Churches of Rome

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There are more than 900 churches in Rome,^[1] including some notable Roman Catholic Marian churches. Most, but not all, of these are Roman Catholic.

The first churches of Rome originated in places where Christians met. They were divided into three categories:^{[citation needed]}

1. the houses of private Roman citizens (people who hosted the meetings of Christians – also known as oratoria, oracula)
2. the deaconries (places where charity distributions were given to the poor and placed under the control of a deacon; the greatest deaconries had many deacons, and one of them was elected^{[citation needed]} archdeacon)
3. other houses holding a titulus (known as domus ecclesia)

Tituli[]

Pope Marcellus I (A.D. 306–308) is said to have recognized twenty five tituli in the City of Rome, quasi dioecesis.^[2] It is known that in 336, Pope Julius I had set the number of presbyter cardinals to 28,^{[citation needed]} so that for each day of the week, a different presbyter cardinal would say mass in one of the four major basilicas of Rome, St. Peter's, Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and Basilica of St. John Lateran.^[3] In Stephan Kuttner's view,^[4] "...the Roman cardinal priests and bishops were 'incardinated' for permanent (though limited) purposes into the patriarchal basilicas while remaining bound nonetheless to the churches of their original ordination."

Only the tituli were allowed to distribute sacraments.^{[dubious – discuss]} The most important priest in a titulus was given the name of Cardinal.^[5] Pope Marcellus I (at the beginning of the 4th century) confirmed that the tituli were the only centres of administration in the Church. In AD 499, a synod held by Pope Symmachus listed all the presbyters participating, as well as the tituli who were present at that time:^{[citation needed]}

"Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome"[]

In the time of Pope Alexander II (1061-1073) those priests who served at St. Peter's Basilica were referred to as the seven cardinals of S. Peter's: septem cardinalibus S. Petri.^[6] The four basilicas had no cardinal, since they were under the direct supervision of the Pope. The Basilica of St. John Lateran was also the seat of the bishop of Rome. Traditionally, pilgrims were expected to visit all four basilicas, and San Lorenzo fuori le mura, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and San Sebastiano fuori le mura which constituted the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome. In the Great Jubilee in 2000, the seventh church was instead Santuario della Madonna del Divino Amore as appointed by Pope John Paul II.

Notable churches by construction time[]

This is a list of churches of Rome cited in Wikipedia articles or with related files on Wikimedia Commons.

The churches are grouped according to the time of their initial construction: the dates are those of the first record of each church. The reader, however, should not expect the current fabric of the buildings to reflect that age, since over the centuries most have undergone reconstruction. Almost all the churches will thus appear considerably more recent, and as a patchwork of periods and styles.

Some interesting churches are now closed except on special occasions, such as weddings. These include: Santa Balbina, Santi Nereo e Achilleo, San Cesareo in Palatio and Sant'Urbano.

4th century[]

5th century[]

6th century[]

7th century[]

8th century[]

9th century[]

10th century[]

11th century[]

12th century[]

13th century[]

14th century[]

15th century[]

16th century[]

17th century[]

18th century[]

19th century[]

20th century[]

21st century[]

See also[]

• Architecture of Rome
• Religion in Rome

References[]

Books[]

• Kehr, Paul Fridolin (1906). Italia pontificia, I: Roma. Berlin: Weidmann. pp. 1–7.
• Barker, Ethel Ross (1913). "VI". Rome of the Pilgrims and Martyrs: A Study in the Martyrologies, Itineraries, Syllogae, & Other Contemporary Documents. London: Methuen & Company, Limited.
• Hülsen, Christian (1927). Le chiese di Roma nel medio evo: cataloghi ed appvnti. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag. ISBN 978-3-487-40631-2.
• H. W. Klewitz, "Die Entstehung des Kardinalskollegiums," Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte. Kanonische Abteilung 25 (1936), 115–221.
• Krautheimer, R., Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae, vol. 3.
• Kuttner, Stephan (1945). "Cardinalis: The History of a Canonical Concept". Traditio. 3: 129–214. doi:10.1017/S0362152900016883. JSTOR 27830076.
• Korn, Frank J. (2000). A Catholic's Guide to Rome: Discovering the Soul of the Eternal City. New Yorn-Mahwah NJ: Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-3926-2.
• Rüpke, Jörg (2005). Fasti sacerdotum. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3-515-07456-8.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Churches of Rome.

• Thayer's Churches of Rome, including the books by Christian Huelsen, Mariano Armellini, and Filippo Titi
• Clarke's Churches of Rome
• Map of titular churches