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S. Niccolò di Matigge

The church is not quite as isolated as it looks, only 50 meters or so from the single street of old Matigge — a short walk past the roses:

The window over the door of the church. St. Nicholas is also the patron of stonemasons.

This little rural chapel is dedicated to the good bishop St. Nicholas of Myra: to an Italian that's S. Nicola di Bari — and to most Americans, he's Santa Claus. (If this is news to you, this useful page gives a fairly comprehensive run-down on his life and miracles.) St. Nicholas is almost always represented as a bishop, wearing his episcopal robes and carrying his crozier; in medieval art in fact, he is by far the most commonly represented bishop. He's known mainly as the patron saint of Bari, on the Adriatic seacoast hundreds of miles from here, and of sailors, perfumers and — this has nothing to do with rural Umbria, why did they raise him a chapel here?

The question is one to which nobody has any answer, but we can put forth a few guesses:

• The miracle of the pickled children — I told you that page might be useful — led to his being adopted by barrel-makers and, right behind them, by wine merchants. Since we're only about five miles E of Montefalco, home to the best wine in Umbria, St. Nicholas would fit in well.

• Early on, St. Nicholas somehow became the patron saint of travelers: this may be our best connection. At just 800 m from the Via Flaminia, this little church overlooks the busiest road in Umbria, probably still in our own time, and certainly in the Middle Ages when it was the main route from Rome to NE Italy and Venice: this may be a wayfarers' chapel.

• Failing these ideas, another possibility: the most famous story about S. Nicholas, the reason for which he ultimately became associated with Christmas, is that he stepped in anonymously to provide dowries for a poor man's three daughters. How many generations of Umbrian farmers during the course of the Middle Ages must have had daughters and worried who would take care of them! I too would have prayed to S. Nicola.

In fact there are many churches dedicated to him in this part of Umbria; this particular one was built in the last decade of the 12th century. For once, this isn't guesswork: the parchment recording the church's consecration still exists, bearing the date 1195.

[ 3 pages, 8 photos ] The interior of S. Niccolò is very plain, but over the centuries some beautiful frescoes have been added to its walls; now endangered by water from a leaky roof, unfortunately.

And it always bears repeating: the façade of a church is not the only part worth looking at. Walk around the building: it just takes a minute, and who knows what you'll see.

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