Rome is a city full of surprises, with a thousand churches and a thousand peculiarities. In particular, the Eternal City is considered a place rich in spirituality due to the numerous churches that, in one way or another, make it unique. Monumental churches like Santa Francesca Romana, located on the Velia, reusing an ancient temple, or more intimate ones with exceptional records like San Benedetto in Piscinula. However, there are also extraordinary churches, places of worship filled with artworks created by very important masters, somewhat diminished for various reasons. As your local tour guide today, I want to talk to you about the Basilica of Santa Bibiana, located in a not-so-favorable position, right next to the tracks of Stazione Termini. Let's discover it together. 

A Christian place of worship that arose in the 5th century by the pope Simplicius, who wanted to erect a church here, in a place where the bodies of 11,266 martyrs, Christians killed during the persecutions, would have been buried. So in this case, as with the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura or San Pietro in Vaticano, we should speak of a basilica ad corpus, built over the remains of Christian martyrs. As in many other examples in Rome, the church of Santa Bibiana was renewed and restored numerous times, even reaching complete reconstruction: first in 1224 by the will of Pope Onofrio III, and a second and definitive time under the pontificate of Urban VIII, in 1626. Bernini was particularly involved in this reconstruction. He added the currently visible facade, with loggia and atrium, and he also renewed the apse, adding the two side chapels and especially his magnificent sculpture, representing Santa Bibiana herself. Who was she? According to her hagiography, Bibiana was a young Christian, who lived in the 4th century AD, who fell under the tail end of the last persecutions against Christians. And inside the basilica, immediately to the left after the entrance, there is a relic intimately linked to the martyr: protected by a grate, there is the so-called Column of Martyrdom, to which Bibiana was tied to be flogged to death. If you notice, as you approach, you will see how the surface of the column is not completely smooth. Many are the traces left by all those faithful who, in the past, used to touch the column, even scraping its surface. Why? Because according to tradition, the dust of the column, mixed with the water of a nearby well and the ground on which, in front of the church, the saint would have met her death, could be used to obtain a potion with extraordinary healing powers.

This particular devotion also recalls the story of another relic, the so-called Column of the Flagellation located in the Chapel of San Zenone at Santa Prassede, brought (according to tradition) directly from Jerusalem during the Crusades. Apart from this, however, it is important to understand how even the most unfortunate church like this one, unfortunately wedged in an area of Rome that does not give it the right merit, can hide many treasures within. Apart from the relics and the historical memory, let's not forget how Bernini, the master of Baroque, used his art here to embellish a church in Rome with many surprises, which I invite you to discover step by step.