Five Favorite Santa Maria Churches in Rome

May is The Month of Mary, according to Catholic tradition. That’s why all over Italy you’ll see her statues adorned with spring flowers. 

Christians began to officially call Mary “Mother of God” after the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. That’s when the devotion to her took hold in Rome. Today twenty-six churches in the Eternal City are dedicated to Santa Maria, aka Blessed Virgin Mary, aka BVM. Many replace temples that were dedicated to goddesses, so female worship was si