Santa Cecilia in Trastevere

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Facade of Santa Cecilia, a 1725 project by Ferdinando Fuga, with the 12th century belltower.

Martyr of Saint Cecilia, by Stefano Maderno, one of the most famous examples of Baroque sculpture.

The crypt is also noteworthy, decorated with cosmatesque style, keeping the relics of St. Cecilia and St. Valerian.

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is a 5th century church of Rome, located in the Trastevere rione and devoted to Saint Cecilia.

1 History
2 The church
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

The Last Judgement (detail of the apostles), by Pietro Cavallini (1295-1300).

The first church of Santa Cecilia was founded probably in the 5th century, by Pope Urban I, and devoted to the Roman martyr Cecilia. Tradition holds that the church was built over the house of the saint. The baptistery of this church, together with the remains of a Roman Imperial house, was found during some excavations under the Chapel of the Relics. In the synod of 499 of Pope Symmachus, the church is indicated with the Titulus Ceciliae. On 22 November 545, Pope Vigilius was celebrating the saint in the church, when the emissary of Empress Theodora, Antemi Scribone, captured him.

Pope Paschal I rebuilt the church in 822, and moved here the relics of St Cecilia from the catacombs of St Calixtus. More restorations followed in the 18th century.

The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Caeciliae is Carlo Maria Martini. Among the previous titulars are Pope Stephen III, Thomas Wolsey and Giuseppe Maria Doria Pamphili.

[edit] The church

The church has a façade built in 1725 by Ferdinando Fuga, which includes a courtyard decorated with ancient mosaics, columns and a cantharus (water vessel). It includes the coat of arms and the dedication to the titular cardinal who paid for the facade, Francesco Cardinal Acquaviva d'Aragona.

Of the 13th century edifice, precious mosaics by Pietro Cavallini and the ciborium by Arnolfo di Cambio remain.

Stefano Maderno created the altar sculpture of St. Cecilia. This is modelled on the saint's body as Maderno saw her when, in 1595, her tomb was opened. In some ways, this sculpture prefigures the naturalistic representation of dying saints by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Beata Ludovica Albertoni and Melchiorre Caffà of Santa Rosa de Lima.

[edit] References

"Santa Cecilia in Trastevere", by Chris Nyborg.
(Italian) Armellini, Mariano, "S. Cecilia in Trastevere", Le chiese di Roma dal secolo IV al XIX, Tipografia Vaticana, 1891. Through Bill Thayer's site, Lacus Curtius.