Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (5) - Day 1 concluded

The Church of the Gesù
We concluded the first day of our Pilgrimage with our now customary visit to the Church of the Holy Name, The Gesù.  Having visited the Church of Sant'Ignazio it is only a few minutes walk down through the Piazza del Collegio Romano and down the famous Via della Gatta to the other main Jesuit Church in the City, where St. Ignatius lived in the attached House of the Professed, and where he is buried in the beautiful side Altar that is the focus, each evening at 5.30 p.m., of the ceremony of light and music and Scripture and Prayer, the Macchina barocca.  We made it in good time to enjoy the prayerful atmosphere of the Church in fading autumn light, to pray before the High Altar of the Holy Name, at the Chapel of the Madonna della Strada and the Chapel of the Sacred Heart where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved.  There are many echoes between Sant'Ignazio and the Gesù, particularly in the mirroring of the two main transept Altars, St. Ignatius in the Gospel-side and the arm of St. Francis Xavier in the Epistle-side.  Once again, the nave ceiling is a riot of baroque decoration but, in the case of the Gesù, it is more unconventional.  We are not only seeing the Heavens, as it were, through the frame of an open ceiling, but now the celestial (and infernal!) figures are in three dimensions and falling out of the frame and into our dimension.

After experiencing the Macchina barocca we returned to the Istituto Maria Santissima Bambina for Vespers of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (4) - Day 1 continued

La Maddalena
After Mass in the Sacristy Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Post 2) and following our visit to the Pantheon (Post 3), Day 1 of our Pilgrimage to Rome continued with a visit to the 'La Maddalena' the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, where St. Camillus de Lellis, also a member of the Sodality of Our Lady in his time, is buried.  As so often, the Church was closed but the riotous baroque facade provided some interest for our pilgrims.  The site was purchased by St. Camillus and his companions in 1621, with the permission of Pope Gregory XV Ludovisi, of whom more below, and construction began ten years later.  The facade was built in stages and each is attributed to a different architect.  The whole effect evokes the Rococo of Borromini, with its counter-curves across the whole, although it is the only time when such effects were used so completely for a Church in Rome.

Piazza Capranica and Piazza Montecitorio
From 'La Maddalena' it is a short walk to the Piazza Capranica.  We have visited the interior of the College and its Chapel in an earlier pilgrimage (here).  We had already visited the Capranica Family Chapel in the Minerva (Post 3).  We paused to remember Ven. Pope Pius XII, who was a student and member of the Sodality of Our Lady in the College.  Taking up another side of the Piazza is Santa Maria in Aquiro.  The facade is beautifully articulated in red brick and limestone.  The original Church was very ancient, founded as a Diaconia, and first restored by Pope Gregory III, of whom also more later.

A few steps beyond is the Piazza of Montecitorio, with the Palazzo built by Bernini for Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, of whom more below, and completed by Carlo Fontana.  It once housed the Law Courts of the Papal States and now houses the Italian Chamber of Deputies.  The obelisk in the Piazza was brought to Rome by the Emperor Augustus and placed here by Pope Pius VI in 1789. 

A few steps more is the Piazza Colonna, containing the great Column of Marcus Aurelius, which is now surmounted by a statue of St. Paul, placed there by Pope Sixtus V during the restoration of the Column as part of his magnificent town-planning project.  Facing the Column across the Via del Corso is the Palazzo Chigi, built by Giacomo della Porta, and first inhabited by the family after the election of our good friend Pope Alexander VII Chigi, the first Sodalist of Our Lady to be elected Pope.  The Palazzo is now the offices of the Prime Minister of Italy.

Sant'Ignazio
Turning southwards we reach the Collegio Romano - founded by our good friend Pope Gregory XIII, first Pope to approve the Sodality of Our Lady in 1584 - and the Church of Sant'Ignazio, built by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, Vice Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church and nephew of Pope Gregory XV Ludovisi.  Inside, in the Ludovisi Chapel to the Epistle-side of the Sanctuary, are the tombs of uncle and nephew.  We have visited the Church on several previous pilgrimages (here) because this is the site of the first Sodality of Our Lady, the Prima Primaria.  In previous years we have visited the Chapel of the Prima Primaria and the rooms once occupied by Saints Aloysius Gonzaga and John Berchmans, both Sodalists (here) but confined ourselves on this visit to the Church, which contains the relics of both Saints as well as the relics of Saint Robert Bellarmine, Professor and Rector of the College.

Let us remember particularly Vittoria della Tolfa, Marchese della Valle, who donated the entire block to the Jesuits to found the College and Church.  The Church itself is the second on the site, the first dedicated to the Annunciation, a dedication that was perpetuated in the Prima Primaria.  Pope Gregory XV had been a student of the College and had canonized St. Ignatius in 1622.  Cardinal Ludovisi patronized the project.  the foundation stone was laid in 1627 and the whole building was complete in 1685.

Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (3) - After Mass in the Minerva

The Sacristy of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

The Chapel of Saint Catherine is located behind the Sacristy of the Basilica. The Sacristy itself is an amazing and historic space. It has housed at least two Papal Conclaves, those of 1431 and 1447, to elect Popes Eugene IV and Nicholas V respectively. It can be found behind a gate just to the left of the Gospel-side Transept of the Basilica but, as ever, our intrepid pilgrimages organizer obtained for us access to some of those places in Rome where very few and only seldom go. The decoration of the Sacristy is by Andrea Sacchi in 1600, including the Crucifixion in the niche at the far end of the Sacristy (behind which is the Chapel of Saint Catherine). The ceiling scene of St. Dominic in glory is attributed to Giuseppe Puglia. The fresco of the Roman painter G. B. Speranza is placed on the front door, dating from 1640, and represents two conclaves which took place here. The Barberini bees - a motif that will recur throughout our pilgrimage - appear in several places in the Sacristy. In this case, they are the emblem of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, Archbishop of Reims, known as Antonio the Younger, one of the Cardinals Nephew of Pope Urban VIII. The Barberini family was a great benefactor of the Dominican Order and funded the decoration of the sacristy. The vestment benches and presses are also 17th cent. and are of walnut.

Inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

The Basilica is too filled with historic and artistic gems to cover all but those that our group concentrated upon were the tomb of Saint Catherine of Siena under the High Altar (seen below with the tomb of Pope Clement VII Medici behind. Opposite it out of shot the tomb of Pope Leo X Medici, both Florentines with strong connections to the Dominican Order), next to it, the Capranica Family Chapel of the Holy Rosary, where we had Mass on a previous Pilgrimage, the Caraffa Family Chapel with the tomb of Pope Paul IV at the end of the Epistle-side Transept (opposite the Chapel of St. Dominic at the end of the Gospel-side Transept, built for Pope Benedict XIII, the Dominican Pope, and containing his tomb), and finally, just next to the Caraffa Chapel, the tomb of the redoubtable Durandus.

Outside the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

In the Piazza outside the Basilica is Bernini's famous Obelisk supported by an Elephant, erected here by Pope Alexander VII Chigi, the first member of the Sodality of Our Lady (of a total of 20) to be elected Pope and of whom we shall hear much throughout the pilgrimage. Opposite the Basilica is the Palace of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, or the Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics, the finishing school for Vatican diplomats.

Just around the corner is the discreet - but fascinating - shopfront of Ditta Annibale Gammarelli, Ecclesiastical tailors since 1798, who provided the vestments for our pilgrimage.

Just a few steps up the street is the Pontifical French Seminary and the Seminary Church of Santa Chiara. Across the tiny Piazza di Santa Chiara is the Palazzo di Santa Chiara. This was once a house of Dominican Tertiaries and the actual site of the death of Saint Catherine of Siena. As already mentioned, the room itself where she died was moved into place behind the Sacristy of the Minerva, and the space left by that removal has been replaced by an amazing little chapel of 'Santa Catarina in Transito' which remains open to the public despite the Palazzo now being a public theatre - where some of the pilgrims also attended a selection of operatic pieces one evening of the trip.