[3] Duke Filippo I Colonna immediately allocated some funds to start the construction work, from which, however, the official treasurers of the Community of Marino drew, committing an almost sacrilegious crime, taking advantage of that money to "stroll to the taverns" of Rome.

On June 5, 1642 the chamberlain's officer of the feud of Marino informed Duke Filippo I Colonna that all the pillars of the erected church and the vaults of the eight chapels had been put in place.

[note 5] Work on the church, which lasted fifteen years, was supposedly completed in 1655: however, the consecration of the place of worship could not proceed due to the devastating plague that afflicted Marino and the Ager Romanus in 1656.

The first sung mass was celebrated in the new Collegiate Church only on October 22, 1662, by Monsignor Carlo Tarugi, vicar general of the suburbicarian see of Albano and the first abbot parish priest, Don Agostino Gagliardi.

In 1899 the then abbot parish priest thus also wanted to show his hostility toward the republicans and toward unified Italy itself by forbidding the entry of the Italian flag into the basilica, on the occasion of a mass in suffrage for those who died in the battle of Adwa.

The 1902 earthquake caused some deep cracks in the basilica's structure, so the civil engineers of Rome in 1909 completed some much-needed consolidation work by reinforcing the architraves of the two side aisles with round arches, strengthening the pillars and renovating the floor and plaster.

The cardinal bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Albano Antonio Agliardi, in order to rebuild a "disheartened and scattered" community after the parenthesis of the "unfortunate apostate parish priest,"[10] chose Fr.

[14] On May 31, 1944,[15] four Anglo-American air raids hit the basilica: the roof -already falling in- and an arch supporting the dome were broken through, causing severe damage to the paintings in the interior.

On Feb. 2, 1948, the City of Marino inaugurated the four travertine steles placed in the altar of the Crucifix and Our Lady of Sorrows -second bay to the left- on which are inscribed the names of the 325 Marinese who fell in the Second World War.

Giovanni, a native of Šibenik in Dalmatia who fled from there because of Yugoslav persecution of Italians, succeeded Monsignor Grassi upon the latter's death on Sept. 14, 1954: he remained parish priest until 1989.

In 1962, the Episcopal Curia sponsored a series of works of arrangement and renovation of the side chapels: the aforementioned altar of the Crucifix and of Our Lady of Sorrows, the altar of the Sacred Heart -third bay on the left-, enriched with a painting depicting the late abbot parish priest Guglielmo Grassi leading the people to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, were rearranged, and the crypt -first bay on the right-, where the Servant of God Barbara Costantini, Monsignor Guglielmo Grassi and the vicar general of the suburbicarian diocese of Albano Giovanni Battista Trovalusci were buried.

[20] Unfortunately, during the 1980s the basilica was the object of at least three sacrilegious thefts: the icon of Our Lady of the People -the one that is worshipped is a modern copy-, the silver reliquary of the arm of St. Barnabas and a Bernini-style crucifix disappeared.

In the 1990s major restoration work was conducted on the main facade of the basilica; in 2006 the plaster of the monumental eastern wall, on Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, was completely refreshed.

The builders engaged in the construction were Giovanni Maria Longhi, Vincenzo della Greca and Paolo Andreotti,[24] with Fabrizio Vannutelli supervising the work.

[27] On the inside of the facade, above the main entrance door, is a commemorative plaque that reads: On either side of the large entrance portal, on the other hand, are two other plaques, one in Latin affixed in 1909 in celebration of the consolidation and repaving of the basilica made necessary after the damage following the 1902 earthquake,[9] and financed by Pope Pius X, the Municipality of Marino and its citizens and Prince Marcantonio Colonna, the other in Italian affixed in 1962, to correspond to the third centenary of the consecration of the church, in memory of the unexpected visit of Pope John XXIII on August 31, 1962.

[29] The relic is accompanied by the following description: This part of the basilica also gives access to the underground crypt, restored in the 1960s by the episcopal curia of the suburbicarian diocese of Albano to house the remains of Msgr.

Guglielmo Grassi, abbot parish priest of the basilica from 1908 to 1954[28] and from 1937 titular bishop of Damietta in Egypt,[30] Monsignor Giovanni Battista Trovalusci, vicar general of the suburbicarian diocese of Albano from 1934 to 1961,[31] and the Servant of God Barbara Costantini (1700-1773).

The second bay of the right aisle houses the altar of St. Anthony the Great or St. Joseph, and was maintained by the Confraternity of Charity, whose coat of arms (a red cross potent with the Latin word "charitas" in gold letters) stands out in the pediment.

Although tradition attributes the icon to St. Luke the Evangelist, the earliest known document on the subject is a notarial act from 1280 in which it is said that the image was transported to Rome by a member of the Colonna family who had traveled to Constantinople.

[34] Pope Martin V in the first half of the fifteenth century had the icon brought to Marino to the collegiate church of Santa Lucia, where an altar was erected for it made of ancient marble, spoliated perhaps from the temple of Diana in Aricia.

Surrounding the altar is a sequence of eighteenth-century stucco panels by an anonymous artist inside which are painted evangelical and biblical episodes: some of the scenes are badly damaged.

Behind the statue is a large canvas depicting the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the work of Pier Leone Ghezzi[33] formerly located in the Coroncina oratory below the church, which was converted in the 1920s to an auditorium.

[28][note 7] The third bay of the left aisle houses the altar of the Sacred Heart, restored in 1952 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the priestly ordination of Giovanni Battista Trovalusci, at the time vicar general of the suburbicarian diocese of Albano.

[28] The large altar painting is a work by Giuseppe Ciotti made in 1966, depicting suffering humanity resorting to the Sacred Heart of Jesus under the guidance precisely of Monsignor Trovalusci.

[32] The altarpiece is an anonymous large painting depicting Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Child Jesus and Saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.

[28] The altarpiece is a "Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew" by Giacinto Campana,[39] a contemporary copy of the original by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri painted and preserved in the church of San Martino in Siena between 1635/1636, probably made on commission by Cardinal Girolamo Colonna.

[5] Under the niche, the following inscription is affixed: D.O.M.MORE CARTHUSIANOUT IUCUNDAM REDDERET MORTEMET PROPRIAM REQUIEM OCULIS PROPONERETANIMO COMPOSITO ET IMMORTALISIBI VIVENS POSUITTOTIUS PRAEDICTI ORDINIS PROTECTORHIERONIMUS CARDINALIS COLUMNAA.D.

The baptismal font, located to the right of the high altar in a niche, on the other hand, is the work of 17th-century Roman artists, made of black marble and wooden columns.

And therefore we beg that you deign to grant us the right to observe the said feast.Concedimus ut petitur iuxta decretum expediendum, Romae, 4 junii 1619, Sfortia Cardinalis Ep.us Alban…Ob eorum in adversis retroactorum temporum vicissitudinibus erga ipsum et Sedem Apostolicam probatam fidelitatem ac devotionem.