Page 10 - Clipper Cruise Book

Santa Maria in Trastevere
was first built in 337 AD and
is believed to be one of the
oldest churches in Rome and
a site of worship when
Christianity was a minority
cult and the emperors were
pagan.
Pope Innocent II razed the
church in 1140-43 along
with the recently completed
tomb of his former rival, the
Antipope Anacletus II. When
it was re-erected on its old
foundation, he arranged for
his own burial on the spot
formerly occupied by his
rival’s tomb. Nice guy.

 Online Video: Basilica
di Santa Maria in
Trastevere (2m 55s)

About ten minutes walk from the
Palazzo Baj is Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.
The church is believed to have existed
here since the third century AD in the
home of Cecilia, a Roman noble woman,
martyred here for her faith. She survived
an attempt to execute her with steam in
her own bath-house and a botched
attempt at beheading which left her
lingering for three days.
Under the main altar is a glass case
enclosing the white marble sculpture of
St.Cecilia by the sculptor Stefano
Maderno. A marble slab in the
pavement in front of the case, quotes
Maderno's sworn statement that he has
recorded the body as he saw it when the
tomb was opened in 1599.

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