the habit in 1613. Life is divided into two parts, the second of which serves to corroborate what was told in the first part a little too imaginatively.

San Paolo dei Cappuccini Provincial Library

Biblioteca provinciale San Paolo dei Cappuccini <Viterbo>