The ancient church of San Bernardo had a single nave with altars dedicated to the Virgin Mary (main altar), Saint Bernard, and the Holy Crucifix.
After 18th-century renovations, the church’s exterior took on an octagonal plan with five visible sides. The balustrade is decorated with eleven statues depicting biblical figures. The dome reinterprets the model of Santa Maria di Loreto. The interior is elliptical in shape, divided by pillars that frame the chapels.
**Description:** A cedarwood Madonna and Child dated to the 12th century.
**In use from:** Between 1440 and 1444
**Image:** Painting
**Collection notes:** Bombelli and Carocci recount that in the 18th century, there were so many silver ex-votos that they were even affixed to the ceiling.
**Types of ex-votos:** Painted tablets, Goldsmithing objects
Priest Francesco de’ Foschi della Berta founded the Confraternity of San Bernardo in honor of Bernard of Clairvaux. Originally based in ‘S. Maria Scala Coeli’ at Tre Fontane, the confraternity moved in 1440 to the new church of San Bernardo near Trajan’s Column. The central altar was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and housed an image donated to de’ Foschi by Pope Eugene IV, attributed to St. Luke. Tradition holds that the icon belonged to the treasure of the Sancta Sanctorum, kept in the Oratory of San Lorenzo at the Scala Santa.
By the late 17th century, the church had fallen into neglect, and the confraternity itself was in severe decline. The liberation of Vienna from the Turkish siege—achieved in September 1683 through an agreement brokered by Pope Innocent XI between Emperor Leopold I of Austria and King John III Sobieski of Poland—changed the sanctuary’s fate. The Pope, who had inaugurated a universal jubilee on August 11 to implore liberation, extended the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary to the entire Church after the victory over the Turks during the octave of Mary’s Nativity.
This benefited the Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of Mary, founded in 1642 by Abbot Giuseppe Bianchi of the Sylvestrine monks and based in the church of Santo Stefano del Cacco. It was elevated to an archconfraternity on May 11, 1689. In 1694, Leopold I himself joined the brotherhood, effectively placing it under Austrian patronage. That same year, the archconfraternity was entrusted with the church of San Bernardo.
The church was completely rebuilt from the ground up starting in the 1730s (the cornerstone was laid on August 19, 1736, in a ceremony officiated by Cardinal Pio Antonio Guadagni), and the new church, dedicated to the Holy Name of Mary and Saint Bernard, was consecrated on September 5, 1741. A solemn procession brought the Virgin’s icon into the new church. The first phase of construction concluded with the installation of the floor in 1742, and the new high altar was consecrated on June 16, 1750. In 1858, the church was closed for further restoration work, which lasted nearly a decade.
Pope Sixtus V granted a plenary indulgence to devotees visiting the church of San Bernardo in a bull dated July 15, 1587. Benedict XIV confirmed this indulgence for the new church of the Most Holy Name of Mary and San Bernardo in a brief on September 10, 1741. A further confirmation was ratified by Pius VII on June 13, 1815. A list of privileges granted by Sixtus V—*Sommario delle indulgenze e privilegi della Confraternita* compiled by Prior Pietro Fulvio—is preserved in the church’s archives.
In 1591, Gregory XIV granted the brotherhood the title of archconfraternity. By the end of the 17th century, it had nearly ceased to exist.
Via dei Fori Imperiali, 00186 Rome, Italy
