Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano (The Most Holy Name of Mary by the Forum of Trajan) is a church in Rome. The feast of the Holy Name of Mary was introduced by Pope Innocent XI after the victory of the Austrian-Polish armies under the command of John III Sobieski over the Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Abbot Giuseppe Bianchi instituted a cult of the most holy name in 1685 at Santo Stefano del Cacco, and soon afterwards established the Congregation of the Most Holy Name of Mary, which was formally approved in 1688. In 1694 they moved to San Bernardo a Colonna Traiani but the next year, realizing that there was a need to build a new church, they acquired the adjacent plot and had Santissimo Nome di Maria 1736-1741, built by the Frenchman Antoine Derizet. Seven years after Santissimo Nome's completion, San Bernardo was demolished, though the icon of Mary was transferred from it to Nome di Maria in 1741 and is solemnly processed from the site of San Bernardo to its present place above Santissimo Nome's high altar once a year. The interior is elliptical. There are seven small chapels, decorated in polychrome marble. The holders of the Titular Church of Santissimo Nome di Maria are:
- cardinal Paulos Tzadua from Ethiopia
(25 May 1985-11 December 2003) - cardinal Gaudencio Borbon Rosales from Manila
(from 26 March 2006)
