Churches of Rome

The facade of Santa Barbara dei Librari, one of the many churches of Rome, Italy.

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:

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 archdeacon)
3. other houses holding a titulus (known as domus ecclesia)

Tituli

Only the tituli were allowed to distribute sacraments. The most important priest in a titulus was given the name of Cardinal. Pope Marcellus I (at the beginning of the 4th century) confirmed that the tituli were the only centres of administration in the Church. In 499 a.d., a synod held by Pope Symmachus listed all the presbyters participating, as well as the tituli who were present at that time:^[2]

"Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome"

It is known that in 336, Pope Julius I had set the number of presbyter cardinals to 28, 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. These four basilicas had no cardinal, since they were under the Pope's direction. 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.

Churches

This is a list of churches of Rome cited in WorldHeritage 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.

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

• Krautheimer, R., Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae, vol. 3.

External links