San Sisto Vecchio

At the foot of the Aventine and Caelian hills of Rome stands today the church of San Sisto Vecchio, where we all stood this morning for our Station Mass.

That ‘at the foot’ part caused problems for the earliest church built on the site.  Known originally as the titulus Tigridae, (apparently a family name, not a reference to tigers), the basilica dating back to the fifth century dealt with swampy conditions and ultimately with flooding.

Third century mosaic from a Roman house predating the church.

So today’s church dedicated to Pope Saint Sixtus II has its floor level roughly where the ceiling of the side naves was on the older church.  (In the cloister outside the old capitals come knee high.)

With the new ceiling quite a bit higher up: and well populated.

Today behind the walls of the current church you can walk into narrow passages to see the old frescoes of the earlier building.  

Like these two 14th century images here.

Of the Dominican martyr Saint Peter and Saint Dominic himself.  Dominic first founded a community in Spain, but arrived in Rome to request from the Holy Father the ability to extend his fledgling order throughout Europe to fight the Albigensian heresy through study and preaching.

Pope Honorius III gave Dominic this building in 1219, and soon Dominic had a hundred friars with him here.  As sisters began joining his community, the friars moved to Santa Sabina, while San Sisto became the first Dominican convent.

After Mass today a sister brought me to see the chapel where Dominic had prayed with his community, and where he heard the vows of the first Dominican sisters.

The cloister houses 50 sisters today, continuing the legacy of 800 years.