Santa Maria in Trastevere

The Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere (

The predecessor of the present church was probably built in the early fourth century and that church was itself the successor to one of the tituli, early Christian basilicas ascribed to a patron and perhaps literally inscribed with his name. Although nothing remains to establish with certainty where any of the public Christian edifices of Rome before the time of Constantine the Great were situated, the basilica on this site was known as Titulus Callisti, based on a legend in the Liber Pontificalis, which ascribed the earliest church here to a foundation by Pope Callixtus I (died 222), whose remains, translated to the new structure, are preserved under the altar.^[3]

Callixtus founded a house-church here about 220 on the site of the Taberna meritoria, a refuge for retired soldiers. The area was made available for Christian use by Emperor

The inscriptions found in Santa Maria in Trastevere, a valuable resource illustrating the history of the Basilica, were collected and published by Vincenzo Forcella.[5]

Exterior

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The Romanesque campanile is from the 12th century.

The façade of the church was restored in 1702 by Carlo Fontana. It is surmounted by a balustrade decorated with the statues of four popes. He replaced the ancient porch with a sloping tiled roof with the present classicizing one. The octagonal fountain in the piazza in front of the church (Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere), which already appears in a map of 1472, was restored by Fontana.^[6]

Interior

The present nave preserves its original (pre-12th century) basilica plan and stands on the earlier foundations. The 22 granite columns with Ionic and Corinthian capitals that separate the nave from the aisles came from the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, as did the lintel of the entrance door.^[7] When scholarship during the 19th century identified the faces in the carved decoration of the capitals as Isis, Serapis and Harpocrates, a restoration under Pius IX in 1870 hammered off the offending faces.^[8]

Domenichino's octagonal ceiling painting, Assumption of the Virgin (1617) fits in the coffered ceiling that he designed.^[4]

There are a number of 12th and late 13th-century mosaics in the basilica. The "Coronation of the Virgin" (1130–1143) sits atop an apse vault, and depicts Pope Innocent II holding a model of the church.^[9] Below are mosaics on the subject of the "Life of the Virgin" by Pietro Cavallini (1291).

In the Capella Altemps there is a unique icon of the enthroned Virgin and Child "The Madonna della Clemenza", a panel painting in encaustic, dated between the 6th and 9th century CE, probably of the Byzantine origins. The Madonna della Clemenza is one of the five oldest existing Marian Icons from the medieval period. Its proximity to the rise of Christianity is one of the reasons it was believed to be a divine image.^[10]

The fifth chapel to the left is the Avila Chapel designed by

The church keeps a relic of

• Ioannes, son of Marozia, who became Pope John XI during the Saeculum obscurum
• Gabriele Condulmer who became Pope Eugene IV
• Giovanni Morone - played a vital role in the third period of the Council of Trent
• Mark Sittich von Hohenems Altemps - commissioned the Alltemps chapel in the basilica as well as the Palazzo Altemps
• Pietro Aldobrandini - commissioned Domenichino to create the coffered wooden ceiling of the basilica
• Henry Benedict Stuart, whose coat of arms, topped by a crown (some hailed him as King Henry IX of England) rather than a galero (red hat), is visible over the screen to the right of the altar.
• Pietro Marcellino Corradini - named venerable on April 24, 2021. His tomb is in the basilica.
• Annibale della Genga who became Pope Leo XII
• James Gibbons - Archbishop of Baltimore, second American cardinal and author of The Faith of Our Fathers
• Stefan Wyszyński - beatified on September 21, 2021
• Józef Glemp
• Loris Francesco Capovilla

The incumbent titular holder is Carlos Osoro Sierra, Archbishop Emeritis of Madrid.

Significant events

In 38BC a gush of oil from underground occurred, as mentioned by Dio Cassius and St. Jerome. This mysterious event was given the Latin name fons olei. It was interpreted by Jewish people who lived concentrated in Trastevere as the announcement of the Messiah. This legendary event is depicted in the Cavallini mosaic of Christ's birth.

In 1634, the icon of the Madonna di Strada Cupa which was then placed at the foot of the

In 1659, the icon of Madonna della Clemenza was canonically crowned. It was the second image inside the church to be crowned.

On March 25, 1887, Cardinal James Gibbons took possession of this titular church and "delivered a powerful sermon defending the American constitutional model of church-state relations."^[13]

In July 2014, the wedding of

On March 11, 2018, Pope Francis celebrated mass at the basilica to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Community of Sant'Egidio.^[15]

Gallery

• 
  The square before the basilica is a centre of Trastevere nightlife.
• 
  12th-century

  Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus

  flanked by 10 women holding lamps
• 
  Madonna and Child at the top of the campanile
• 
  12th and 13th-century mosaics in the apse
• 
  Mosaic of the Annunciation by Cavallini (1291)
• 
  Close-up of ceiling

See also

• Roman Catholic Marian churches
• Fountain in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere

References