Santa Maria dell'Orto

Chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Orto
Church of Santa Maria dell'Orto, the façade
Basic information
Location	Rome
Affiliation	Catholic Church
Rite	Latin
State	Italy
Province	Rome
Region	Lazio
Country	Italy
Website	Official website
Architectural description
Architectural style	Renaissance and Baroque
Groundbreaking	1489
Completed	1567

Coordinates: 41°53′13″N 12°28′30″E / 41.886895°N 12.474981°E / 41.886895; 12.474981

Santa Maria dell'Orto is a Roman Catholic church in the Rione of Trastevere in Rome (Italy). It is the national church of Japan in Rome.

The church rises in the middle of the area that, since about 508 BC, was called Prata Mutia ("Fields of Mutius"). This refers to the plot of land where the Etruscan king Porsena had set his encampment, and that later the Roman Senate donated to Mucius Scaevola as a sign of gratitude of Rome for his heroic act. The origins of the church are associated to a miracle, that is supposed to have happened circa 1488. A sick farmer, afflicted with a serious palsy according to oral history, was healed after praying a picture of the Virgin Mary painted close to the entrance to his own market garden. The event led to popular worship for the picture, and subsequently a small votive chapel was erected, soon followed by a greater church, funded by 12 professional associations (Università). In 1492 Pope Alexander VI allowed the establishment of a confraternity and in 1588 (with a brief dated 20 March) Pope Sixtus V declared it "Archconfraternity" and bestowed on it the rare privilege to ask once a year – during the titular feast – the pardon of a man condemned to death. During the 1825 Jubilee, as attested by Gaetano Moroni in his Dictionary of historic-ecclesiastical erudition, it was eventually honored with the title of Venerable.