Accommodation near Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore Rome

Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Santa Maria Maggiore)

The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (English: Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Latin: Basilica Sanctae Mariae Maioris), or church of Santa Maria Maggiore, is the largest Catholic Marian church in Rome, Italy.

Other churches in Rome dedicated to Mary include Santa Maria in Trastevere, Santa Maria in Aracoeli, and Santa Maria sopra Minerva, but the greater size of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major justifies the adjective by which it is distinguished from the other 25.

According to the 1929 Lateran Treaty, the basilica located in Italian territory is owned by the Holy See and enjoys extraterritorial status similar to that of foreign embassies.[Notes 2] The building is patrolled internally by police agents of Vatican City State, not by Italian police. It is located on Piazza del Esquilino, number 34, some five blocks southwest of the Stazione Termini.

Status as major basilica

No Catholic church can be honoured with the title of basilica unless by apostolic grant or from immemorial custom. Saint Mary Major is one of the only four that today hold the title of major basilica. The other three are Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter and Saint Paul outside the Walls. (The title of major basilica was once used more widely, being attached, for instance, to the basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi.) All the other Catholic churches that, either by grant of the Pope or by immemorial custom, hold the title of basilica are minor basilicas.

Until 2006, the four major basilicas, together with the basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls were referred to as the five "patriarchal basilicas" of Rome,[Notes 4] associated with the five ancient patriarchal sees of Christendom (see Pentarchy). Saint Mary Major was associated with the Patriarchate of Antioch. In the same year, the title of "patriarchal" was also removed from the basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.

The former five patriarchal basilicas with the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem and San Sebastiano fuori le mura formed the traditional Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome, which are visited by pilgrims during their pilgrimage to Rome following a 20 kilometres (12 mi) itinerary established by Saint Philip Neri on 25 February 1552, especially when seeking the plenary indulgence on Holy Years. For the Great Jubilee of 2000, Pope John Paul II replaced Saint Sebastian's church with the Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love.

History of the present church

It is agreed that the present church was built under Pope Sixtus III (432-440). The dedicatory inscription on the triumphal arch, Sixtus Episcopus plebi Dei, (Sixtus the bishop to the people of God) is an indication of that Pope's role in the construction. As well as this church on the summit of the Esquiline Hill, Pope Sixtus III is said to have commissioned extensive building projects throughout the city, which were continued by his successor Pope Leo I, the great.

The church retains the core of its original structure, despite several additional construction projects and damage by the earthquake of 1348.

Church building in Rome in this period, as exemplified in Saint Mary Major, was inspired by the idea of Rome being not just the centre of the world of the Roman Empire, as it was seen in the classical period, but the centre of the Christian world.

Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the first churches built in honour of the Virgin Mary, was erected in the immediate aftermath of the Council of Ephesus of 431, which proclaimed Mary Mother of God. Pope Sixtus III built it to commemorate this decision. Certainly, the atmosphere that generated the council gave rise also the mosaics that adorn the interior of the dedication: "whatever the precise connection was between council and church it is clear that the planners of the decoration belong to a period of concentrated debates on nature and status of the Virgin and incarnate Christ." The magnificent mosaics of the nave and triumphal arch, seen as "milestones in the depiction" of the Virgin, depict scenes of her life and that of Christ, but also scenes from the Old Testament: Moses striking the Red Sea, and Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea.

Richard Krautheimer attributes the magnificence of the work also to the abundant revenue accruing to the papacy at the time from land holdings acquired by the Church during the 4th and 5th centuries on the Italian peninsula: "Some of these holdings were locally controlled; the majority as early as the end of the 5th century were administered directly from Rome with great efficiency: a central accounting system was involved in the papal chancery; and a budget was apparently prepared, one part of the income going to the papal administration, another to the needs of the clergy, a third to the maintenance of church buildings, a fourth to charity. These fines enabled the papacy to carry out through the 5th century an ambitious building program, including Santa Maria Maggiore."

Miri Rubin believes that the building of the basilica was influenced also by seeing Mary as a one who could represent the imperial ideals of classical Rome, bringing together the old Rome and the new Christian Rome: "In Rome, the city of martyrs, if no longer of emperors, Mary was a figure that could credibly carry imperial memories and representations."

When the popes returned to Rome after the period of the Avignon papacy, the buildings of the basilica became a temporary Palace of the Popes[citation needed] due to the deteriorated state of the Lateran Palace. The papal residence was later moved to the Palace of the Vatican in what is now Vatican City.

The basilica was restored, redecorated and extended by various popes, including Eugene III (1145–1153), Nicholas IV (1288–92), Clement X (1670–76), and Benedict XIV (1740–58), who in the 1740s commissioned Ferdinando Fuga to build the present façade and to modify the interior. The interior of the Santa Maria Maggiore underwent a broad renovation encompassing all of its altars between the years 1575 and 1630.