Rome, Italy
Church of the Gesù
The mother church of the Society of Jesus in Rome, where St. Ignatius of Loyola is buried and Baroque art reaches full force.
The facade is handsome but restrained, and you think you know what you're walking into. Then you step through the door and the ceiling explodes. Baciccio's fresco — The Triumph of the Name of Jesus — pours out of its frame, painted figures spilling over the architectural molding and tumbling into the nave as if heaven had cracked open and couldn't be contained. It is the most Baroque thing you will ever see, and it works. The Jesuits built this church in the 1580s to preach to large crowds, and the single wide nave with no side aisles was designed so everyone could see and hear. St. Ignatius lies in a chapel on the left transept under an altar so lavish it uses lapis lazuli like paint. Every afternoon at a set time, a mechanical apparatus lowers a painting to reveal a silver statue behind it — a bit of theater the Jesuits have never been shy about. The church is active and full of Romans, not just tourists. It still does what it was built to do.
Diocese: Diocese of Rome
Style: Baroque
What to See
Stand in the center of the nave and look straight up — Baciccio's fresco needs to be seen from directly below to get the full three-dimensional effect of figures falling and rising across the frame. The Chapel of St. Ignatius in the left transept is overwhelming in its material richness; the globe held by the Trinity group above the altar is said to be the largest piece of lapis lazuli in the world. The daily unveiling of the silver statue happens in the late afternoon — ask at the entrance for the exact time. The rooms where Ignatius lived, adjacent to the church, can be visited and include the very room where he died in 1556.
Pilgrim Notes
The Gesù is in central Rome, a short walk from Piazza Venezia and the Largo Argentina bus hub. Mass is celebrated daily in Italian. The church is free to enter and rarely as crowded as the major basilicas, making it one of Rome's great undervisited treasures. The sacristy sometimes has a priest available for confession. Ignatius's rooms are open on select afternoons — check the schedule posted at the entrance. The church is an active parish and the Jesuits welcome visitors warmly.