The Catholic Traveler

The Churches of Rome

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was built over the remains of an imperial villa and is said to hold soil that St. Helena brought back from Calvary, giving the church its name and its traditional role as a symbolic embassy of the Holy Land in Rome. It is one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches, and medieval popes walked barefoot here from St. John Lateran each Good Friday to venerate its relics.

Highlights

  • The Titulus Crucis, two thorns from the Crown of Thorns, and fragments of the True Cross and the Holy Nail
  • A relic said to be the index finger of St. Thomas the Apostle
  • Frescoes on the Legend of the True Cross by Melozzo da Forlì, Antoniazzo Romano, and Marco Palmezzano
  • Peter Paul Rubens’s St. Helena with the True Cross
  • A statue of St. Helena adapted from an ancient Roman statue of Juno

Address

Piazza di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme 12, 00185 Roma

Titular Cardinal

Cardinal Juan José Omella Omella

Spain

Official Website

www.santacroceroma.it

Church information is compiled from official parish, diocesan, and Vatican sources and cross-checked where possible. Details may change — verify before visiting.

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