Chapel of the Crucifix

1. The chapel. Restored by Giuseppe Antonio Spaziani, who buried in the underground tomb next to his son Raimondo, his brother, Pietro Paolo, and others of the same family. The chapel is decorated with eight columns of “Corinthian black” marble, called “Portovenere”. The cupola is molded with golden stucco. in the pendentives are sculpted, as well in stucco, the emblems of the passion of Jesus Christ. In the right lunette is represented in relief the Virgin with the Holy Baby Jesus on his arm; in front of the virgin s. Giuseppe and, between those, in front of the altar, s. Mary Maddalena. Below the arch of the chapel there are the tombs of Antonio Pauluzzi, famous jurist consultant who died in 1685, and Lorenzo Rossetti.

2. The altar. The altar was encrusted with precious marbles in April 1647 at the expense of the Oratory erected by Cardinal Antonio Barberini. On the altar there is a large, ancient wooden crucifix. In the lunette above the altar is written:

SENSIBLE REDEMPTORI / HUMANI GENERIS / EXALTATO / OMNIA TO SEIPSUM TRAHENTI.

Below the altar there is the mortal remains of Antonio martyr, of whom you see the urn with this epigraph:

Corpus S. Antonii Martyris.

3. The sacred remains of s. Giuseppe Maria Tomasi, C. R. (1649-1713). On the right of the altar, awaiting better place, there is the artistic urn art in which since October 26, 1971 preserves the remains of the Theatine Saint Joseph Mary Tomasi, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, canonized by John Paul II on October 12 of 1986. Before To be exposed to the worship of the faithful in this basilica, s. Joseph M. Tomasi had been revered in a lateral chapel of his own church: Martino the Monti, although 25 days before his death he had bought a brick on which he wanted to engrave these simple words IOSEPH. MARIA. PRESBYTER. CARDINALIS. TITULI. AEQUITII, to be buried in an underground chapel called the “Madonna Gaudium Christianorum”(Our Lady joy of the Christians).