San Demetrio Megalomartire

Here's the parish church of San Demetrio. It's Greek Catholic, and the liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is said in Greek with the readings, Creed and Our Father in Italian. As always, click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Sunday morning. All of the women sit up front, the men sit in the back. Since they are Mediterranean men, they also spill out of the front doors and tend to have a smoke during the homily. You can see that the church has a wierd Byzantine yet Baroque decor going on, and that is the result of changes by alternating Italo-Romanophile priests and Grecophile priests.

Here's the icon screen. It's different than what I've seen elsewhere, because it's not made from wood, but rather concrete (like the rest of San Demetrio) and has mosaics on it instead of painted icons. Very nicely done.

On a side altar in the church (because it's Italy). However, a very nice icon.

A side chapel, of which there were quite a few. This one is much more Roman, and has a ton of gaudy Baroque stucchi everywhere. There's the ubiquitous statue of San Francesco di Paola on the left of the altar, he's a big local saint.

And the icon of San Nilo. He was born in Rossano, which is nearby, and his hermitage was right outside of San Demetrio. He did not found the Abbey of San Nilo in Grottaferrata, it was founded by his followers after his death.