Lentorama 2026: Hic es: aedificia Vaticani

Day 25: Chiesa di Santo Stefano degli Abissini, Via delle Fondamenta

The Church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians is the national church of Ethiopia at the Vatican. Tucked in behind St. Peter's, it survived the destruction of the original basilica, and is the oldest surviving church in Vatican City.

The church was built in the early 5th century by Pope Leo I, and was named for Stephen the Protomartyr, a deacon mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles who was stoned to death in Jerusalem for blasphemy. When the Vatican started to see increased numbers of pilgrims from Ethiopia, it gave that community this church for a center of worship, along with a nearby monastery. The monastery would eventually be replaced by the Ethiopian College, but the church remained.

While not generally open to the public, it is sometimes used for special occasions outside of its role with the Ethiopian community. Most notable in that regard was the 2006 wedding of Lord Nicholas Windsor to  Paola Louise Marcia Doimi de Lupis, which marked the first Catholic marriage of a member of Britain's royal family (Windsor is the son of the Duke of Kent and a godson of Charles III) since the 16th century.