SANTA MARIA IN TRASTEVERE The title takes its name from the ancient basilica church and monastery located in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, whence the name. It is generally believed that Pope Callixtus (217-222) founded the first Christian church on this site as early as the third century (see the title Our Lady Beyond the Tiber). Legend says that the image of the Madonna and the infant Jesus in the Byzantine style enshrined in the church and attributed to St. Luke was placed there by St. Helena, who brought the icon to Rome in 352, around the time the forerunner of the present church was constructed. Santa Maria in Trastevere is venerated for the deliverance of the people from epidemics. The image is also referred to as a “BV in SS Domenico e Sisto” (see below). In the year 591 AD, a plague descended upon Italy, and Pope St. Gregory the Great led a solemn procession through the streets of Rome carrying an icon of the Mother of God from the church in Trastevere and ending at Hadrian’s Tomb, now called Castle San Angelo. An angelic choir was heard to be sing the Resurrection hymn: Regina coeli, laetare, alleluia; Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia; Resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia. 237 to which the Pontiff added Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia . (Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia; for He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia; has risen as He said, alleluia; pray for us to God, alleluia.) At those words the plague ended. The event, celebrated each year on February 24, is known as the feast of the Procession of Pope St. Gregory with a Painting of Our Lady by St. Luke. Another legend says that the icon carried by the St. Gregory was the Salus Populi Romani Icon , but that image cannot be dated earlier than the eighth century. Three centuries later, Pope Sergius III (904-911) had the painting moved from the convent of nuns at the monastery of St. Mary in the Temple and placed in the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Legend has it that the picture miraculously found its way back to the monastery of its own accord. Pope Honorius had wished to assemble nuns scattered in monasteries through Rome at St. Sixtus and make profession to blessed Dominic. The Gilbertines at St. Mary in the Temple resisted. After considerable wrangling, they agreed on condition that their miraculous icon accompanied them and remained at St. Sistus, and there no repeat of the affair involving the Lateran Basilica. In 1218 or 1219, St. Dominic, with the approval of the Vatican, personally transferred the painting from the monastery to the old church dedicated to St. Sixtus II, who was martyred in 258. Pope Honorius III had granted the church, San Sisto Vecchio, located on Via Appia in the old patrician quarter of the city, to St. Dominic and the Order of Friar Preachers. The transfer of the painting and the imposition of vows constituted the last steps in the establishment of the second house of religious women living under the rule of St. Dominic. The origins of the present basilica are believed to have the popes Calixtus I, Julius I, and Cornelius that had been exhumed from the catacombs. Renovations continued until the church was totally rebuilt in the 12th century by Pope Innocent II (1130-1143), using materials from the ancient Baths of Caracalla. Most of the present building dates from this period. The portico was added in the 19th century. The church holds a relic of Saint Apollonia and a portion of the Holy Sponge. Also see the title Our Lady Beyond the Tiber. *St. Helena (mem. August 18), the mother of Constantine the Great, lived her last years in Palestine where she died c. 330. Her body was subsequently brought to Rome. The last coins that bore her name, Flava Julia Helena, were minted in 330. For more on St. Helena see Our Lady of the Cross.