Church of Sant'Isidoro
A small 17th-century chapel associated with Blessed Luigi Rabatà.
The Church of Sant'Isidoro is a small 17th-century chapel in Erice, built in 1666 on a site traditionally associated with the Blessed Carmelite Luigi Rabatà.
Key facts
Site type:
Comune:
Church
Erice
District:
Historic centre
The Church of Sant'Isidoro was built in 1666 by a confraternity dedicated to Saint Isidore the Farmer. The small church occupies a site traditionally identified as the home or birthplace of the Blessed Carmelite Luigi Rabatà, an association that has remained an important part of its religious identity.
Originally consisting of a small single nave with one altar, the church was decorated with frescoes depicting Sant'Alberto dei Bianchi and Blessed Luigi Rabatà. Its simple form reflects its modest scale and setting immediately inside Porta Trapani, close to the Chiesa Matrice and the ancient Elymian-Punic Walls.
Sant'Isidoro was closed to worship towards the end of the 1930s and subsequently fell out of regular religious use. After restoration, it reopened on 7 August 2010. The Blessed Sacrament was placed in the church and Sant'Isidoro became the Eucharistic Chapel of the Chiesa Matrice, returning the small 17th-century building to active worship after more than seventy years.
Photo: Elymian Atlas
Explore further
Explore the traditions surrounding Blessed Luigi Rabatà and the restoration that returned Sant'Isidoro to religious use after decades of closure.
Blessed Luigi Rabatà and the site
The history of Sant'Isidoro is closely connected with Blessed Luigi Rabatà, a 15th-century Carmelite associated with Erice. Matteo Tusa records the tradition that the church was erected on the site of Rabatà's home, while the Diocese of Trapani describes it as his birthplace. The identification belongs to local religious tradition rather than to an archaeologically established identification of the building.
This association explains the continued presence of Rabatà within the church's devotional history. Tusa records that its wall paintings included representations of both Rabatà and Sant'Alberto dei Bianchi, another figure connected with Erice's Carmelite tradition.
Closure and reopening
The church ceased to be used for worship towards the end of the 1930s. Tusa later recorded the building as ecclesiastical property being used for the storage of liturgical materials and furnishings.
Following restoration, Sant'Isidoro was formally reopened on 7 August 2010, the feast of Sant'Alberto. After Mass in the Chiesa Matrice, Bishop Francesco Miccichè placed the Blessed Sacrament in the restored church, establishing it as the Cappella dell'Eucaristia della Matrice.
The reopening formed part of the Erice – la Montagna del Signore programme, through which Erice's historic churches were opened, maintained and restored as part of a coordinated effort to preserve the town's ecclesiastical heritage.
Sources & further reading
Explore the historical and ecclesiastical sources used to document the foundation of Sant'Isidoro, its association with Blessed Luigi Rabatà and its restoration and reopening in 2010.