80th Grand Master of the Order of Malta

It has been announced from the Grand Magistry of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, known as the Order of Malta, that Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto has been elected 80th Grand Master of the Order today. The newly elected Grand Master will swear his oath before the Pope’s Special Delegate to the Sovereign Order of Malta, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, and the members of the Council Complete of State tomorrow morning in the Church of Santa Maria in Aventino. Long live the Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta!

Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (8) - Day 2 Continued

Once we had paid our respects at the Chiesa Nuova, we crossed the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, the wide street driven through the heart of Medieval Rome from the Church of the Gesù to the Tiber. We walked up the Vicolo Cellini and onto the old Via dei Banchi Vecchi. Before turning towards the Piazza Farnese, we stopped at the Oratory of the Gonfalone Confraternity, one of the many Confraternity Chapels in the city.

Looking back to the Chiesa Nuova

Oratory of the Gonfalone

The old Medieval road splits between the Via del Pellegrino and the Via di Monserrato. Pilgrims, though we may have been, we took the latter. We passed the Piazza Ricci, where the Palazzo Ricci was under restoration. Then we visited the Spanish National Church of Santa Maria di Monserrato, where Popes Callixtus III Borgia (1378 – 1458) and his nephew Alexander VI Borgia (1431-1503) are buried.

Piazza Ricci

Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli

The small Piazza di Santa Catharina della Rota contains two beautiful little Churches, the eponymous Santa Catharina, home of the Confraternity of Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri exiled from their Church at the Borgo gate to the Vatican and famed for its wooden coffered ceiling, and the Church of San Girolamo della Carità, said to be on the site where St. Jerome lived while he was secretary to Pope Damasus I, and which is now part of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, of which more on Friday. Also on the Piazza is the side of the Church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury, the Church attached to the Venerable English College.

Piazza di Santa Catharina della Rota

San Girolamo della Carità

The Church of Brigitte of Sweden, where the Saint lived while in Rome and where the Congregation of Brigittines founded by her still reside, is on the Piazza Farnese, which is just a few steps away.

Santa Brigida and the view towards Sant'Ivo

Pilgrimage to Rome 2017 (7) - Day 2

After Mass in the Church of Sant'Eustachio for the feast of All Saints, our pilgrims made their way up the Via della Dogana Vecchia to the Church of San Luigi dei Franchesi. This is another of the National Churches of Rome that we visited on the feast of All Saints. Having passed across the Piazza Navona we visited Santa Maria dell'Anima of the Germans and San Nicola dei Lorenesi and then passed down the Vicolo della Pace to enter the Teatro of Santa Maria della Pace, built under our friend Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere and completed under our dear friend Pope Alexander VII Chigi. Santa Maria dell'Anima

Santa Maria della Pace

We made our way down the way of Peace to the Via del Governo Vecchio, part of the old Via Papale, the main thoroughfare of Papal Rome, and down to the Chiesa Nuova, the new Church of Santa Maria in Vallicella, the home of the Oratorians and the tomb of St. Philip Neri.