Following is part of a series of articles by HERALD Staff Writer Angela E. Pometto on her recent visit to Italy.
For many, “the” name in travel books is Rick Steves. Tourist after tourist wanders the streets of Rome holding his book, either while enjoying a pastry or doing a self-guided tour of the Roman Forum while reading his descriptions aloud.
But Steves’ guidebook has missed something special. There is one church that often gets overlooked and is even hard to find on most pocket maps. It is one of Rome’s most special churches — the Basilica Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.
Santa Croce (pictured at right) is located down the street from the Basilica of St. John Lateran. By walking down the main road leading away from the Lateran Basilica, pilgrims will find a little piece of the Holy Land in the midst of Italy’s capital.
“Not many people know about us,” said Cistercian Brother Joseph Benedict. Brother Joseph spends his days greeting pilgrims who are lucky enough to find this hidden church. He knows four or five different languages and can easily switch from Italian to German to English depending on which visitor he is addressing.
The Basilica of Santa Croce (Holy Cross) is focused on the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. The artwork — from mosaics to frescos to statues — offers reflections on the cross. The culmination being several relics from Calvary in a back chapel.
According to a tour guide booklet “The Basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem,” St. Helena, Emperor Constantine’s mother, took a trip to the Holy Land with the hope of bringing back relics to be venerated in Rome. She found three crosses on Calvary hill. The debate over which one was the true cross of Christ was decided when a child was brought back to life after touching the wood of one of the crosses.
St. Helena found three nails from the crucifixion. Two she gave to her son, which he placed in the bridle of his horse and in his crown. The third was placed on display along with two thorns from the crown of thorns, said the booklet.
Over the years, this basilica has collected several other relics, including the beam of the Good Thief’s cross, fragments from the scourging column and the incorrupt finger of doubting St. Thomas, said Brother Joseph.
The final relic is the sign that hung above Jesus head, usually abbreviated “INRI.” According to the booklet, the titulus crucis — the title of the cross — as stated in the Gospels, has the charges of Pontius Pilate against Jesus written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin: “Jesus, the Nazorean, King of the Jews.”
According to Brother Joseph, the Basilica of Santa Croce opens its arms to new pieces of cross-related art. In a room near the Chapel of the Relics there is a replica of the Shroud of Turin. Also in this room is a unique papier-mâché crucifix. The corpus of this crucifix was designed to show the wounds as they would have appeared, based on the Shroud. The nails were placed in Jesus’ wrists instead of his palms, as is more historically accurate, and he had many more scourge marks then what is seen on a typical crucifix.
In the Chapel of St. Helena, located to the right of the main altar, there is a statue of the saint who inspired the church. Her final contribution to the basilica was dirt from Mount Calvary, now encased in glass for pilgrims to place their intentions.
Also in the church is the body of a young child who is being considered for canonization. Antonietta Meo died of bone cancer when she was only 6 years old. Her short life was filled with suffering as one of her legs was amputated when she was 5. With eagerness she requested, and was able, to receive the sacraments of confession, Communion and confirmation before she died, according to “La Tua Nennolina,” a short biography of her life available for pilgrims.
Along with showing a great zeal for holiness, Nennolina, as she was called, was also a visionary. She wrote about these holy visions in more than 100 letters, the biography said. She dictated most of the letters to her mother, but several are written in her own, inexperienced hand.
She is now considered a Servant of God, and her case is being studied. If it is completed, she will become one of the youngest saints. Already, she has one miracle attributed to her intercession, said Brother Joseph. A woman from Indiana was healed of Hepatitis after praying to Antonietta Meo, a girl who proves that even the very young can become very holy.
Nennolina was baptized at the Basilica of Santa Croce and, according to Brother Joseph, wanted to spend as much time as she could at the church, meditating upon the cross. Her body was moved inside the church walls in 1999.
From Holy Land relics to the remains of a holy young girl, Brother Joseph would say that the Basilica of Santa Croce is not to be missed. Someone should let Rick Steves know.

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