Saint Jerome of the Croats

About

Saint Jerome of the Croats is the national Catholic church of Croatia on Via Tomacelli in the Campus Martius of Rome. It is now a chapel of the Pontifical Croatian College of Saint Jerome in Rome and is only open to visitors by arrangement with the College.

It is also known as "St. Jerome of the Illyrians " ( Italian : San Girolamo degli Illirici ), and was formerly known as "St. Jerome of the Slavs" ( Italian : San Girolamo degli Schiavoni ).

It was first built in 1585-1587 for refugees from areas ruled by the Turks, and dedicated to St Jerome, who was from Dalmatia (former Roman Illyricum ). The small, ruined church of Santa Marina de Posterula had been given to them in 1453 (the year of the Fall of Constantinople ) by Pope Nicholas V, for the construction of a church and hospice. It once faced the port built on the Tiber River, called the Porto di Ripetta.

The confraternity was renamed Congregatio or "Society of St. Jerome" in 1544.

Around 1588, Pope Sixtus V, who as Cardinal Montalvo had served as cardinal-protector, commissioned Martino Longhi the Elder to completely rebuild the church and add a bell tower. The late Renaissance façade is of travertine, decorated with the pope’s emblems.

The fresco on the interior cupola was done in a trompe-l'œil effect by Giovanni Guerra around 1590. The Evangelists on the pendentives are by Paolo Guidotti. Andrea Lilio provided frescoes for the transept side vaults. Most of them had previously done work for Sixtus at the Vatican. Frescoes in the nave were completed by Pietro Gagliardi in 1847 from a bequest of Pope Pius IX.

The church underwent restoration in 2018 after the earthquakes of two years prior.

- Prospero Santacroce 8 February 1566 - 12 April 1570

- Felice Peretti 9 June 1570 - 24 April 1585

- Alessandro Damasceni Peretti 14 June 1585 - 24 April 1585

- Pedro de Deza 20 April 1587 - 18 August 1597

- Simeone Tagliavia d'Aragonia 18 August 1587 - 21 February 1600

- Felice Centini 12 September 1612 - 12 August 1613

- Matteo Priuli 17 October 1616 - 23 June 1621

- Giovanni Delfino (camerlengo) 23 June 1621 - 23 August 1622

- Péter Pázmány 31 May 1632 - 19 March 1637

- Girolamo Buonvisi 23 April 1657 - 21 February 1670

- Felice Piretti di Montalvo 20 November 1570 - 24 March 1585

- Lipót Kollonics 14 November 1689 - 20 January 1707

- Cornelio Bentivoglio 15 April 1720 - 25 June 1727