Santa Maria della Concezione () is a church 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 ...

, located on Piazza Campo Marzio in the

Campo Marzio Campo Marzio is the 4th ''rione'' of Rome, identified by the initials R. IV. It belongs to the Municipio I and covers a smaller section of the area of the ancient ''Campus Martius''. The logo of this rione is a silver crescent on a blue backgroun ...

rione A (; plural: ) is a neighbourhood in several Italian cities. A is a territorial subdivision. The larger administrative subdivisions in Rome are the , with the being used only in the historic centre. The word derives from the Latin , the 14 su ...

''. It serves as the national church in Rome for Syriac Catholics.

History

The church and its adjoining monastery traditionally originated in connection with the

Iconoclastic controversy The Byzantine Iconoclasm ( gr, Εικονομαχία, Eikonomachía, lit=image struggle', 'war on icons) were two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when the use of religious images or icons was opposed by religious and imperial au ...

within the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

, when some Basilian nuns fled from Constantinople to Rome in the 8th century. They brought with them various relics, including the body of

Gregory of Nazianzus Gregory of Nazianzus ( el, Γρηγόριος ὁ Ναζιανζηνός, ''Grēgorios ho Nazianzēnos''; ''Liturgy of the Hours'' Volume I, Proper of Saints, 2 January. – 25 January 390,), also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory N ...

. They were given a home on the site now occupied by the church, where they founded a monastery with a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary and an oratory next to the church to contain Gregory's remains. The earliest reference to the monastery is ''Regestum Sublacense'', a charter of 6 October 937. Between 1562 and 1564 abbess Chiarina Colonna (from the powerful

Colonna family The House of Colonna, also known as ''Sciarrillo'' or ''Sciarra'', is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It was powerful in Middle Ages, medieval and Roman Renaissance, Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Pope Martin ...

) built a new church dedicated to the Virgin Mary behind the ancient chapel and oratory of Saint Gregory, accessible via the convent or from outside it. It had a single nave and a rectangular apse. Saint Gregory's body was translated to the

Basilica of St Peter The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a Church (building), church built in the Renaissance architecture, Renaissanc ...

in 1580. In the 17th century the convent was enlarged and re-ordered by

Carlo Maderno Carlo Maderno (Maderna) (1556 – 30 January 1629) was an Italian architect, born in today's Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle ...

and

Francesco Peparelli Francesco Peparelli (died 6 November 1641, Rome) was an Italian architect during the 17th century. According to a contemporary historian, Giovanni Baglione, between palaces, castles, churches and convents, Peparelli participated in about seventy co ...

, with work completed by 1660. The 16th century church was completely rebuilt according to the wishes of abbess Maria Olimpia Pani, to plans by

Giovanni Antonio De Rossi Giovanni Antonio de' Rossi (1616–1695) was an Italian architect of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome. Life He was a contemporary of Carlo Rainaldi. In 1657, he completed the sacristy of Tivoli Cathedral. That same year, he designed the r ...

. During excavations in 1777 as part of expanding the convent a column was discovered - this was re-erected in 1856 in the

Piazza di Spagna Piazza di Spagna ("Spanish Square"), at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, is one of the most famous squares in Rome, Italy. It owes its name to the Palazzo di Spagna, the seat of the Embassy of Spain to the Holy See. There is also the famed Colum ...

as the base for a statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, in commemoration of that belief being proclaimed a dogma by

pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...

. During the

Napoleonic occupation of Rome The Kingdom of Italy (1805–1814; it, Regno d'Italia; french: Royaume d'Italie) was a kingdom in Northern Italy (formerly the Italian Republic) in personal union with Napoleon I's French Empire. It was fully influenced by revolutionary France ...

the church was deconsecrated and used as a

lottery A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...

office. It reopened to the public in 1816 and now holds services according to the Syrian-Antioch rite, as the

national church A national church is a Christian church associated with a specific ethnic group or nation state. The idea was notably discussed during the 19th century, during the emergence of modern nationalism. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in a draft discussing ...

for

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and the seat of the procurator to the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

for the Syrian Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch.

Description

In front of the church's facade is the internal courtyard of the monastery, at the side of piazza Campo Marzio and entered via a three-arched portico.

Bibliography

* M. Armellini
''Le chiese di Roma dal secolo IV al XIX'', Roma 1891
p. 334 * C. Hulsen
''Le chiese di Roma nel Medio Evo'', Firenze 1927
pp. 320–321

p. 365 * C. Rendina, ''Le Chiese di Roma'', Newton & Compton Editori, Milano 2000, p. 233 * M. Quercioli, ''Rione IV Campo Marzio'', in AA.VV, ''I rioni di Roma'', Newton & Compton Editori, Milano 2000, Vol. I, pp. 264–334 {{Authority control

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

Maria Concezione