MOTHER OF MERCY

Day 270: February 6

Mother of Mercy (Mater Pietatis, Oratory of Fr Caravita, Rome, Italy


By 1631, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) had established itself next to the Roman College, and sought to expand nearby to accommodate the active Sodalites and lay congregations that met regularly in the College. The Jesuits bought the property from the Camaldolese in exchange for a site near Piazza Venezia. The Camaldolese moved to San Romualdo, and the Jesuits set about demolishing the old church and monastery in favor of a new oratory.

The current oratory was built by the Jesuit Pietro Gravita SJ, from 1631 to 1633, with the financial support of a number of noble families who resided in the neighborhood near the Pantheon. The building was inaugurated on 8 September 1631 with the blessing of Bishop Emilio Altieri, a student of the Roman College and bishop of Camerino, in the Marche region, from 1627 to 1666. Created cardinal in 1669, Bishop Altieri was elected Pope Clement X in 1670.

The oratory was originally dedicated to Santa Maria della Pietà, as well as the great Jesuit missionary St Francis Xavier. It was the first nocturnal oratory in Rome.

Father Gravita was from Terni, and the difference in dialect was apparently enough that the Romans changed the pronunciation of his name to "Caravita". After his death in 1658, the oratory also became known as the oratory "della Caravita".

Caravita's mission was consistent with the pastoral strategy of the founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius of Loyola. While monasteries and convents of monks and nuns were in the countryside, Ignatius and the first Jesuits were in the heart of the city, where next to the elegant palaces of the nobility of Rome there was suffering and need. It was here that Ignatius developed a strategic program for Jesuit ministries: hearing confessions, preaching and teaching, but also caring for the poor and victims of pestilence, as well as assisting prostitutes and guiding them to houses of reform.

In 1670, as part of the restoration and in honor of the sacred image of the Mother of Mercy ("Mater Pietatis"), a fresco attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi from the ancient Church of San Rocco all'Augusteo was donated to Caravita.

In 1677 it was placed in the apse and crowned by the Vatican Chapter. Today it is located near the organ to the left of the old sanctuary. On the right, near the entrance to the Sacristy, is a relic of St Francis Xavier encased in a silver reliquary.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"The entire universe receives the revelation of your total consecration to the Glory, Love and Will of the Lord, which took place at your Conception, at your Birth, which is constantly repeated, with inexpressible perfection of an always increasing love."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 156)

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