The Sistine Chapel (within Santa Maria Maggiore built 1584 A.D.)

This is the Sistine Chapel.  I’m serious. This really is the Sistine Chapel—or at least one of them. Pope Sixtus V (1584-87) died and was buried in Santa Maria Maggiore. That’s him seated in grandeur on the back wall right above his tomb. The Sistine Chapel you’re thinking of was built by Sixtus IV in

1474. An easy mistake. I get those Sexti mixed up all the time. Sextus V did a lot for Rome: he paved many of the streets, and helped to clean up the mess when the city was sacked by Charles V’s German army in 1527. Germans have never been popular in Rome—the first crew came through in 390 B.C. and took the place apart that time as well.

Look at the decoration on the walls: the carvings, the color, the intricacy. Layer upon layer of decoration have made this church amazingly intense. The shell of the basilica is just that: a classic Roman law court design with a long, open space, supported by columns, with a semi-circular apse at one end. This was where the judge sat when court was in session. When the buildings were adapted for worship, Christians placed the altar where the judicial bench had been.  During the Renaissance, carvings and inlays were added, along with a coffered wooden ceiling covered in gold leaf. The gold is said to be the first that Christopher Columbus found in the New World, and was sent to the Pope as a gift.

Although there are no relics of Mary in Santa Maria, there is one of interest: in a case near the high altar are a few pieces of wood said to be parts of the crib of Jesus. I love the interiors of the churches in Rome.  Huge, empty, muffled atmospherics. A low buzz from the crowd of people hits you the minute you walk in. There is no smell like an Italian church. It’s a combination of damp plaster, mildew from old marble, tarnished bronze, incense, wax candles, and decayed flowers.

The last time we were in Santa Maria, we saw a small procession emerge from a side chapel. It was late in the day. A minor ceremony--perhaps a private mass--was being performed.  No one in the crowd noticed who was passing by.  First, an altar boy emerged with a cross, then a lector followed with the scriptures, lastly, a single figure brought up the rear of the small procession. It was a bishop. Rome is so overwhelmed with Catholicism, that a bishop is of no more interest to the average Roman than a Fiat automobile. That’s something!

The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, Italy

    Looking southeast, crowning the Esquiline Hill, lies the imposing hulk of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Rome is built partly on swamp and marsh, and partly on densely packed volcanic soil called, in Italian, tufa.  The tufa has two qualities; it transmits city noise easily and it absorbs the heat of the day. This has always made sleeping in Rome a challenge. Pope Liberius was having trouble sleeping one night in August of 356 A.D. It was hot (air conditioning in Italy to this day does not meet U.S. standards), and noisy. Suddenly, he had a strange experience: The Blessed Mother appeared to him and commanded that a church be built in her honor on the summit of the Esquiline, with one of the best views of Rome.  She assured Liberius that she would send a sign the next day to show exactly where she wanted her church constructed. The next morning, all Rome was astounded to see that snow had fallen in August on the hill in the shape of the future basilica!

The outline of the church was pretty big.  Liberius was trying to figure out what all this would cost when he received word that someone else had also had trouble sleeping the night before. A wealthy Roman businessman named John the Patrician (why don’t we have names like that today?), rushed up and told an incredible story. The Holy Mother had also appeared to him in a dream, and commanded him to finance any and all construction of basilicas that the Pope might dream about! Talk about your miracles! And so the church was built, one of the most beautiful—though not the largest--of Rome’s basilicas. The church is unique in that it was not built to mark the site of a saint’s grave or to specifically house precious relics. According to the Doctrine of the Assumption, Mary, after dying, was assumed--her body intact--into heaven, leaving no physical remains behind on earth.

Now the problems begin. Near the apse is an ancient inscription naming the basilica’s patron—and it’s not Liberius.  Santa Maria was actually built by Pope Sixtus III (432-40) according to this inscription. And if you want to know the truth, even that’s not right!  It seems to have been Pope Celestine I (422-32) who first started construction. In 431, Celestine had presided over the Council of Ephesus during which a ferocious argument had occurred over the nature of Christ. A monk named Nestorius claimed that Christ contained within himself two separate natures; divine and human, the lesser nature being human, which he derived from Mary. This argument was rejected by the council, and Celestine came back to Rome determined to build a church to the divine, and greater, nature, and dedicate it to Mary, “the bearer of God” (Theotokos).  He began construction in 431. Good story though. Bet the part about the local businessmen having to pay for it all is true though.