Living Stones Group Bologna
Contact: Giovanni Accetta, Joseph Marelli, Smeralda Riggio and Andrea Lalli – bo.pietrevive@gmail.com
Free Guided Visits
Basilica di Santo Stefano
3:30 pm – 6:00 pm
October 5 and 19, 2024
November 9 and 16, 2024
December 14, 2024
January 18 and 25, 2025
February 1 and 15, 2025
March 1 and 15, 2025
April 5 and 12, 2025
May 10 and 17, 2025
June 14, 2025
Our Communities
On a Saturday afternoon, at the church of Santo Stefano in Bologna, you may meet a funny group of young people offering free guided tours. If you win the shyness, the diffidence and the fear you will discover the history and the symbols of this church and unexpectedly a places where you can find yourself. The Bologna’s community is the first Living Stone Group. It was born in the autumn of 2008 after the experience in the Church of Il Gesù, in the middle of the Ignatian Rome. In the 2009 the group firm itself and take shape in the prayer and the study of the art history. Having to interrupt the service in Santo Stefano during 2011, the group decided to continue faithfully its activity in the byzantine Ravenna. Now the guided tours are both in Ravenna and Bologna and there are two communities, one for each city. We are today a small group of young people from twenty to thirty years old. Everyone of us studied different subjects, but we are all brought together by the passion for announcing the Gospel using the voice of artworks.
The Church of Santo Stefano is also known as Sette Chiese or Gerusalemme Bolognese. According to hagiography, bishops Ambrogio and Petronio promoted the building of the first Christian complex on the rests of a Roman temple dedicated to Isis. Even today the sanctuary keeps on with the medieval liturgies during the Holy Week.The name of Jerusalem is linked to the church since the Middle Age when Benedictines started to build a reproduction of the Holy Sepulchre. One of the most important artwork in the church is the cross by Simone dei Crocifissi, a local artist who depicted Jesus Christ’s suffering humanity in contrast with the golden byzantine background. The all Church is a story of faith, based on different historical symbols: they still talk to us about Resurrection and the surprise of the empty Sepulchre, which people can experience in the Rotonda.
Group Bologna 1
We are a group of university students (18 – 24 years old), we meet at Centro Poggeschi, via Guerrazzi 14/E Bologna, to study Biblical text related to the Church of Santo Stefano and to pray together. For dates and hours of our group meetings please contact bo.pietrevive@gmail.com.
Group Bologna 2
We are a group of young adults (more then 24 years old), we meet at Basilica di Santo Stefano for prayer and formation. For dates and hours of our group meetings please contact bo.pietrevive@gmail.com.