Lenten Station At The Basilica Di Santa Maria In Trastevere (Saint Mary's Beyond The Tiber). Thursday Of The Second Week In Lent.

Roman Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

Italic Text, Illustrations and Captions, are taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines.
Violet Vestments.

Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome.

Photo: July 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Jensens

(Wikimedia Commons)

Today's Station takes place in a Basilica erected shortly after the Peace of Constantine by Pope Saint Julius I and which is one of the first Churches in Rome dedicated to the Mother of God. Mary is represented seated among the wise Virgins who hold their lamps. This is an allusion to the spring of oil which gushed out at this spot shortly before the birth of Him Whom she had the happiness of carrying in her arms and Who is called Christ or the Anointed of the Lord. This was one of the twenty-five Parishes of 5th-Century Rome.

Jeremias speaks to us in the Epistle of two men, one of whom put his trust in himself and the other in God. The first dries up like the heather in the desert, and the second bears the abundant fruits of his good works.

In like manner, says the parable of the Gospel, there were two men, one of whom enjoyed life instead of doing Penance and the other suffered. The first went to Hell, whilst the second was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom.

This is a symbol of Israel, who rejected Christ and was cast out, whilst the Gentiles, through Baptism and Penance, enter into the Kingdom of God.

Let us implore the Lord to grant us, by His grace, perseverance in Prayer and Fasting, in order that we may be delivered from the enemies both of Soul and body (Collect).

The Apse, Basilica of Santa Maria Trastevere, 
Rome, Italy.

Photo: April 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: Goldmund100

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere (Italian: Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere) is a Titular Minor Basilica, one of the oldest Churches of Rome, perhaps the first in which Mass was openly celebrated. The basic floor plan and wall structure of the Church date back to 340 A.D. The first Sanctuary was built between 221 A.D. and 227 A.D. by Pope Calixtus I and Pope Julius I.

The inscription on the Episcopal Throne states that it is the first Church dedicated to Mary, Mother of Jesus, although some claim that privilege belongs to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. In its founding it is certainly one of the oldest Churches in the city. 

A Christian House-Church was founded here about 220 A.D. by Pope Saint Callixtus I (217 A.D. - 222 A.D.) on the site of the Taberna Meritoria, an asylum for retired soldiers. The area was given over to Christian use by Emperor Alexander Severus, when he settled a dispute between the Christians and tavern-keepers, saying, according to the Liber Pontificalis: "I prefer that it should belong to those who honour God, whatever be their form of worship." 

In 340 A.D., Pope Julius I (337 A.D. - 352 A.D.) rebuilt the Titulus Callixti on a larger scale, and it became the Titulus Iulii, commemorating his patronage. It was one of the original twenty-five Parishes in Rome.

The Altemps Chapel, 
Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, 
Rome, Italy.

Photo: October 2005.

Picture taken by User:Torvindus.

(Wikimedia Commons)

It underwent two restorations in the 5th- and 8th-Centuries. In 1140-43, the Church was re-erected on its old foundations, under Pope Innocent II. He razed the Church to the ground, along with the recently completed tomb of his former rival, Pope Anacletus II, and arranged for his own burial on the spot formerly occupied by that tomb.

The richly carved Ionic Capitals, reused along its Nave, were taken either from the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla or the nearby Temple of Isis on the Janiculum. When scholarship during the 19th-Century identified the faces in their carved decoration as Isis, Serapis and Harpocrates, a restoration under Pope Pius IX in 1870 hammered off the offending faces.

The predecessor of the present Church was probably built in the early 4th-Century, although that Church was the successor to one of the Tituli, those Early-Christian Basilicas that were ascribed to a patron and perhaps literally inscribed with his name. The remains of Pope Callixtus I (died 222 A.D.) are preserved under the High Altar.

Artist: Pasquale Cati.
Showing Pope Pius IV promulgating the Bull "Benedictus Deus".

Fresco (1588). 
The Altemps Chapel, 
Santa Maria in Trastevere, 
Rome, Italy.

Photo: June 2004.

Source: Own work.

Author: Torvindus

(Wikimedia Commons)

Inside the Church are a number of Late-13th-Century mosaics by Pietro Cavallini, on the subject of the Life of the Virgin (1291), centreing on a "Coronation of the Virgin" in the Apse. Domenichino's octagonal ceiling painting, "Assumption of the Virgin" (1617) fits in the coffered ceiling that he designed.

The fifth Chapel, to the Left, is the Avila Chapel, designed by Antonio Gherardi. This, and his Chapel of Santa Cecilia in San Carlo ai Catinari, are two of the most architecturally-inventive Chapels of the Late-17th-Century in Rome. The lower order of the Chapel is fairly dark and employs Borromini-like forms. In the Dome, there is an opening, or oculus, from which four Putti emerge to carry a central tempietto, all of which frames a light-filled Chamber above, illuminated by windows not visible from below.

The Avila Chapel (designed by Antonio Gherardi) 

in The Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome.

Photo: October 2005.

Picture taken by Torvindus.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Church keeps a relic of Saint Apollonia (her head, as well as a portion of the Holy Sponge). Among those buried in the Church are the relics of Pope Callixtus I, Pope Innocent II, Anti-Pope Anacletus II, Cardinal Philippe d'Alençon and Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio.

The Romanesque Campanile is from the 12th-Century. Near the top, a niche protects a mosaic of the Madonna and Child.

The mosaics on the façade are probably from the 12th-Century. They depict the Madonna enthroned and suckling the Child, flanked by ten women holding lamps. This image on the façade, showing Mary nursing Jesus, is an early example of a popular Late-Mediaeval and Renaissance type of image of the Virgin. The motif itself originated much earlier, with significant 7th-Century Coptic examples at Wadi Natrun in Egypt.

The façade of the Church was restored by Carlo Fontana in 1702, who replaced the ancient Porch with a sloping tiled Roof. 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 also restored by Carlo Fontana.

English: The Ceiling of The Basilica of Our Lady's in Trastevere, Rome.

Italiano: Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, Roma (soffitto, un particolare).

Polski: Bazylika Najświętszej Maryi Panny na Zatybrzu w Rzymie (fragment kasetonowego sufitu).

Photo: September 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Fczarnowski

(Wikimedia Commons)

Ancient sources maintain that the Titulus Santa Mariae was established by Pope Alexander I around 112 A.D. Later traditions give the names of the early patrons of the Tituli and have retrospectively assigned them the title of Cardinal: thus at that time, the Cardinal-Patron of this Basilica, these traditions assert, would have been Saint Calepodius. Pope Calixtus I confirmed the Titulus in 221 A.D. To honour him, it was changed into Ss. Callisti et Iuliani; it was re-named S. Mariae Trans Tiberim (Saint Mary's Beyond The Tiber) by Pope Innocent II.

By the 12th-Century, Cardinal Deacons, as well as the Presbyters, had long been dispensed from personal service at the Tituli. Among the past Cardinal Priests holding the honorary Titulus of Santa Maria in Trastevere, have been the Cardinal Duke of York (whose coat of arms, topped by a crown rather than a galero (red hat), is visible over the screen to the Right of the Altar), James Gibbons and Pope Leo XII. Józef Glemp was the most recent Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Mariae Trans Tiberim, until his death in January 2013.