Parrocchia Santuario di Santa Maria delle Grazie al Trionfale

The parish was erected on 13 August 1941 by decree of Cardinal Vicar Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani ‘Beatissimae Virginis Gratiarum’ and entrusted to the diocesan clergy of Rome. The parish church inherited the title of S. Maria delle Grazie outside Porta Angelica, demolished in 1939 for the renovation of Via di Porta Angelica. The territory, defined by a decree of 8 October 1940, was determined within the following boundaries: ‘Via Leone IV, from Viale Vaticano to Via Andrea Doria - Piazzale degli Eroi - Viale delle Medaglie d'Oro as far as the moat of the Military Engineers - said moat from Viale delle Medaglie d'Oro as far as the railway viaduct separating Via Angelo Emo from Via di Valle Aurelia - Rome-Viterbo railway bridge as far as Viale Vaticano, at the height of the advanced spur (house number 43 /a) - Viale Vaticano, from that point to Via Leone IV along the Vatican Walls'. The vicarage measure was recognised for civil effects on 5 March 1942.
The building complex, owned by the Pontifical Work for the Preservation of the Faith and the Provision of New Churches in Rome, was designed by Tullio Rossi.

Among the images of Our Lady best known in the city and surrounded by an intense popular cult, as early as the 16th century, is the icon of Byzantine origin, brought to Rome in 1587 by the Calabrian hermit Albenzio De Rossi from Cetraro.

Today's name Madonna delle Grazie dates back to the second decade of the 17th century; it is a title that, decreed directly by the piety of the faithful, became permanently linked to the sanctuary where, for almost three and a half centuries, the prodigious image was venerated by generations of devotees. Even today, a stone's throw from St. Peter's Square, walking along Via di Porta Angelica towards Piazza del Risorgimento, at the corner of one of the last buildings, there appears the graceful aedicule housing the mosaic copy of the sacred icon in memory of the 16th-17th century sanctuary, which was unfortunately destroyed between 1936 and 1939, during the demolitions of Borgo Pio. Under the mosaic, an inscription exhorts passers-by and recalls the events:

Greeted in this image
the B. Virgin Mary of Graces
brought in the year 1587 from Jerusalem to Rome
by the hermit f. Albenzio De Rossi.
The original already exhibited here in the
sanctuary demolished for reasons
of public utility is now venerated
now in the new church at Piazzale
Francesco Morosini that the
munificent piety of Popes
Pius XI and Pius XII rebuilt and
dedicated A.D. MCMXLI.

At the end of Via Candia, in today's Piazza S. Maria delle Grazie (formerly Piazza Francesco Morosini), stands the new parish sanctuary; in it, walking down the left aisle, one reaches the recently restored chapel, where the Marian image displayed on an ancient postern-cyborium still offers itself to worship and piety.

Dated between the 11th and 12th centuries and originating from the Hierosolomite area, the icon, in addition to being of interest from a historical and artistic point of view, is even more evocative for the popular piety that has been knotted around it over the centuries, until it assumed an eminent place in the vast complex of icons and sacred images venerated in Rome.

Precisely on the level of piety, the re-reading of the history of this effigy allows not only a contribution of a cultural nature, but also a service to the religious sensitivity of those believers who still today feel the call of that mysterious, yet familiar, image from the East.

It is a story that is still waiting to be described: this booklet does not pretend other than to offer some essential points for reflection on a fact and a story that can still say a lot. The hope is that those who have felt and still feel the significance of devotion to Mary of Grace will persevere in their sentiment and their testimony: these pages are dedicated to them.