The shrine of the Sacred Heart is a monumental church in Castellammare di Stabia, in the hamlet of Scanzano, on the hill, and holds the remains of Blessed Maria Maddalena Starace.
What to see
After founding the congregation of the Compassionist Sisters Servants of Mary, Sister Maria Maddalena Starace, born Costanza, wished to build a convent in which to work with her sisters. The first seat was an apartment belonging to her father, the commissioner Francesco Starace, moved in 1870 to a rented one, soon inadequate. On 3 February 1895 Bishop Vincenzo Sarnelli laid the first stone of the convent, which was to be flanked by a shrine dedicated to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Sorrows; the work, directed by the engineer Antonio Vitelli, took much longer than expected because of bureaucratic and economic problems and the temple was consecrated on 5 October 1908 by Bishop Michele De Jorio. The façade is divided into three zones: a central one, higher and projecting, in two orders with Corinthian pilasters and a decorated pediment, and two lower lateral ones, joined to it by volutes. The entrance portal is of bronze, with ten chiselled panels bearing the arms of the Pope, of the cardinal protector of the Compassionists and of the bishops of the time, the images of the Sacred Heart and of Our Lady of Sorrows and four panels in Renaissance style; above it opens a large window with a depiction of Maria Maddalena Starace.
The interior has three naves, separated by two series of three arches with communicating chapels; the barrel vault of the central nave, in five compartments, has at the centre a fresco of the Crucifixion by Vincenzo Galloppi. The three chapels on the right are dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Good Counsel and Saint Philip Benizi, the three on the left to the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite order, the Passing of Saint Joseph and the Souls in Purgatory; the frescoes in the chapels are by Galloppi, of the nineteen-tens. The raised apse has the painting of the Sacred Heart by Roberto Scognamiglio, which gives the church its name. A portal at the end of the right aisle leads to the chapel in which, in a marble urn, since 1929, rest the remains of Blessed Maria Maddalena Starace.
Visiting
The shrine is at Scanzano, in the hill area of Castellammare di Stabia, beside the convent of the Compassionist Sisters; the bell tower, a recent one, was inaugurated on 1 April 2006 and has five bells cast at Vittorio Veneto. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
Under the table of the high altar is a bronze reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper; in the sacristy are kept five paintings of prophets in the style of Luca Giordano, perhaps of the eighteenth century, and an artistic wardrobe and a wooden pulpit of 1910.
