Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano

The Church of the Most Holy Name of Mary at the Trajan Forum (, ) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome. This church should not be confused with the church Santissimo Nome di Maria in Via Latina in south-east Rome.

The feast of the Holy Name of Mary was instituted by Pope Innocent XI after the victory of the Austrian-Polish armies under the command of John III Sobieski over the Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Abbot Giuseppe Bianchi instituted devotion to the most holy name of Mary in 1685 at Santo Stefano del Cacco, and soon afterwards established the Congregation of the Most Holy Name of Mary, which was formally approved in 1688.

History

In 1694, the congregation moved to San Bernardo a Colonna Traiani, but the next year, realizing that they needed to build a new church, they acquired the adjacent plot and had Santissimo Nome di Maria built by the Frenchman Antoine Derizet (1736-1741). In 1748, seven years later, San Bernardo was demolished, but the icon of Mary had been transferred from it to the new church in 1741. Once a year, it is carried in solemn procession from the site of San Bernardo to its present place above the high altar of Santissimo Nome di Maria.

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