Santa Maria dell'Orto

About

Santa Maria dell'Orto is a church in the Rione of Trastevere in Rome (Italy). It is the national church of Japan in Rome.

The church is set in the middle of the area that has been called the Prata Mucia ("Fields of Mucius") since about 508 BC; it was here that the Etruscan king Porsena had made his encampment, and that later the Roman Senate donated to Mucius Scaevola as a sign of gratitude of Rome for his heroic actions. The origins of the church are associated with a miracle that is supposed to have happened circa 1488. A sick farmer, afflicted with a serious palsy according to oral history, was healed after praying to an image of the Virgin Mary painted close to the entrance to his own market garden. The event led to popular worship for the painting, and subsequently a small votive chapel was erected, soon followed by a greater church, funded by 12 professional associations ( Università ). In 1492, Pope Alexander VI allowed the establishment of a confraternity and in 1588 (with a brief dated 20 March) Pope Sixtus V declared it an " archconfraternity " and bestowed on it the rare privilege of asking for the pardon of a person condemned to death, during its titular feast. During the 1825 Jubilee, it was honored with the title of Venerable.

As an archconfraternity, it could attach [ clarification needed ] other confraternities, anywhere in the world; therefore, during the 1600 Jubilee – through a notary deed dated 30 April – it was aggregated to the Confraternity of the Oratory of Nostra Signora di Castello, established in Savona in 1260.

Construction was begun in 1489 by an unknown architect and completed in 1567. Its façade is largely ascribed to Vignola (though sometimes attributed to Martino Longhi the Elder ), while the interior is by Guidetto Guidetti, a pupil of Michelangelo who transformed the former Greek-cross design (with four apses) into a Latin-cross structure with three naves.

The church houses works of art by the brothers Federico and Taddeo Zuccari, Corrado Giaquinto and Giovanni Baglione.

The church is still guarded by the Archconfraternity of S. Maria dell'Orto that, due to the seniority of its papal establishment, is the most ancient of the Confraternities consecrated to the Holy Virgin still active in Rome, and one of the first overall.

The port, the Università and the Confraternity

The area around the church was used for farming and trading - mainly wholesale - until the end of the 19th century. Due to its position on the margin of the walls, not far from Porta Portese and close to the Port of Ripa Grande, it had great commercial importance, and the church became a reference point for the professional associations involved in the food supply of the town and of the ships from and to Ostia through the Tiber : foodstuffs producers and merchants, as well as brokers and service suppliers. The Archconfraternity, which was also open to women, gathered 13 Università (the Roman equivalent of the guilds ), showing the economic significance of the area:

- the Grocers and Greengrocers (the founders);

- the Agents of Ripa (brokers of local trades);

- the Millers (the mills on the Tiber had a great importance for flour supply);

- the Vermicellari (producers of pasta);

- the Young men (shop boys and navvies belonging to various universities). (The term Università comes from the Latin universitas - that means "union", "association" - with the more specific meaning of "aggregation of all men practicing the same activity").

Relationship with the Japanese community

The church is also the reference church for the Catholic Japanese community of Rome.

The relationship between the Japanese community and the church has an ancient origin: a Japanese mission (" Tenshō embassy "), consisting of four dignitaries, came to Rome in 1585 to meet the Pope. One of the feasts, thrown in honour of the guests who had come from such a distance, consisted of a sailing on Tiber from the Port of Ripa Grande to Ostia, which should have been followed by a feast on the sea with musicians and singers. But a storm rose and everybody dreaded for his life. So they implored the Virgin of the church that they had visited before leaving, and the storm calmed down. The event gave rise to the tradition of a sung Mass that is celebrated on 8 June (the anniversary day), with the attendance of delegates from the Japan Embassy in the Holy See and from the Japanese community in Rome (source: Enrico Pucci). Since 2007, in order to guarantee a better exposure, the event is commemorated during the Titular Holiday.

In October 2009, a portrait of Giuliano (Julião) Nakaura – one of the four ambassadors, who suffered martyrdom in 1633 and was beatified in 2008 – was placed in the church.

The pro tempore Ambassador of Japan in the Holy See is traditionally honored with the office of Warden of Honour of the association.

The area around the church was used for farming and trading - mainly wholesale - until the end of the 19th century. Due to its position on the margin of the walls, not far from Porta Portese and close to the Port of Ripa Grande, it had great commercial importance, and the church became a reference point for the professional associations involved in the food supply of the town and of the ships from and to Ostia through the Tiber : foodstuffs producers and merchants, as well as brokers and service suppliers. The Archconfraternity, which was also open to women, gathered 13 Università (the Roman equivalent of the guilds ), showing the economic significance of the area:

- the Grocers and Greengrocers (the founders);