The Chapel of Our Lady of The Rosary

The main painting depicts the Madonna with the Holy Rosary in her right hand while hold the infant Jesus with her left. The scene includes Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena. It was in 1214, when the Church received the Holy Rosary in its present form, given by St. Dominic who had received it from the Blessed Virgin as a means of converting the Albigensian heretics and other sinners. This painting is the work of Giuseppe Calì of 1870.

The painting on the right depicts Saint Catherine of Siena in front of Pope Gregory XI in 1377. Catherine was influential in this pope’s decision to return to Rome, after 70 years in Avignon, France. This work is also by Calì of 1883.

On the left another Calì work of 1883 shows Saint Dominic preaching against the Albigensian heresy which encouraged suicide so as to liberate soul from the body which was considered intrinsically evil.

In this chapel there is the marble bust of Don Felice Calleja, who was parish priest for 36 years and whose dream it was to build the present rotunda church on the model of the Pantheon of Rome.