The Oratory

The Oratory was intended as a place for private devotions as well as for use by the Congregation of the orders novices, many of whom were often adults applicants seeking entry in the orders ranks. the council granted the request made on the 20th March 1602 for the oratorys erection "Next to the Chapel of the column towards the cemetery". By 1605 it must have been finished, for the windows were than equiped with glass- then still a rare comodity At first it was a plain rectangular construction with a floor roof and a sallow dipression at it's east and flanked by two massive Doric piers. Light was let in from 6 windows into the cemetery. When Caravaggio initiated his one year novitate in July 1607, the oratory was still in this primitive shape. His famous Masterpiece was propably painted on the spot and sited inside the east recess between two Doric piers.