Church of San Giovanni di Malta - Messina, Italy
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 38° 11.943 E 015° 33.397
33S E 548737 N 4228046
Church of San Giovanni di Malta is located at Via San Giovanni di Malta and Via Placida in Messina, Italy
Waymark Code: WM11THT
Location: Sicilia, Italy
Date Posted: 12/17/2019
Views: 4
The Church of San Giovanni di Malta was founded in 535 AD, when St. Benedict of Norcia sent the young monk Placido to Messina to found the first monastery of the Benedictine Order of Sicily. In 541 A. D., the building was destroyed by the invasion of a Saracen army, killing Placido and his brothers.
In 1086 King Roger II of Sicily gave the land and ruins of the church to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. In 1113, a Papal Bull issued by Pope Paschal II approved and confirmed the possessions of the church by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The Knights made Messina this church their home from 1086 to 1806.
In 1588, the Knights commissioned Jacopo del Duca (1520-1600) to rebuild the church. San Giovanni di Malta was the seat and Grand Magisterium of the Sicilian branch of the Knights of St. John of Rhodes and later of Malta.
The earthquakes of 1783 and 1908 destroyed parts of the church other parts remain until today. After the 1908 earthquake a neo-Baroque façade designed by the architect Cesare Bazzani was added, in 1913, to the side of the church on on Via Placida as part of the the construction of the surrounding government building.
Name of Military Order: Knights Hospitaller
Link documenting charitable acts: [Web Link]
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