Altar Of Repose.

The Altar of Repose.
Church of Santa Maria dell'Orto,
Trastevere, Rome.

Illustration: NEW LITURGICAL MOVEMENT

Santa Maria dell'Orto is a Roman Catholic Church in the Rione of Trastevere, Rome, Italy. It is the National Church of Japan in Rome.

The Church is set in the middle of the area that has been called the “Prata Mutia” (“Fields of Mutius”) since about 508 BC; it was here that the Etruscan King, Porsena, had made his encampment, and that later the Roman Senate donated to Mucius Scaevola as a sign of gratitude of Rome for his heroic actions.

The origins of the Church are associated with a Miracle that is supposed to have happened circa 1488. A sick farmer, afflicted with a serious palsy according to oral history, was healed after Praying to an image of The Virgin Mary painted close to the entrance to his own Market Garden.

The event led to popular Worship for the painting, and subsequently a small Votive Chapel was erected, soon followed by a greater Church, funded by twelve Professional Associations (Università).

In 1492, Pope Alexander VI allowed the establishment of a Confraternity, and, in 1588 (with a Brief, dated 20 March), Pope Sixtus V declared it an Arch-Confraternity and bestowed on it the rare privilege of asking for the pardon of a person condemned to death, during its Titular Feast. During the 1825 Jubilee, it was honoured with the Title of Venerable.

As an Arch-Confraternity, it could attach other Confraternities, anywhere in the World; therefore, during the 1600 Jubilee – through a Notary Deed, dated 30 April – it was aggregated to The Confraternity of The Oratory of Nostra Signora di Castello, established in Savona, Italy, in 1260.

Construction was begun in 1489 by an unknown Architect and completed in 1567. Its façade is largely ascribed to Vignola (though sometimes attributed to Martino Longhi the Elder), while the Interior is by Guidetto Guidetti, a pupil of Michelangelo, who transformed the former Greek-Cross design (with four Apses) into a Latin-Cross structure with three Naves.

The Church houses Works of Art by the brothers Federico and Taddeo Zuccari, Corrado Giaquinto and Giovanni Baglione.

The Church is still guarded by the Arch-Confraternity of S. Maria dell'Orto, that, due to the seniority of its Papal Establishment, is the most ancient of The Confraternities Consecrated to The Holy Virgin still active in Rome, and one of the first overall.

Church of Santa Maria dell'Orto,

Trastevere, Rome.

Photo: 17 January 2016.

Source: Own work.

Author: Livioandronico2013

(Wikimedia Commons)