Urbis

Visiting Rome's wonderful churches, I wonder how many tourists see them as anything more than repositories of a venerable history or magnificent art? Of course they are that, but they also play an important part in the lives of the folk who live within their parish boundaries as we saw when we visited the Basilica of St Agnes (The Basilica di Sant'Agnese Fuori le Mura -St. Agnes Outside the Walls) and the adjacent Mausoleum of Santa Constanza, a church itself these days.

Saint Agnes's martyrdom came early when she refused to marry the son of one of Diocletian's prefects at the height of the empire's persecution of Christians. The chapel in the catacombs where she was buried became a place of pilgrimage where Constanza (the daughter of Constantine the Great and one of the Imperial family's earliest converts to Christianity) chose to be buried. The imperial mausoleum above Constanza's tomb - now a church - was raised in a half a century later. The basilica was built above the catcombs in the 7th century. It features a lovely mosaic of the little saint in the apse and acces to the catacombs - all of which would seem to place it in the church-as-museum category of scores of other churches around the city.

We were privileged to experience a little of the community life of these churches - not only seeing a wedding party at Santa Constanza's but spending some time watching the bocce games being played out at the Saint Agnes Community Centre in the garden between the two churches where elderly card players and the mothers and children who were taking part in holiday activities there gathered in the bar at the end of their games. How lovely to see the generations together and to see the part this ancient church plays in their lives.

Just 12 years old when she was martyred, Saint Agnes became the patron saint of young girls, a lamb the symbol of her purity and innocence ("agnus" - lamb in Latin - is also a play of words on her name). Traditionally, young girls have played out a ritual on the eve of her martyrdom to see who their husband will be. On the Feast Day itself, January 21, two lambs are brought to the church to be blessed by the pope after a pontifical high Mass there. They are shorn on Holy Thursday and their wool is woven into pallia, ceremonial neck-stoles, which are then sent by the Pope to newly-appointed Metropolitan archbishops who wear them to symbolise their union with the papacy.

The church and catacombs are open daily from 09000 -1200 and 1600-1800. Entry to the church is, of course, free. Guided tours of the catacomb cost 5 euro.

Open: Monday 0900-1200; Tuesday-Saturday: 0900-1200, 1600-1800; Sunday: 1600-1800

The church can be found in the area known as Nomentana, a short distance outside the city walls, north-east of Termini
Address: Via Nomentana 349. Take Bus #36 from Termini or #60 from Piazza Venezia