Santa Maria della Scala, Rome

About

Santa Maria della Scala (English: Mary of the Staircase) is a titular church in Rome, Italy, located in the Trastevere rione. It is served by friars of the Discalced Carmelite Order. Cardinal Ernest Simoni took possession of the titular church on 11 February 2017.

The church Santa Maria della Scala is located on the square of the same name. It was built under the patronage of Pope Clement VIII between 1593 and 1610 to house a miraculous icon of the Madonna. Tradition holds that a midwife with a dying child in her arms prayed under the stairs of a house where the image of the Madonna was present, and the child was immediately revived. Consecrated to Mary, mother of Jesus, the church enshrines that icon in the north transept, alongside a baroque statue of St John of the Cross. The church was built on the site of a house once bequeathed to a Casa Pia founded by Pope Pius IV in 1563 for reformed prostitutes. In 1597, the church was granted to the Discalced Carmelites.

Bronze statues of the Twelve Apostles were stolen from the sacristy during the Napoleonic era, and subsequently replaced by papier-mâché. [ citation needed ]

In 1849, during the last stages of the revolutionary Roman Republic 's resistance to the invading French forces, Santa Maria della Scala was used as a hospital where Garibaldi 's soldiers, who were wounded fighting in the Trastevere, were treated. [ citation needed ]

- Giovanni, Can.Reg.S.Fred. (17 December 1143 - 1153)

- Giovanni Pizzuti, C.R.S.V.P. (December 1155 - 1157)

- Girolamo, Can.Reg.S.Fred. (1164 - before 1177)

- Lanfredo (1166 - about 1168), pseudo-cardinal of Antipope Paschal III

- Matteo, Canon Regular (March 1178 - 1182)

- Albino da Milano, C.R. S. Maria di Crescenziano (1182 - 1185)

- Bernardo, Can.Reg.S.Fred. (12 March 1188 - 1193)

- Pietro Valeriano Duraguerra (17 December 1295 – 17 December 1302)

- Raymond de Got (15 December 1305 – 26 June 1310)

- Guillaume de Farges (19 December 1310 – 5 October 1346)

- Pierre Roger de Beaufort (29 May 1348 - 30 December 1370 elected pope)

- Ludovico di Capua (18 September 1378 - 1380)

- Amedeo di Saluzzo (or de Saluces) (23 December 1383 – 28 June 1419), pseudo-cardinal of Antipope Clement VII

- Marino Bulcani (20 November 1385 – 8 August 1394)

- Giacomo Isolani (1420 ? - 9 February 1431 died), pseudo-cardinal of Antipope John XXIII

- Pietro Barbo (1 July 1440 – 16 June 1451)