The church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva is just behind the Pantheon. Its most distinguishing feature from the outside is a statue of an elephant with an obelisk on its back. More on that later. However, this church contains the remains of Saint Catherine of Siena. Recall from our trip to Siena that St. Catherine’s head is on display in Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico while her body remains in Rome.
In Roman times there were three temples in what is now the area surrounding Santa Maria sopra Minerva dedicated to the goddesses Minerva (50 BC), Isis, and Serapis. The ruined temples are likely to have lasted until the reign of Pope Zachary (741-752), who finally Christianized the site. However, the structure he commissioned has disappeared.
In 1255 Pope Alexander IV established a community of converted women on the site. A decade later this community was transferred to the Roman Church of San Pancrazio thereby allowing the Dominicans to establish a convent of friars there. The Friars were on site beginning in 1266. The Dominicans began building the present Gothic church in 1280 completed in the 14th century.
Between 1848 and 1855 Girolamo Bianchedi directed an important program of restoration when the blank walls were covered with neo-gothic frescos giving the interior the Neo-Gothic appearance that it has today. The basilica’s stained glass windows are mostly from the 19th century.
The facade contains the papal emblem and a stained glass window which we will see from the inside.
St. Dominic (1170-1221) was preaching in southern France against the Albigensian heresy, but with little success. One day, complaining of this in pious prayer to our Blessed Lady, she deigned to reply to him, saying, “Wonder not that you have obtained so little fruit by your labors, you have spent them on barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of Divine grace. When God willed to renew the face of the earth, He began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore preach my Psalter composed of 150 Angelic Salutations and 15 Our Fathers, and you will obtain an abundant harvest.” Thus, Mary provided St. Dominic with the Rosary. This image on the façade of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva represents this event, (http://www.catholic-pages.com/prayers/rosary_dominic.asp)
In 1665 an Egyptian obelisk was found, buried in the garden adjacent to the church, built during the reign of the pharaoh Apries (598BC – 570BC). Several other small obelisks were found at different times near the church which were probably brought to Rome during the 1st century. Pope Alexander VII (1655-1667) commissioned the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini to design and carry out a sculpture incorporating this obelisk. The Elephant and Obelisk is the result, placed prominently in the Piazza della Minerva.
Inside the church, you are met with yet another beautiful ceiling.
I mentioned stained glass windows above. Here are a few of them.
Here is a broader view of the interior.
The main altar is beautiful.
Just below the main altar is the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena. Saint Catherine of Siena is buried here (except her head, which is in the Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico in Siena).
Those pilgrims present from St. Catherine of Siena Church in Portage, MI, gathered in front of the tomb.
There are numerous other tombs, statues, and paintings throughout the church. Here are some examples.
The Cristo della Minerva, also known as Christ the Redeemer, Christ Carrying the Cross, or the Risen Christ, is a marble sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarroti, finished in 1521.
The outside of this church is quite unassuming. It would be very easy to take a quick look at the elephant outside and pass on by without realizing the beauty and history within.
All facts were from WikiPedia.
Mark
Thank you for the wonderful photos, especially from the tomb of the famous and interesting “Bride of Christ”: Saint Catherine of Siena (“Here I came to my garden, my sister, my bride…” (Song of Solomon 5)
“Beneath the high altar, with lamps always burning before it, is a marble sarcophagus with a beautiful figure, enclosing the body of St. Catherine of Siena. In it her relics were deposited in 1461, by Antoninus, archbishop of Florence. On the last pillar to the right is an inscription stating that, ” all the indulgences and privileges in every church, of all the religious orders, mendicant or not mendicant, in every part of the world, are granted especially to this church, where is the body of St. Catherine of Siena.”
” St. Catherine was one of twenty-five children born in wedlock to Jacopo and Lupa Benincasa, citizens of Siena. Her father exercised the trade of dyer and fuller. In the year of her birth, 1347, Siena reached the climax of its power and splendour. It was then that the plague of Bocaccio began to rage, which swept off 80,000 citizens, and interrupted the building of the great Duomo. In the midst of so large a family and during these troubled times, Catherine grew almost unnoticed, but it was not long before she manifested her peculiar disposition. At six years old she already saw visions and longed for a monastic life : about the same time she used to collect her childish companions together and preach to them. As she grew her wishes became stronger ; she refused the proposals which her parents made that she should marry, and so vexed them by her obstinacy that they imposed on her the most servile duties in their household. These she patiently fulfilled, at the same time pursuing her own vocation with unwearied ardour. She scarcely slept at all, and ate no food but vegetables and a little bread, scourged herself, wore sackcloth, and became emaciated, weak, and half delirious. At length the firmness of her character and the force of her hallucination won the clay. Her parents consented to her assuming the Dominican robe, and at the age of thirteen she entered the monastic life. From this moment till her death we see in her the ecstatic, the philanthropist, and the politician combined to a remarkable degree. For three whole years she never left her cell except to go to church, maintaining an almost unbroken silence. Yet, when she returned to the world, convinced at length of having won by prayer and pain the favour of her Lord, it was to preach to infuriated mobs, to toil among men dying of the plague, to execute diplomatic negotiations, to harangue the republic of Florence, to correspond with queens, and to interpose between kings and popes. In the midst of this varied and distracting career she continued to see visions, and to fast and scourge herself. The domestic virtues and the personal wants and wishes of a woman were annihilated in her ; she lived for the Church, for the poor, and for Christ, whom she imagined to be constantly supporting her. At length she died (at Rome, on the 29th of April, 1380, in her 33rd year) worn out by inward conflicts, by the tension of a half-delirious ecstasy, by want of food and sleep, and by the excitement of political life.”
Augustus Hare, Walks in Rome. London 1874
Ron – Thanks for the comments and the extensive history. Mark
Who did the sculpture of Mary holding baby Jesus that is located close to the front of your church. My wife and I visited you May 2019. Beautiful church!
Mike – I don’t know the answer to your question about the sculpture. I was a visitor to this beautiful church and a lot of what I posted I learned on line. I didn’t find any info on this particular sculpture. Sorry. Mark