Chiesa di San Tarcisio al Quarto Miglio

The history of the Parish of San TarcisioOn Palm Sunday, 10 April 1927, the first small Church dedicated to the Roman Martyr of the Eucharist St Tarcisio between Via Palazzolo and Via Galloro was opened for public worship. The Friars of Via Merulana came to celebrate Mass there on feast days. Before this little church was built, the Quarto Miglio area was almost unknown and abandoned.Between the Uva di Roma (Villa Malaguti) and the Appia Pignatelli (Villa Parini) there was a small cooperative of one-storey houses with terraces: it was these that gave the impression that the area was inhabited. It is also around this date (1927) that the construction of wooden huts used as primary schools by the Ente Scuola Rurale (Rural School Board) dates back. In 1930, the reclamation of the Agro Romano affected the Oliveto area, as the inion in the Casa Cantoniera in Via Appia Pignatelli attests.
The Borgata of San Tarcisio is bornIn 1932, the inhabitants of this area had a pleasant surprise: the Governor of Rome named this locality Borgata di San Tarcisio. When Fr Leonardo Bello was elected Minister General of the Friars Minor in 1933, he gladly accepted the Vicariate's proposal to erect a Parish in a long strip of land adjacent to the Appian Way, despite absolute poverty, few resources and a lack of premises for celebrations. The parish territory is vast, it is 1935, there are 349 families and a population of 1558 people. With the rise of the parish, the people become people, the first social interests arise, they organise themselves and focus on their problems. It is in fact the religious festivals that bring people together.
The announcement of the birth of the new Church dedicated to Saint TarcisiusThe construction of a Church is announced in a bulletin entitled Parish Life in 1938: As you know, a new Church will be built in Rome, dedicated to the little Roman boy Saint Tarcisius. It will rise at the IV Mile on the Via Appia Nuova, not far from the area of ​​his martyrdom. The Church will turn its front in the direction of the East, towards the distant holy places, towards the Holy Sepulchre, almost as if it were on the radiant path of the faith that emanated from there". A report of a visit to the Parish is dated March 14, 1938: ... it is a very poor parish, with about 2,000 souls, scattered in the countryside and hilly territory of about 6-7 square kilometers.It does not have a real center, but two groups of houses separated from each other by about a kilometer and then some farmhouses scattered here and there with an ever-fluctuating population of laborers, workers and evicted people... There is a great deal to do in the spiritual and all in the material. With the provincial road removed, there are still no roads, there is no doctor, pharmacy.... The person who wrote these testimonies received the post of Parish Priest less than a month later and was interested body and soul in the construction of the Church. He was Father Ezechiele De Rossi, the first parish priest to whom the large hall of the our oratory.
The first steps of the new Parish of San Tarcisio.In the charming and panoramic location of IV Miglio Appio, in the south-east outskirts of Rome, towards the Alban Hills, not far from the Appia Antica, the queen of roads, the Parish has arisen, in recent months, almost by magic, dedicated to the dear Roman youth, San Tarcisio Martire. This news appeared in the Parish Bulletin of June 13, 1939, and was echoed by many newspapers. The story then continues, and a long list of initiatives tends to make the life of the inhabitants, young and old, increasingly human. A nursery school is opened, soup and fruit are donated, small bridges and walkways are built, everyone is close during the war that brings with it tragic and desperate episodes....It is then necessary to meet to recover from this scourge. In the immediate post-war period, the Borgata Committee formed under the direction of the Parish Priest, takes care of the innumerable needs of the peripheral area Appia, which includes a vast territory, from via dell'Almone to Capannelle di Marino, enclosing the Borgate of IV Miglio, Statuario, Capannelle, Tor di Mezza Via, Acquasanta, Tor Fiscale and Cecilia Metella, all part of the Parish of S. Tarcisio.Schools are needed, roads need to be improved, summer camps are organized, popular kitchens, public transportation and telephone communications, a public fountain is installed in via Annia Regilla, the sports field is prepared, the Oratory takes shape....The post-war period and the rebirth of Quarto Miglio.The post-war period is a time of rebirth, also for the hamlet of IV Miglio and in 1951 the transformation in progress is described as follows: Our area is growing in houses and population day by day. Construction is in full development. The vegetable gardens and meadows are disappearing to make way for apartment blocks. Here and there you can see new roads with work in progress, sewers, electricity etc. Shops, bars, and businesses of this or that kind of work are opening almost continuously.Everything is in motion. Even public services: trams, buses, post office, school, market, etc. see their staff increase every day in order to meet the growing needs of the ever-increasing number of citizens. The constant coming and going of people with cars, trucks, and other private and public vehicles, to trade, work... clearly says that there is a ferment of life in the area. Quarto Miglio is on its way to becoming a neighborhood of Rome, a real and large residential neighborhood.In 1952 the Parish Priest wrote in the Bulletin: The Parish, which until a few years ago had a few thousand people, today sees its number more than quintupled, and is continually increasing. People who have come here from everywhere, of the most disparate professions, arts, crafts, habits, united by the common need to live, live in the territory that goes from the Claudio Aqueduct to the Pines of the Appian Way.In its own way, San Tarcisio with many problems and many needs: under this title a newspaper of the time (Il Popolo 21.8.52), described the haste with which the neighborhood was developing. The choice of location was justified by the affordable rents and the proximity to the city.
The first schools in Quarto MiglioThe 1950s finally saw the birth of schools: the first primary schools were built in Via Galloro, after the war. Already at the beginning of October 1944, the parish priest set out, in a letter to the Mayor of Rome, the need for the opening of the school in IV Miglio. On the twenty-seventh of May 1950, news arrived that the municipality had allocated fifty million for the primary schools, which in September of the following year was still in the wishes of the population, as we learn from an article in the Quotidiano on the 16th.Finally, on 14 March 1953, the foundation stone was laid for the primary schools, which was to be built on the corner of S. Tarcisio Street and Alley. It was inaugurated on Saturday 16 January 1954 amidst the Personalities of the time. On 31 October 1960, after much diplomatic work by Fr Nicolò, the parish priest, the classrooms of the Commercial School, located in Via Servilio Quarto, were blessed.
The buses arrive!On 1 January 1951 the bus service began (S. Giovanni - S. Tarcisio - Statuario) run by the parastatal company S.T.E.F.E.R. It relieved the Capannelle tram, which ran between Capannelle and Termini Station. The stops are in front of the Nicolini food shop, Appia Pignatelli and Statuario. On 18 February the bus route will be extended to P.zza Vittorio.