SAINT FRANCESCA ROMANA - March 9th
written by Sergio Caggìa with Paul Gwynne for © Nerone the Insider's Guide to Rome

 

9 March is the feast day of one of Rome's most famous female saint- Francesca Buzzi known as Francesca Romana (1384-1440). Born into an aristocratic family, she was married at the age of thirteen to Lorenzo de' Ponziani and moved into his home at Tor de' Specchi, which was sacked in 1409 by Neapolitan troops. Lorenzo fled into exile leaving his wife in Rome. Already of an ascetic and charitable disposition, the war gave her ample opportunities for good works. When her husband returned after five years he was a broken man, whose care was cheerfully added to his wife's other responsibilities.  Together with a group of Roman ladies, whom she organized into a society in 1425, Francesca set about performing charitable works in the city. The members became known as the Congregation of the Oblates of the Tor de' Specchi, from the house in which she lived and from which she directed the little community. The society which Francesca founded still flourishes and the former Palazzo Ponziano is a place of pilgrimage. Francesca was cannonised in 1608, she is the patron saint of motorists. Her church is situated next to the Basilica of Constantine up a short fight of steps leading from the Via dei Fori Imperiali, near the Colosseum. This place will be more than usually congested with cars on her feast day as the drivers await benediction from a priest, standing on the terrace of the Temple of Venus.