Saturday after Ash Wednesday Sant’Agostino Today’s station church, Saint’Agostino, has also been named San Trifone. We only know of Saint Tryphon as a martyr of Phyrgia. Tradition tells us that he was a gooseherder as a boy and suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Decius (249-251). His relics, together with those of Saints Respicius and Nympha, are said to have been preserved in the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia before being transferred to San Trifone. Saint Augustine, one of the great Latin Doctors of the Church, was born at Tagaste in modern-day Algeria in 354 and was the son of Saint Monica (332-387). He became a Christian and eventually the bishop of Hippo in Africa, where he died in 430. Saint Bede the Venerable (672-735) states that Augustine’s body was transferred to Sardinia to protect it from Vandals. From there it was moved to Pavia (Northern Italy) where it is venerated today. The church of San Trifone no longer exists, but it must have been very ancient because it was designated a station church in the ninth century. The ancient basilica was reconstructed and consecrated on November 28, 1006, by Pope John XVIII (1003-1009). In 1287 it was given to the Augustinians by Pope Honorius IV (1285-1287). Sant’Agostino, the first Renaissance church in Rome, was built by William Cardinal d’Estouteville, protector of the Order of the Hermits of Saint Augustine. The old church remained intact until 1736, when it was pulled down and the monastery of the Augustinians was erected on the site. For a time it was the residence of the General of the Augustinian Order, but since then has been converted into government offices. The façade of the church is built of travertine marble taken from the Colosseum. The church houses a number of priceless artistic treasures, including Raphael’s Isaiah (1512), Bernini’s altar, and above the altar an ancient Byzantine Madonna, said to be made by Saint Luke himself, which was brought from the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople shortly before the city’s fall in 1453. The angels decorating the church are also by Bernini. Guercino painted Saint Augustine and Saint John the Evangelist in the right transept. Of special interest is Caravaggio’s Madonna di Loreto (or Madonna of the Pilgrims) painted in 1609, in the first chapel on the left. This masterpiece caused something of an uproar at its unveiling because of the lowly and domestic setting and the dirty and tattered pilgrims. Saint Monica’s relics lie in the altar on the left, transferred here in 1430 from Ostia where she died in 387. Other relics include those of Saints Tryphon, Respicius, and Nymphas under the high altar, and the Augustinian martyrs Thomas of Villanova (+1555), John of St. Faconda (1430-1479), and Claire of Montefalco (ca. 1275-1308). Location: In the Campo Marzio, northeast of the Piazza Navona, on the Via di Sant’Agostino. Directions: At the bottom of the Janiculum Hill, after crossing the Tiber River, get on Via dei Coronari, which is on the “northern route” to the Gregorian University. At the end of Via dei Coronari, continue on as straight as possible, crossing the street and passing under the arch. The church is on the left after the arch, fifteen steps above street level.