Plague in Rome in 1656 and the benedictine nuns from the monastery of Saint Cecilia in Trastevere

Abstract

In the late 17th and the early 18th centuries, the Monastery of Saint Cecilia in Trastevere, founded on the site of the birthplace of a Roman martyr Saint Cecilia, was a representitive site of Roman Baroque culture. The plague in Rome in 1656 was one of main factors that enhanced the monastery’s prestige. The chronicler of the Chronicle of Saint Cecilia intentionally connected the its success in tackling the plague to the “cloisters of nuns”, one of the precepts of the Counter-Reformation. This study utilizes the Chronicle of Saint Cecilia as a primary source and aims to investigate how the benedictine nuns of the monastery of Santa Cecilia responded to the plague on a personal and institutional level and, in doing so, tries to reconsider the chronicler’s intention.