SPQR: Santa Maria in Ara Coeli

This crest is displayed to the right of the front door of the church designated as the Church of the Senate and the People of Rome, Santa Maria in Ara Coeli. It is on the Capitoline Hill next to the buildings of the Roman City Government that are around the Campidoglio, the Renaissance piazza designed by Michelangelo.

This is the brick facade of the church, seen between the white marble of the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II and one of the buildings of Michelangelo's Piazza. (For more about the church see the post below.)

SPQR are the first letters of the words in the Latin phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus, "The Senate and the People of Rome." It originally referred to the government of the ancient Roman Republic, and used as an official signature of the government, appearing on coins, civic inscriptions, and on the standards of the Roman legions. SPQR is the motto of the city of Rome and appears in the city's coat of arms, as well as on many of the city's civic buildings, public fountains, manhole covers, billboards and even some churches.

Bambino Gesù: in a church with a chubby Pope and 52 chandeliers

On Saturday I climbed up 124 "penitential" steps to reach the front door of the Church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli. It is where the Temple of Juno once stood on the Capitoline Hill. In the 6th century there was a Byzantine monastery on the site. The Benedictines were here from the 9th to the 13th century and the Franciscans built the current building in the early 14th century.

The church is most famous for the wooden statue of the infant Jesus -- Santo Bambino. The story goes that the Bambino was carved by a Franciscan friar during the 15th century in Jerusalem. According to the legend, the statue was miraculously painted by an angel as its Franciscan creator slept. The image was transported to Rome upon the orders of the Franciscan Curia, headquartered in the Church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli. Caught in a storm during the voyage to Europe, the wooden statue was thrown overboard. It bobbed around the stormy seas (even avoiding pirates) and finally landed at the feet of the Franciscan monk who had been waiting anxiously on the shore.

The Bambino receives letters from all over the world. There are baskets of them on both sides of his private altar. After a certain time they are burned, without being opened.

The statue was stolen in February 1994, and never recovered. Now a copy is on display in the church, housed in its own chapel by the sacristy. At midnight Mass on Christmas Eve the image is placed on a throne before the high altar and unveiled during the singing of the Gloria. Until Epiphany the jewel-encrusted Bambino resides among the firgures of the precipio in the left nave.

These are some of the 52 Murano Chandeliers that adorn the church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli.

Here is a 16th century sculpture of the chubby Pope Leo X (1475-1521) located outside the chapel of the Bambino. (He is the pope who sold indulgences to finance the building of St. Peter's Basilica.)