COMMENDATORE DI SANTO SPIRITO. — It is the title of a prelature instituted by Leone X on Dec. 15, 1515, for the preceptor of S. Spirito, who thus lost his ca-
The c. di S. S. is now no more than the Primicerio of the venerable Arciconfraternita di S. Spirito in Sassia, but still retains certain honorary privileges, such as the right to affix a double white cross to the left side of the mantelletta of his prelatial habit and to quarter his family coat of arms with this double cross and the image of the Holy Spirit (the radiant Dove with outspread wings).
The prelate c. di S. S. has a place in the pontifical chapel after the protonotaries apostolic, taking precedence over the Reggente della Cancelleria, the abbots «nullius», and the abbots general of the Canons Regular.
The distant origins of this prelature date back to the hospice-school founded by Anglo-Saxon sovereigns as early as the beginning of the 8th century for pilgrims of the Anglo-Saxon nation, whence the designation In Saxia for the locality where the church of S. Maria entrusted to them stood. Like the other scholae that arose in the vicinity of the Vatican basilica, that of the Saxons also underwent a period of decline after the Carolingian period, until Innocenzo III, to meet needs that were growing more severe, founded on the site a hospital for the sick and to shelter foundlings who were perishing miserably, entrusting its care to the order of the hospitallers of the Holy Spirit, which had arisen in Montpellier. Hence the name of the hospital of S. Spirito in Sassia.
With the const. Inter opera of 19 June 1204, by which he summoned these hospitallers to Roma, Innocenzo III established that the hospital of S. Spirito in Roma should head those that the said hospitallers would subsequently erect, and that consequently the preceptor of Roma should be their head general. When nuns were later also instituted
COMMENDATORE DI S. SPIRITO - COMMER ERNST
hospitaller nuns of the Holy Spirit, the jurisdiction of this preceptor was extended over them. A trace of this preceptory and abbatial dignity is still preserved in the ceremonial formula used by the Holy Father in conferring the mantelletta upon the newly elected c.: Esto praecceptor generalis Ordinis S. Spiritus. Like the major offices of other hospitaller orders, that of preceptor of S. Spirito was also granted in commendam, until Leo X made this commenda permanent with the creation of the prelature, which entailed the duty for the prelate to care for the hospital. And the popes of the Counter-Reformation took care to confer it upon figures who knew how to attend to their duties. The fine palace that Gregorio XIII, between 1572 and 1585, had built next to the beautiful church of S. Spirito is proof of the importance that the c. had acquired in the Curia.
This prelature retained its supremacy over all the hospices of the Order for several centuries, until Benedetto XIV, with the constitution « Saepe Romanorum » of 5 Apr. 1741, in consideration of the great distance of some of these hospices from Rome, decreed the termination of the c.'s jurisdiction over them and subjected them to the authority of the Ordinaries.
After the Napoleonic occupation, the office of the c. di S. S. was re-established, with the appointment as president of the Deputazione, instituted by Pio VII on 13 Nov. 1821, to administer and govern the hospitals of Rome. When this Deputazione was dissolved by Pio VIII in 1829, the c. di S. S. continued his office with respect to the hospital in Sassia.
With the capture of Rome, the c. di S. S., deprived of all activity, was reduced to the enjoyment of the privileges inherent to the prelature.