The Venerable Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims and Convalescents

In Catholic countries, as in the Diocese of Rome, the role of the (arch)confraternity plays an undisputed role. It follows a very successful model that helps keep serious church members - and especially men - volunteering and actively involved in church. 

Membership in a confraternity holds certain responsibilities, including not only serving those in need according to the charism of each individual confraternity, but there is also a very important liturgical role. Such as when members participate in processions and Masses, etc. Also, in some places members have active roles in Holy Week liturgies, such as selected male members that have their feet washed at the mandatum on Holy Thursday. 

One of the most active in Rome is that of the Venerable Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims and Convalescents. Its home is the Chiesa della Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini (the church of the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims). Since 2008 this beautiful church in downtown Rome has been under the care of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) who have given new life to bot the church and the Archconfraternity. 

The story of the parish began with St. Philip Neri who was the founder of the Archconfraternity. In 1540 he and his earliest members were meeting at a nearby church, San Girolamo della Carità, where St. Jerome lived when he was in Rome. At long last, Pope Paul III recognized the "Confraternita della Santissima Trinita de' Pellegrini e de' Convalescenti" (the Confraternity of the Holy Trinity of Pilgrims and Convalescents). 

For the Holy Year 1550, the group took on the burden of hosting pilgrims, with particular regard for those who came from distant lands. For this reason, members wore red, so they would be easily identifiable in the Piazza del Popolo, where they greeted the pilgrims arriving in the Holy City from the north of Europe, entering the city through the Porta del Popolo or the Porta Flaminia.

After that Holy Year, the Confraternity continued to care for pilgrims, but also for the convalescent poor, discharged from city hospitals. Many of these were pilgrims who arrived penniless and many were unable to return home, a distant journey in those days by foot. 

In 1558, Pope Paul IV assigned the Confraternity the dilapidated church of San Benedetto in Arenula, located where the current church stands. The next year, the Confraternity purchased a house next to the church to be used as a hospital or hospice. For the Holy Year 1575, the Confraternity tended to more than 180,000 pilgrims.

The Confraternity ultimately razed the decrepit church, and the first stone for the present church was laid on February 26, 1587. It took nearly thirty years to construct the new church. The consecration took place on June 12, 1616 and the church was titled initially Santissima Trinità e San Benedetto. In subsequent centuries the parish and adjacent buildings continued to serve as a hospice for pilgrims who typically arrived for three month stays, just long enough to visit the holy sites in Rome, attend papal liturgies, and see the holy relics.

When in 2008 Pope Benedict XVI entrusted the church to the care of the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), a new society of apostolic life that was founded in 1988, he also established the community as a parish, for the first time in its history. Before that, Santissima Trinità was just home to the Archconfraternity. 

In 2008 the Archconfraternity was found to only have three living members left on in its registry. When new life new life came to the church, it also came to the Archconfraternity. It was revived with the help of the new pastor, Fr. Joseph Kramer, FSSP and his assistant, Giancarlo Cicca, a Canadian student of Latin from Toronto of Peruvian-Italian ancestry. Giancarlo was thus the first name penned in the new roster for the Archconfraternity. 

Since then membership has swollen to nearly 150 committed lay Catholics, mainly from Rome, while some with connections to the parish come from other countries such as France, England, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Membership is open to women. Two of the members are clergy. Members are clothed in an investiture ceremony, given the red habit (abito), sometimes called a "sack."   

One of the traditions of this Archconfraternity is to feed the poor and homeless, sometimes at the Oratory of San Francesco Saverio del Caravita (also known as the "Caravita”), a 17th-century oratory in the center of Rome. Here there has been a long history of charitable works, evangelization, and catechesis done for those from un underprivileged background who lack proper pastoral care. 

Another activity this Archconfratenrity does is wash the feet of pilgrims in a symbolic gesture during Holy Year visits to Rome. This tradition was begun by St. Philip Neri in the Holy Year 1550. It has been revived by the Archconfraternity and they offer this service for certain groups that reserve ahead of time. 

Meanwhile, members participate in the parish's annual Corpus Domini Eucharistic procession as well as in other special events throughout the Diocese of Rome. Members who are in Rome participate in a monthly Mass where they vest and sit together in reserved pews in the front of church at Santissima Trinità.

For more information, see here. 

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