San Gregorio della Divina Pietà is a small

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church facing the ''Piazza Gerusalemme'' located in

Rione Sant'Angelo Sant'Angelo is the 11th ''rione'' of Rome, Italy, located in Municipio I. Often written as ''rione XI - Sant'Angelo'', it has a coat of arms with an angel on a red background, holding a palm branch in its left hand. In another version, the angel h ...

, in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is located near the

Great Synagogue of Rome The Great Synagogue of Rome ( it, Tempio Maggiore di Roma) is the largest synagogue in Rome. History The Jewish community of Rome goes back to the 2nd century B.C when the Roman Republic had an alliance of sorts with Judea under the leadership ...

and the former Jewish quarter of Rome. It is sometimes referred to as San Gregorietto due to its small size. In the past, it was also called San Gregorio a Ponte Quattro Capi or ''Pons Judaeorum'' due to its proximity to the bridge known now as ''

Pons Fabricius The Pons Fabricius ( it, Ponte Fabricio, "Fabrician Bridge") or Ponte dei Quattro Capi, is the oldest Roman bridge in Rome, Italy, still existing in its original state. Built in 62 BC, it spans half of the Tiber River, from the Campus Martiu ...

'', connecting the sector to the

Tiber island The Tiber Island ( it, Isola Tiberina, Latin: ''Insula Tiberina'') is the only river island in the part of the Tiber which runs through Rome. Tiber Island is located in the southern bend of the Tiber. The island is boat-shaped, approximately ...

History and Art

Inschrift San Gregorio della Divina Pietà

A shrine at the site is likely very ancient, although the first documentation of a church of this name dates to the twelfth century.Pietrangeli, 14. It was built over the houses of the

gens Anicia The gens Anicia (or the Anicii) was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, mentioned first towards the end of the fourth century BC. The first of the Anicii to achieve prominence under the Republic was Lucius Anicius Gallus, who conducted the war a ...

, and later dedicated to

Pope Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...

, because of the tradition that the saint was born here. San Gregorio was declared a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

and remained so until 1729, although in the 16th century it lost almost all its territory due to the establishment of the nearby

Ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

. In 1729 the rectangular building was restored by

Filippo Barigioni Filippo Barigioni (1690–1753) was an Italian sculptor and architect working in the Late Baroque tradition. Bariogioni was born in Rome. His career was spent largely on papal commissions, including aqueducts and fountains, in and around Rome. ...

on behalf of

Pope Benedict XIII Pope Benedict XIII ( la, Benedictus XIII; it, Benedetto XIII; 2 February 1649 – 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May ...

, and given to the Congregation of the ''Operai della Divina Pietà'' (Workers of the Divine Mercy), founded in 1679 to help families once well off which had fallen into poverty—its modern appellation comes from that. Low on the external north wall is an 18th-century alms slot with an Italian inscription reading "Alms for poor, honorable and ashamed families". A few yards away is another slot inscribed "MEMORIALI", used to give the priests the names of the persons or families in difficulty. Ripa - Elemosiniera per le famiglie vergognose a s Gregorio ai 4 capi O4300103

Ripa - Elemosiniera per le famiglie vergognose a s Gregorio ai 4 capi O4300103

The church belonged originally to the ''rione'' Ripa, but after the demolitions around the

Theater of Marcellus The Theatre of Marcellus ( la, Theatrum Marcelli, it, Teatro di Marcello) is an ancient open-air theatre in Rome, Italy, built in the closing years of the Roman Republic. At the theatre, locals and visitors alike were able to watch performances o ...

between 1926 and 1930, it was assigned to the ''rione'' Sant'Angelo.Pietrangeli, 7. Until 1870, the pope required the Jews living in the nearby ghetto to attend compulsory sermons ( it, prediche coatte) every

sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

in front of the church, which faced two gates of the Jewish quarter, but they avoided hearing them by putting wax in their ears. Because of this, during a restoration in 1858, a bilingual (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

) inscription with a passage from the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC ...

(), in which the Lord complains about the obstinacy of the Jews, was put on the facade.The inscription says: "I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, that walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts; a people that provokes me to my face continually . . ." The facade by Barigioni is decorated with

Étienne Parrocel Étienne Parrocel known as Le Romain (Avignon, January 8, 1696 - Rome, August 26 or January 13, 1775 or 1776) was a French painter working in Rome in the eighteenth century. Biography The son of and Jeanne Marie Périer, he belonged to a prol ...

's painting of

the Crucifixion The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and considere ...

, framed in an oval. The interior is rectangular with one nave: painted on the vault, the ''Assunzione di Maria'' of Giuseppe Sereni; on the main altar, the ''Madonna della divina pietà'' of

Gilles Hallet Gilles Alé (or Hallet; 1620 in Liege – 1694 in Rome), a Flemish painter, worked in the latter half of the 17th century, and was distinguished for the purity of his style, according to the principles of the Roman school. According to the RKD ...

. Andrea Casali painted on the altar to the right a St Philip Neri in ecstasyPietrangeli, 16. and two ovals representing

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

saints.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gregorio della Divina Pieta, San Roman Catholic churches in Rome 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in 1729 Jewish Roman (city) history Churches of Rome (rione Sant'Angelo) 1729 establishments in the Papal States Late Modern Christian anti-Judaism