The origins of the present-day Church of Saint Joseph date back to 10 July 1619, when Donna Maria Ruffo, through a notarial deed drawn up in Naples, committed herself to building a convent to be entrusted to the Clerics Regular Ministers of the Sick, also known as the Camillian Fathers, after their founder Saint Camillus de Lellis, or Crociferi, because of the red cross sewn onto the chest of their black cassock and their vow to care for the sick even at the risk of being fatally infected themselves.
By deed of 10 April 1641, through the will of Donna Giovanna Ruffo, the convent was constructed.
The chosen site was the northern end of the Chianalea district, on the location of a pre-existing Byzantine church dedicated to the Most Holy Annunciation of Mary.
The ancient church, enlarged, became the chapel of the convent, and an open portico covered by a system of ribbed vaults was added to it.
On the upper floor were built the clerics’ cells and a loggia. From the account of a pastoral visit dated 13 June 1692, it appears that the church possessed three altars: the high altar, surmounted by an icon depicting the Most Holy Annunciation, and two side altars, one dedicated to the Crucifix and the other to Our Lady of Porto Salvo.
During the first half of the eighteenth century, the priest Giuseppe Bova, a physician and scholar born in Scilla on 24 January 1697, introduced the devotion to Saint Joseph and had a side altar built inside the Church of the Annunziata, above which a bust depicting the Saint was placed.
The priest died as a result of the collapses caused by the earthquake of 1783 and was buried, according to his wishes, inside the church beside the altar of the Holy Patriarch.
The Confraternity of Santa Maria di Porto Salvo was attached to the Church of the Annunziata and, during the second half of the eighteenth century, built a church bearing the same title in the centre of the district.
The painting of the Virgin among Saints Cosmas and Damian was therefore transferred to the new church, while its place on the side altar of the Church of the Annunziata was occupied by a painting depicting Saint Camillus. The convent was damaged by approximately one-third during the earthquake of 1783.
After repairs were completed, construction work on the railway began in the mid-nineteenth century, radically altering the appearance of the northern part of the district.
Much of the convent was demolished, leaving only the church standing. The damage caused by the earthquake of 1908 was concentrated in the upper section of the structure.
A roof entirely made of wood was built, the walls were roughly plastered with cement, and two rectangular windows were opened in the left wall, while the right wall remained without openings. At the far end stood the high altar, whose lower section, excluding the tabernacle, had been constructed in cement and lime, while the upper section was entirely of wood.
The woodworking of the latter was carried out by the craftsman from Scilla, Rocco Paladino, known as “Mastranza,” together with his son, also named Rocco, while the decorations were executed by the Scilla artist Serafino De Franco.
The upper portion of the high altar represented the most important work within the church.
It consisted of four lateral compartments, two on the right and two on the left, separated by small pilasters and surmounted by angels painted on wooden silhouettes holding festoons bearing inscriptions concerning Saint Joseph. Within these compartments were placed four small chandeliers and, beneath them, four illuminated lanterns, Gothic in style and likewise made of wood.
At the centre stood the principal niche which, shaped like a small dome surmounted by a cross, enclosed an ancient oval print depicting the Holy Patriarch.
In 1996 restoration and artistic refurbishment of the church interior began.
These works very skilfully aimed at recovering the original architectural forms.
The original lines reappeared: arches and brick pilasters alternating with brick parastades supporting the cornice.
The original lines reappeared: arches and brick pilasters alternating with brick parastades supporting the cornice.
The front section of the building constitutes the only surviving testimony of the ancient portico connected to the convent. Particularly beautiful is the tuff-stone portal leading into the liturgical hall.
It features two twisted columns intertwined with vegetal stems, Corinthian capitals, and, at either side, two angels indicating the entrance. The church, renamed Saint Joseph by popular devotion, has a single nave. The left wall consists of five brick pilasters with tuff bases and capitals, interrupted by two large niches containing oval windows framed by bricks, and by a small central niche with a brick vault.
The right wall shares the same characteristics as the left but contains additional architectural elements.
Above the small central niche is another, larger niche with a tuff base and entirely framed by two rows of bricks, housing an eighteenth-century papier-mâché statue depicting the Immaculate Virgin.
In the large front niche, besides the oval window, there is another niche framed by geometric tuff decorations, containing an ancient wooden statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The roof is entirely wooden, while the floor is composed of Modica stone slabs laid in a diamond pattern, with three openings allowing visitors to view the spaces beneath.
At the front of the left wall, a stone plaque marks the presence of the remains of Father Bova. At the centre of the presbytery stands the Eucharistic Altar.
The altar frontal, consistent with the church’s original dedication, depicts in high relief the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary, while the rear panel bears the coat of arms of the Crociferi Fathers.
To the left of the presbytery, a raised marble base supports the celebrant’s chair, while to the right a niche houses the plastered-canvas statue of Saint Joseph, created in 1750 by Canon Giuseppe Ingigneri on commission from the brothers Giacomo and Nunzio Matrà and their crew in thanksgiving for a grace received.
The niche is framed by a tuff surround.
The statue rests upon a finely sculpted square base decorated in bas-relief. In the background stands the high altar, composed entirely of restored ancient marbles.
Dottor Rocco Panuccio
