The Collegio Romano has produced eight popes—Urban VIII., Innocent X., Clement IX., Clement X., Innocent XII., Clement XI., Innocent XIII., and Clement XII. Among its other pupils have been S. Camillo de Lellis, the Blessed Leonardo di Porto-Maurizio, the Venerable Pietro Berna, and others.
"Ignace, François Borgia, ont passé par ici. Leur souvenir plane, comme un encouragement et une bénédiction, sur ces salles où ils présidèrent aux études, sur ces chaires où peut-être retentit leur parole, sur ces modestes cellules qu'ils ont habitées. A la fin du seizième siècle, les élèves du collége Romain perdirent un de leurs condisciples que sa douce aménité et ses vertus angéliques avaient rendu l'objet d'un affectueux respect. Ce jeune homme avait été page de Philippe II.; il était allié aux maisons royales d'Autriche, de Bourbon et de Lorraine. Mais au milieu de ces illusions d'une grande vie, sous ce brillant costume de cour qui semblait lui promettre honneurs et fortune, il ne voyait jamais que la pieuse figure de sa mère agenouillée au pied des autels, et priant pour lui. A peine âgé de seize ans, il s'échappe de Madrid, il vient frapper à la porte du collége Romain, et demande place, au dortoir et à l'étude, pour Louis Gonzague, fils du comte de Castiglione. Pendant sept ans, Louis donna dans cette maison le touchant exemple d'une vie céleste; puis ses jours déclinèrent, comme parle l'Ecriture; il avait assez vécu."—Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne, ii. 211.
We now reach (on right) the Church of Sta. Maria in Via Lata, which was founded by Sergius I., in the eighth century, but twice rebuilt, the second time under Alexander VII., in 1662, when the façade was added by Pietro da Cortona.
In this church "they still show a little chapel in which, as hath been handed down from the first ages, St. Luke the Evangelist wrote, and painted the effigy of the Virgin Mother of God."—See Jameson's Sacred Art, p. 155.
The subterranean church is shown as the actual house in which St. Paul lodged when he was in Rome.
"And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him."
"And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening." ...
"And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him."—Acts xxviii. 16, 23, 30, 31.
"St. Paul after his arrival at Rome, having made his usual effort, in the first place, for the salvation of his own countrymen, and as usual, having found it vain, turned to the Gentiles, and during two whole years, in which he was a prisoner, received all that came to him, preaching the kingdom of God. It was thus that God overruled his imprisonment for the furtherance of the gospel, so that his bonds in Christ were manifest in the palace, and in all other places, and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by his bonds, were much more bold to speak the word without fear. Even in the palace of Nero, the most noxious atmosphere, as we should have concluded, for the growth of divine truth, his bonds were manifest, the Lord Jesus was preached, and, more than this, was received to the saving of many souls; for we find the Apostle writing to his Philippian converts: 'All the saints salute you, chiefly they which are of Cæsar's household.' The whole Church of Christ has abundant reason to bless God for the dispensation which, during the most matured period of St. Paul's Christian life, detained him a close prisoner in the imperial city. Had he, to the end of his course, been at large, occupied, as he had long been, 'in labours most abundant,' he would, humanly speaking, never have found time to pen those epistles which are among the most blessed portion of the Church's inheritance. It was from within the walls of a prison, probably chained hand to hand to the soldier who kept him, that St. Paul indited the Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews."—Blunt's Lectures on St. Paul.
"In writing to Philemon, Paul chooses to speak of himself as the captive of Jesus Christ. Yet he went whither he would, and was free to receive those who came to him. It is interesting to remember amid these solemn vaults, the different events of St. Paul's apostolate, during the two years that he lived here. It was here that he converted Onesimus, that he received the presents of the Philippians, brought by Epaphroditus; it was hence that he wrote to Philemon, to Titus, to the inhabitants of Philippi and of Colosse; it was here that he preached devotion to the cross with that glowing eagerness, with that startling eloquence, which gained fresh power from contest and which inspiration rendered sublime.