Saint Anastasia - Today's Lenten Station Church in Rome

 

Today's station church for Lent is Sant'Anastasia Basilica on the Palatine hill.  You can check out the full description of the basilica and its origins at the website of the Pontifical North American College, where they are hosting a list of all of the station churches, Mass times and maps.

Saint Anastasia was an early martyr of the Church from the area that is now modern day Serbia.  The basilica is also renowned because St. Jerome frequently celebrated Mass there while in Rome.  One reason for this may have been that he was originally from the same region in Serbia as St. Anastasia.   St. Jerome was posthumously named titular of the basilica, even though he was never a cardinal.  While typically associated with Jerusalem and the Holy Land where he lived and wrote, St. Jerome's  burial site is actually in the basilica of St. Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major), most likely due to the unrest and persecutions in the Holy Land after his death.

St. Anastasia and St. Jerome, ora pro nobis.