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Saint Mary above Minerva is one of the major churches of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans. The church’s name derives from the fact that the First Christian church structure on the site was built directly over the ruins or foundations of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, which had been erroneously ascribed to the Greco-Roman goddess Minerva. The church is located in the Piazza della Minerva one block behind the Pantheon in the Pigna rione of Rome, Italy within the ancient district known as the Campus Martius. The present church and disposition of surrounding structures is visible a detail from the Nolli Map of 1748.
The Minerva has been a titular church since 1557 and a minor basilica since 1566. The church’s first titular cardinal was Michele Ghislieri who would become Pope Pius V in 1566 and raise the church to the level of minor basilica that same year. The current Cardinal Priest of the Titulus Sanctae Mariae supra Minervam has been Cormac Murphy-O’Connor since 2001, when he was Archbishop of Westminster, the senior position in the English Catholic church, from which he has since retired.
The church and adjoining convent served at various times throughout its history as the Dominican Order’s headquarters. Today the headquarters have been re-established in their original location at the Roman convent of Santa Sabina. While many other medieval churches in Rome have been given Baroque makeovers that cover Gothic structures, the Minerva is the only extant example of original Gothic church building in Rome. Behind a restrained Renaissance Style facade the Gothic interior features arched vaulting that was painted blue with gilded stars and trimmed with brilliant red ribbing in a 19th century Neo-Gothic restoration.
Among several important works of art in the church are Michelangelo’s statue Cristo della Minerva (1521) and the late 15th-century (1488-1493) cycle of frescos in the Carafa Chapel by Filippino Lippi. The basilica also houses many funerary monuments including the tombs of Doctor of the Church Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), who was a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, and the Dominican friar Blessed John of Fiesole (Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, born Guido di Piero) better known as Fra Angelico (c. 1395-1455).
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