Sant'Egidio is a convent church in

Trastevere Trastevere () is the 13th ''rione'' of Rome: it is identified by the initials R. XIII and it is located within Municipio I. Its name comes from Latin ''trans Tiberim'', literally 'beyond the Tiber'. Its coat of arms depicts a golden head of a lio ...

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 ...

. Sant'Egidio (

St. Giles Saint Giles (, la, Aegidius, french: Gilles), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 6th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly lege ...

) is the patron saint of

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

s. The church was founded in 1630 and was abandoned by the nuns in 1971. In 1973, it was occupied by the

Community of Sant'Egidio The Community of Sant'Egidio ( it, Comunità di Sant'Egidio) is a lay Catholic association dedicated to social service, founded in 1968 under the leadership of Andrea Riccardi. The group grew and in 1973 was given a home at the former Carmelite ...

, which had been founded in 1968, and was still looking for a meeting place of its own. The community, which had not had a name before, then chose to name itself after its church. Together with the adjacent former

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...

monastery, the church forms the seat of the

. It has been the titular church of Cardinal

Matteo Zuppi Matteo Maria Zuppi (born 11 October 1955) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bologna, Bologna since 12 December 2015. He was previously an auxiliary bishop of Rome from 2012 to 2 ...

since 5 October 2019.

Notes and references

* Pierre Anouilh, "Des pauvres a la paix. Aspects de l'action pacificatrice de Sant'Egidio au Mozambique", _LFM. Sciences sociales et mmissions_, No.17, Dec. 2005, pp. 11–40 * Eric Morier-Genoud, "Sant’ Egidio et la paix. Interviews de Don Matteo Zuppi & Ricardo Cannelli", _LFM. Sciences sociales et mmissions_, Oct 2003, pp. 119–145

External links

The Community of Sant'Egidio homepage

DREAM (Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and malnutrition) programm - The Community of Sant'Egidio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Egidio, Santo, Rome 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy

Egidio Egidio is an Italian masculine given name. People with the name include: Given name * Egidio (saint) (circa 650–710), Christian hermit saint * Egidio Colonna, Giles of Rome (circa 1243–1316), European intellectual, archbishop * Egidio da Viterb ...

Churches of Rome (rione Trastevere)