In the Church of Saint Mary in Vallicella in Rome, the home of the Oratorian Congregation founded by St Philip Neri between 1602 and 1604, Michaelangelo Merisi, otherwise known as Caravaggio, was commissioned by the Vittrici family to paint an altar piece depicting one of the sorrowful mysteries of the Holy Rosary: the death of […]

Michael Angelo’s Crucifixion of St Peter in the Pauline Chapel The archeologist and graphologist, Margherita Guarducci, who lead the second phase of excavations to identify St Peter’s tomb in the Vatican Necropolis between 1940-1950, studied the various historic sources arrived at the conclusion that St Peter was crucified in Nero’s Circus in the Vatican on […]

The mosaic portraits of two young spouses, Simplicia Rustica and Flavio Giulio Giuliano originates from the Ciriaca cemetery, otherwise known as the Monumental Cemetery of Verano, near St Lawrence Outside the Walls in Rome. These two mosaics, which are conserved in the Pio Christian Museum in the Vatican Museums, Rome, date to 350 A.D. The […]

On the via Normentana in Rome, about 2 km from the centre, stands the Basilica of St Agnes which comprises of the ruins of the original Constantinian Basilica, the Mausoleum of Constance and the Basilica built by Pope Honorius I in the seventh century. The original Basilica stands many metres below street level. If you […]