At the top of a small stone stairway climbing the Janiculum hill is a curious church revealing important threads of Roman history.   

The cloister of Sant’Onofrio (Humphrey) is now the Casa Generale of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, a small religious community headquartered in Garrison, NY.    It was founded about 100 years ago in the Episcopal Church, and was the first Order ever to be corporately received into Roman Catholic Communion. Founded and continuing to actively work for Christian Unity in inter-religious dialogue, ecumenical affairs, and other contemporary ministries, the community has a colorful and interesting history, and their unity mission is uncompromised by now being in a complex named for one of history’s most famous loners.

Saint Onofrio’s life-alone in the wilderness could be a tale full of blanks, but you wouldn’t know it from the cloister.  Painted in every lunette under the cloister arches is another chapter in the story of this hirsute hermit, wandering all his life with only his abundant hair as protection from the elements.  Just so you don’t miss the thread of the story, each lunette is labeled in Latin and Italian.

The Renaissance poet, Torquato Tasso, chose to live in this hilltop sanctuary shortly after it was built. Tasso had had early success with his historical romance, “Jerusalem Delivered”, and wrote its long-awaited sequel under the cloister’s oak tree (now dry and encased in cement), with the melancholy sounds of the Saint Onofrio church bell in the background.

Tasso’s literary contribution is such an important part of Italy’s history that the great Italian hero and patriot Garibaldi spared only this lone brass bell from the smelters during decades of war which ultimately resulted in a unified Italy in the 19th century.  The bell still hangs between lunettes depicting the King denying that Onofrio is his son, and Baby Onofrio remaining miraculously unharmed in the middle of a bonfire.

Tasso was ultimately honored in the Roman capital for his life’s work, but on the very day he was to receive the poet’s laurel, he died in his room over the cloister.  He is buried in the small church in a grand style. His tomb features a visually accurate, life-size funerary statue (made from his death mask which is still kept upstairs in his old bedroom)  The statue’s sartorial splendor is in ironic contrast to the story of the quirky nudist or the plain-clothed Franciscans.

Tasso’s statue towers over a carved stone sarcophagus, which is the real star of the chapel.  On it is carved a frieze of his funeral procession.  This fashion parade in sculpted profiles -- Rome’s rich and famous of 1595 in best-dress -- is also considered to be accurate.  All the Renaissance big names are here (labeled underneath, of course!).

You can visit both the church and the cloister Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 AM to 12:30 PM.  Please offer a donation in the slot for the garden’s upkeep.