St Gregory's on the Coelian Hill

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• Gregory established a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew and become monk there.
• It was originally the paternal home of Gregory on the hill known as the Clavus Scauri.
• This church of St Gregory's on the Coelian which is not far from the Colosseum in Rome was build on this site. There can be little doubt that much of St Gregory's home remains below the present church and monastery, waiting to be excavated.
• In 28th December 589 AD Gregory, while a papal deacon issued a charter to grant the land and the properties to the Monastery of St. Andrew.
• Today, church and monastery are characteristically eighteenth century, though the facade at the top of the steps is about fifty years earlier, by Giovanni Sofia. If the spirit of St Gregory can be recalled here it is because of the few but precious relics of his time that you will see, and perhaps too because of the Benedictine monks.
• What to see when you visit this church
  • The sanctuary of San Gregorio has been adapted for daily celebration with a new altar and a pulpit,  the latter flanked by two medieval statues of St Gregory and St Andrew.
  • At the end of the right aisle is a beautiful little Chapel of St Gregory and, opening off it,  a room believed to incorporate in its fabric whatever remains of Gregory's cell. Behind a grille to the right is the place of his bed, and to the left an ancient Roman chair in which he sat.  
  • Some of the paintings in this church
    • Picture of the Castel Sant' Angelo.
    • Panel of the fifteenth-century Umbrian school, representing St Michael and saints.
    • Sculpture of St Gregory at Mass (14th century).
    • Picture by Costanzi in 1727 with the 'Glory of St Gregory'.
  • A door near this chapel leads to one incorporating a wall of the earlier church with a fresco of the Madonna, before which traditionally St Gregory prayed.
  • There is a fifteenth-century retable to an altar by Andrea Bregno with, at the top, a representation of Hadrian's tomb and the apparition of an angel at its summit during a procession led by St Gregory at a time of plague. This incident is the origin of the name Castel Sant~ Angelo'. The Castle appears in a fresco on the wall behind this altar.
  • The chapels in the garden, dating in their present form from the seventeenth century. Their frescoes are in poor condition. In the chapel to the left is a venerable stone table at which St Gregory is believed to have entertained the poor, among them, one day, an angel unawares - as a painting shows you on the wall beyond.