Nunneries of the

Blessed Colomba of Rieti

Nunnery in Corso Cavour (15th century) 

The nunnery here, which was originally dedicated to St Catherine of Siena, belonged to a community of Dominican tertiaries.  Colomba moved here from her native Rieti in 1488 and was elected prioress in 1497.  She died here in 1501 and the nuns subsequently changed the dedication their nunnery in her honour. 

As tertiaries, the nuns had traditionally undertaken charitable work in their neighbourhood.  However,  Pope Pius V enclosed the order in 1571.  A group of nuns that had moved to the church of Santa Maria Colomata (see the detour to Walk II) in  1528 was sent back to their mother house in 1575, probably because of their bad behaviour. 

The building was restored in 1740, but it was closed in 1864.  The nuns moved to a house in what is now Via Imbriani in 1864 and then to a new nunnery in Corso Garibaldi (see below) in 1940.

Their original nunnery was converted into a barracks.  Its church survives inside, but cannot be visited.

Return to Walk IV.

Nunnery in Corso Garibaldi (13th century)

This ancient building has had a varied history:

• The inscription in its façade records the tradition that SS Francis and Dominic met here in 1220. 

• The inscription above the portal records that it later housed the Conservatorio della Carità (1562), which provided an education for poor young women.

The nuns from the original Monastero della Beata Colomba (see above) moved here in 1940, along with what was left of the Benedictine community from San Tommaso .  

The relief of a dove above it is the symbol of the Blessed Colomba.  The small niche to the left was for the collection of alms.  The bronze relief of the Blessed Colomba above it was commissioned in 1967, on the 500th anniversary of here birth.

The sisters welcome visitors: ring the bell on the right. The portal opens into an entrance hall, with the church on the left and the  Cappella di Beata Colomba on the right.  The latter is a replica of Beata Colomba’s original cell in Corso Cavour and houses her bed and some of her other personal possessions.  A relic of her cranium is preserved under the chapel’s altar. 

 Christ Carrying the Cross (1497)

This altarpiece, which is attributed to Lo Spagno, is now on the right wall of the Cappella di Beata Colomba.  It probably came from the original nunnery in Corso Cavour, and may have been in the original cell of the Blessed Columba.

Madonna and Child and the Blessed Colomba (17th century)

This altarpiece by Giovanni Antonio Scaramuccia is on the high altar of the church.

Incredulity of St Thomas (19th century)

This panel on the left wall of the church is a copy of the altarpiece (1530s) that Giannicola di Paolo painted for the nuns of San Tommaso.  They presumably brought it with them when they joined the community here in 1940.  The original is in the deposit of the Galleria Nazionale. 

Return to Walk V.