150 YEARS OF THE NAZARETH SISTERS

In the footsteps of Blessed Frances Siedliska in Rome (18)

Sr. M. Beata Rudzińska, CSFN

First apartment at Piazza Minerva

After a brief excursion to the Trastevere area, to the time of St. Cecilia and St. Frances of Rome, we return today to an event from exactly 149 years ago (February 6), that is, the second arrival of Frances Siedliska and the “pioneer group” in the Eternal City. They stopped first at Minerva Square. Unfortunately, we know neither the number of the house nor how long their stay lasted. What we do know, however, is what Frances and those accompanying her could see from the windows of their first Roman apartment.
Minerva Square is actually small, but it is full of treasures of architecture, art and traces of the Saints who lived here. It takes its name from the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, whose facade is one of the sides of the Square. Today we will stop at this church, where the first Nazareth community surely came to pray.
On the site where the Basilica stands today stood in ancient times three temples dedicated to mythical goddesses: Isis, Serapi and Minerva. In the 8th century, a small church is built here (sopra Minerva meaning “above Minerva”), which Pope Zechariah entrusts to the Basilian nuns, who came from the Christian East. At the end of the 13th century, the church is entrusted to the new Dominican Order. Very soon their monastery, inhabited by more than fifty monks, becomes one of the most important in Rome. In the 16th century, the College of St. Thomas Aquinas is established here – today the Pontifical University “Angelicum” (moved to another location), where Karol Wojtyla, among others, was educated.
During Napoleon’s occupation of Rome (early 19th century), they turned the Basilica into barracks, profaning and destroying this remarkable shrine significantly. In 1871, the new Roman authorities took ownership of the church and monastery. Only after the Lateran Treaties were concluded in 1929 were some of the rooms given back to the Dominicans so that they could live there and minister in the Basilica.
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is the only Gothic church in Rome. The modest, simple facade hides an interior that will amaze you as soon as you cross the church’s threshold. In the Basilica we can see fresco-decorated chapels, paintings by famous artists, tombs of several popes and Michelangelo’s sculpture of Christ the Redeemer, around which most visitors gather. A few steps further on, at the side exit of the Basilica, we come across the white tombstone of the Dominican Blessed John of Fiesole known as Fra Angelico (1395-1455). His probably internationally recognizable frescoes are projected on a screen standing right next to the tomb.
Nazareth tradition says that Frances Siedliska liked to pray in this church before the image of Our Lady of the Rosary, hardly visible today, placed in a side chapel intended for the liturgical prayers of the monks. Knowing the Foundress’ reverence for the saints, however, we have no doubt that she stopped to pray in one more place: at the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena. But about that in the next episode…

Photos – Sr. Beata Rudzinska CSFN
Piazza della Minerva
Facade of the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Vault, presbytery of the Basilica
Christ the Redeemer by Michelangelo
Chapel with the image of Our Lady of the Rosary
Fra Angelico’s tomb