The First Churches

The first Christians on the banks of the Arno were easterners, as were the leading figures of the Florentine Church: Miniato (Minias) “King of the Armenians,” martyred in Florence in 250 during Decius’ persecution, and Zanobi (Zenobius), the great bishop of the V century, who came from a Greco-Syrian family.

In this period, the holy area of Roman Florence is not yet well defined. The first church of Florence, as testified by archaeological and epigraphic finds, Santa Felicita, was indeed located outside the south walls. The first certain reference to a stable ecclesial community appears only in the IV century when it is recorded that the Bishop Felice came to Florentia Tuscorum in 313 for the Roman synod. There must have been a nucleus of Christians in Florence prior to this date, however, considering that in 250, San Miniato was buried on the “mountain,” successively named after him, southeast of the walls of the Roman city.
Chronologically the second church of Florence too, was founded outside the walls, near an important access route to the city: San Lorenzo was built in the late IV century to the north, near the point where the ancient Via Faentina crossed the junction of the Via Cassia. It was consecrated in 393 by Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, then capital of the Western Empire.
Following the definitive closing of pagan temples as ordered by the Emperor Theodosius in 391 A.D., the Christian community formally entered the city. The same occurred in Florence as well.
The third of the Paleochristian basilicas of Florence, Santa Reparata, had more or less the same dimensions and shape of the contemporary Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna: characteristics inherited from the late Roman empire. This time constructed inside the Roman circle of walls, larger than Santa Felicita and perhaps even larger than the ancient San Lorenzo, this structure with a nave and two aisles permits us finally to speak of a holy area inside a Christianized city. Dedicated to Santa Reparata, the Palestinian martyr of the III century, whose feast day, according to tradition, marked a victory over the barbarians in 405 A.D., the new church also had a civic nature. In the XII century, it rose to the dignity of Cathedral in place of San Lorenzo where, in the V century, the Bishop Zenobius had established the Bishopric.
Other buildings of considerable importance for Florentine Christians also sprang up, assigning this area the role of the city’s religious center. All of this took place on the remains of ancient Roman houses, as shown by various excavation campaigns.