St Mark's English Church, Florence

Saint Mark's English Church is an Anglican church in Florence, Italy.

St Mark's English Church, exterior

The church forms part of the chaplaincy[lower-alpha 1] of St Mark's Florence with St Peter's Siena, which also includes a congregation in Bologna, in the Diocese in Europe of the Church of England.[1]

The chaplain is Father William Lister.[2] The average congregation is about 150. The church ministers to the homeless in Florence. It is also used for classical music concerts and opera, with a resident opera company.[3]

History

St Mark's was founded by the Reverend Charles Tooth as a centre of worship for Anglo-Catholic members of the Anglican Church in Florence. He started a house church at 1 Via dei Serragli in 1877 to teach Anglo-Catholic principles and celebrate the Holy Eucharist daily during the week. In 1880,[4] Tooth purchased a 15th-century palazzo to meet the new congregation's needs. John Roddam Spencer Stanhope designed and created the wall and ceiling decorations at his own expense.[5] The first Holy Eucharist was celebrated there on 1 May 1881, although chaplain and church were not licensed for service by the bishop until 1884.[6] The premises were extended by the purchase of 16 Via Maggio in 1906.[7]

The church was damaged by the 1966 Flood of the Arno River, resulting in the loss of George Frederick Bodley's 19th-century stencil work on the lower walls, although some survived behind a display cabinet.[8]

St. Mark's was the second Anglican church to be built in Florence. The British community in Florence has a long history[9] and the chaplaincy began in the late 1820s. The first church, Holy Trinity, opened in the 1840s. Rebuilt in the 1890s, Trinity Church on the Via Lamarmara, is today a Waldensian Church.

Architecture
Interior: nave and altar

Exterior

The white marble statue in the niche over the main door is Apotheosis of Saint Mark (2007–8) by Jason Arkles.[10] This is the first work by an American sculptor to have a permanent public location in Florence.[11]

Interior

The building was altered by Tooth, who turned the ground floor into a church with nave, aisles, transept and chancel, about 90 feet (27 m) long[4] and seating 400.[3] The interior is decorated in the Pre-Raphaelite style and the upper reaches of the church have floral motifs with, as described by art historian Berenice Schreiner, "a wonderful sense of naturalism".[4]

Notes
  1. A chaplaincy in this context is rather like a parish but with a more fluid membership. In this case it mainly serves three groups of English speakers: expatriates, students and tourists in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, with participants often travelling long distances.[lower-alpha 2]

References
  1. "Chaplaincy". Florence: St Mark's English Church. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  2. "Staff and Ministry". Florence: St Mark's English Church. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  3. Brucato, Haley (11 April 2013). "More than Meets the Eye". The Florentine (181). Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  4. Schreiner 2001, p. 90.
  5. Schreiner 2001, p. 90: quoting Varty, H. A. (1934). A Short History of St Mark's English Church. Unpublished. p. 15.
  6. Mittler 2011, p. 49.
  7. "History". Florence: St Mark's English Church. Archived from the original on 12 July 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  8. Schreiner 2001, pp. 90–91.
  9. Mittler 2007.
  10. "Apotheosis Of Saint Mark". Monuments. Jason Arkles. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  11. "Modern Art in Florence". LdM News. Florence: Lorenzo de' Medici School. Retrieved 3 July 2013.

Citations

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