Santa Maria sopro Minerva

S. Maria sopra Minerva
The Basilica of Saint Mary Above Minerva
(Latin: Sanctae Mariae supra Minervam, Italian:
Santa Maria sopra Minerva) is a minor basilica
under the care of the Dominican Order. Located
in the Piazza della Minerva, it is considered the
only true Gothic church in Rome. It houses the tombs
of the St. Catherine of Siena and the Dominican
painter Blessed Fra Angelico. The father of modern
astronomy, Galileo, after being tried for heresy in
the adjoining monastery, retracted his scientific
theses in the church on the 22nd of June 1633.
The basilica gets its name because, like many
early Christian basilicas, it was built directly over
(sopra) the foundations of a temple dedicated to
the Egyptian goddess Isis, but erroneously ascribed
to the Greco-Roman goddess Minerva.
Bernini’s little elephant sculpture stands outside the
Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It depicts an
elephant as the supporting base for the Egyptian
obelisk found in the Dominican' garden. It is the
shortest of the eleven Egyptian obelisks in Rome and is
said to have been one of two obelisks moved from
Sais, where they were built during the reign of the
Pharaoh Apries (589 BC-570 BC) of Egypt.
The two obelisks were brought to Rome by the
Emperor Diocletian (284 - 305 AD) for placement at
the Temple of Isis which stood nearby. The Latin
inscription on the base, chosen by Pope Alexander VII
who commissioned the sculpture to support the obelisk,
reads "...a strong mind is needed to support a solid
knowledge".
Filippino Lippi
Madonna & Child with Saints and the Capranica Brothers
1488.
Antoniazzo Romano
The Annunciation
with Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, OP
1485.
Above the tomb of Guilaumme
Durand, Bishop of Mende,
who died in 1296,
is this mosaic of the
Madonna and Child,
St Dominic and St Privatus,
with a smaller figure
of Bishop Durand,
kneeling in prayer.
S.Maria sopro Minerva is filled with
many beautiful treasures.
St Catherine was born in Siena, Italy in 1347. She
pursued a life of prayer, fasting and penance as a
Dominican from the age of 16. She was passionate in
her love for Christ and the Church, and in1376 she
wrote successfully to Pope Gregory XI to induce him
to return the papacy from Avignon to Rome.
She left behind remarkable writings of spiritual
and theological doctrine. She died in Rome in 1380
and her tomb is under the main altar of the church,
although her head was later brought back to her
hometown of Siena. She was canonized by Pius II
on 29 June 1461 and was declared a Doctor of the
Church by Paul VI in 1970, and one of the patrons of
Europe by Pope John Paul II.
The Florentine Dominican friar and painter,
Blessed John of Fiesole, more commonly known
as Fra Angelico, is buried to the left of the main
altar. He died here in 1455, and this effigy of
the saint was sculpted from his death mask by
Isaia da Pisa. He is patron saint of artists.
Michelangelo’s statue of the Risen
Christ, to the left of the main altar,
with the tomb of Blessed Fra Angelo in
the background.
Details from a painting by
Blessed Fra Angelico.