CHIESA DI TUTTI I SANTI

ALL SAINTS CHURCH

Another very old church in Bomerano is the one named All Saints, to which the archbishop of Amalfi, Angelo Pico, donated around 1640 the relics of Saints: Francis Xavier, Ignatius, Filippo Neri, Abbondio, Ponziano, Severino, Candido, Giusto, Fausto, Placido, Concordo and Platilla.

Scarce and fragmentary are the documents concerning the foundation and evolution of the church named after All Saints. It would seem to have already existed in the second half of the 15th century, when there was probably a chapel or small church where the Virgin was worshipped.

From the time of its alleged origin, dated around the 15th century due to the discovery of a fragment of a fresco, which about two centuries later was preciously recovered and preserved, there is no evidence until the 19th century. The creation of the wooden roof, and other interventions related to it, can be attributed to that century. Recently, a restoration has been completed that has enhanced the building in its entirety. In 1709 the church’s property was administered by 4 lay governors elected one for each hamlet ob devotionem Universitatis, which had the patronage.

Description and artwork

Period: unsure

The church of All Saints dominates, from his position on the square by the same name, above a high parvis, rectangular in shape, accessible by a wide flight of steps. It stands in All Saints site, an area of expansion with respect to the historic center of the hamlet of Bomerano di Agerola.

The church preserves the precious fragment of a fresco depicting the Mary of All Graces attributed to a late Gothic painter whose painting was influenced stylistically by Giovanni da Gaeta. The fresco at first was detached with a fragment from the underlying wall and placed by the painter Michele Ragolia, in 1625, in the panel depicting St. Peter Pope and Saints.
The nave features in the center of the ceiling a modest canvas dated 1805 depicting Our Lady of the Rosary between St. Dominic and St. Rose; the painting is important because it depicts members of the Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary, which is still active today.

The valuable 19th-century wooden ceiling decorated with clusters was recovered in the last two decades following a restoration that discovered it below a mediocre canvas depicting lives of saints.