Santi Quaranta Martiri e San Pasquale Baylon, Rome

Facade

Santi Quaranta Martiri e San Pasquale Baylon is a Roman Catholic church, built in a late-Baroque style, located on Via San Francesco a Ripa in the Rione Trastevere, Rome, Italy.

History

The church was originally founded by Pope Callixtus II in 1122 and dedicated to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, persecuted under Emperor Licinius in 316. Tradition holds that they died overnight from exposure from being forced unclothed on to a frozen lake. The name of the church then was popularly the Santi Quaranta.

Restorations occurred in 1608 under the Arch-Confraternity of the Gonfalone. But between 1744–1747, it was rebuilt by the architect Giuseppe Sardi by an order of Franciscans linked to St Peter of Alcantara, and they also dedicated the church to the Spanish priest, Pasquale or Pascual Baylón, canonized in 1690, and invoked as the patron of young unmarried women (zitelle), specially those in hope of marriage. The church was patronized by the Kingdom of Spain starting in 1738 in the reign of Philip V of Spain, and continuing until the rule of Isabella II of Spain in 1856. The church is still maintained by the Spanish Alcantarine Franciscan order.

Art

The facade has the heraldic shield of Philip V of Spain. The ceilings are frescoed by Matteo Panaria and depicts in the nave, the Glory of San Pedro de Alcantara, while the transept crossing depicts Glory of San Pascual.

Bibliography

• Christian Hülsen, Le chiese di Roma nel Medio Evo, Firenze 1927
• Mariano Armellini, [1]
• Text derived from Italian Wikipedia article.
• Le chiese di Roma dalle loro origini sino al secolo XVI., by Mariano Armellini, p. 569–570.