Liturgical Life

The Metropolitan Cathedral Chapter is the presbyteral College at the service of the Archdiocese of Naples.

According to tradition dating back to the first centuries of the Church, it has always been an assembly of distinguished jurists, scientists, ministers of the then royal governments, bringing prestige and always offering their service to the Church of Naples.

This thousand-year-old institution has left indelible marks over time, preserving what has been entrusted to it by history with determination and intelligence, and continuing, even today, to research, safeguard, and pass on the cultural and artistic heritage of which it is the custodian.

This heritage is not limited to the places and works preserved in them, but above all bears witness to a living faith, experienced by a Church with apostolic origins, and transmitted, without interruption, to the present day.

The Metropolitan Chapter is composed of a college of Canons, some of whom have presbyteral titles and others diaconal titles.

These titles, which mark the historical journey of the Church of Naples, are closely connected to the tasks performed by the Chapter since its earliest times, dating back to remote epochs, as well as to the buildings of worship and pastoral care that the Canons were called to carry out.

Even today, the Canons of the Chapter are the custodians of prayer and liturgy in the Basilica of Santa Restituta and in the Naples Cathedral, the Mother Church, working closely with the Bishop.

The Chapter's Archive preserves historical documents of great value, including 680 parchments and reports of chapter meetings, which narrate religious and historical events related to the city and the Church of Naples.

The Basilica of Santa Restituta and the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, among the oldest memories of the Church of Naples, are still preserved by the Metropolitan Chapter today.

The Chapter also preserved, until the building of the Chapel of San Gennaro, the Old Treasury where the relics of the head and blood of San Gennaro were kept, along with those of other saint bishops of the city, as evidenced by a parchment dated December 31, 1390.

The splendid mosaic of the Madonna del Principio enthroned, with the figures of San Gennaro and Santa Restituta by Lello Da Orvieto on either side, preserved in a chapel in the left nave of Santa Restituta, is a further trace of the antiquity and industriousness of the Chapter College, which claims its commission.

The Chronicon of St. Mary of the Principle, written around 1313 and transcribed in 1533, represents a fundamental testimony for the history of the Cathedral at the end of the Middle Ages.

In the text, mention is made of the Chapel of Santa Maria del Principio. Indeed, the inscription below the throne, arranged in two lines, reads as follows:

"Three hundred years after God, immense light, descended to earth, the noble Saint Helena had this temple built. This work was created by Lellus de Urb…

Consecrating, pleased, Pope Sylvester (this temple), anyone can hardly say how many indulgences have been granted to good purpose; after thirteen hundred and thirteen years, the Neapolitan clergy restored it."

Canon Pasquale Santamaria, in his Historia Collegii Patrum Canonicorum Metropolitanae Ecclesiae Neapolitanae (1900), which remains the only systematic source on the history of the Chapter, describes in detail the origins and functions of this College and the places of worship entrusted to it. In dedicating his work to the Canon Fathers of the Neapolitan Church, Santamaria expresses his deep respect for the order, exalting its greatness, culture, wisdom, and the good examples they have left as a legacy, inviting posterity to draw inspiration from these traditions and virtues.

The Archbishop of Naples, Don Mimmo Battaglia, following the synodal style, wanted to experiment with a new form of "collegial management" of the Cathedral, asking the Chapter of canons, chaired by H.E. Msgr. Lucio Lemmo, for active collaboration with the young people of the territory to realize, together, the MUDD project – Diffused Diocesan Museum of Naples.

In the spirit of communion and collaboration, a pastoral project was born that will make the Cathedral Church, with its important memories of the origins of Christian faith, together with the artistic heritage that encompasses the entire Episcopal Insula, also an opportunity for engagement for future generations.

The Archbishop of Naples has allocated a significant part of this cultural heritage to the development of forms of youth entrepreneurship that would become generative for our territory.

MUDD - Diffused Diocesan Museum — is a project idea capable of combating youth unemployment and taking care of the Cathedral and its major monumental churches, those already closed and those at risk of closure, while ensuring, at the same time, for visitors to the Historic Center, the pleasure of knowledge, discovery, storytelling, and being well received.