Fenestella Confessionis

FENESTELLA CONFESSIONIS. - Both in block altars and in chest altars there is sometimes found a rectangular opening faced with marble that allowed objects to be brought close to the tomb or to the relics. One of the oldest certain examples is offered by the chest altar erected over the tomb of the martyrs in the basilica of St. Alexander on the Nomentana.

Other examples are those in block altars, as in the cemetery of Pamphilus and in S. Maria Antiqua and in S. Maria in Via Lata in Rome, in the crypt of St. Asprenus in Naples, in the church of St. Peter in Bagnacavallo, in the cathedral of Parenzo, etc., in the basilica of the martyrs at Cimitile, etc. In semi-annular confessions there are sometimes found two f. c., one in the altar of the crypt, the other in the altar of the raised presbytery.

But the f. could also be the one that allowed prayer directly over the tomb of the martyr, as is learned from St. Gregory of Tours regarding the tomb of St. Peter in the Vatican: whoever wishes to pray, once the grilles that protect it have been opened, enters over the tomb and thus «f. parvula patefacta, immisso intrersum cepite, quae necessitas prompt effagitat» (In gloria martyrum, 27: MGH, Scriptores verum Meroving, I, p. 504). The same author describes a similar f. c. in the basilica of Sts. Venerandus and Nepotianus at Clermont (De gloria confessorum, 38: PL 71, 858). Sozomen writes that in the upper part of the confession of the Martyrs of Sebaste there was a foramen, that is, the equivalent of a f. c.

Enrico Josi