PRESS RELEASE

“JUBILEE IS CULTURE” PROGRAMME
ON 17 DECEMBER, INAUGURATION OF THE EXHIBITION “CRISTO NOSTRA PACE. CARAVAGGIO E RUBENS A ROMA” (“CHRIST OUR PEACE: CARAVAGGIO AND RUBENS IN ROME”)

(Vatican City, 12/12/2025) – From Thursday 18 December 2025 to 8 February 2026, the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone in Piazza Navona, Rome, will host every day from 9.00 to 19.00 the event “Cristo nostra pace” (“Christ our peace”), part of the “Jubilee is Culture” programme, in the context of the Ordinary Jubilee 2025, organized by the Dicastery for Evangelization with the support of the Extraordinary Jubilee Commission.

The exhibition, curated by Don Alessio Geretti, consists of the display of two works of exceptional importance: the Madonna with Child by Peter Paul Rubens (1617-18, oil on canvas, 109.5 x 79.5 cm, private collection, Switzerland), and The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, and Prospero Orsi (1602-1607, oil on canvas, 118 x 156.5 cm, private Austrian collection, Florence).

These two very significant works of art focus attention on the Incarnation, the Death and the Resurrection of the Son of God, the event of salvation that gives reason to Christian hope. Moreover, the two artists, among the greatest in the history of art, created their works in close connection with the Roman environment: Caravaggio certainly worked on the canvas while he was in Rome, starting in the last months of the Jubilee of 1600, while Rubens developed his painting after his trip to Rome, referencing some sculptures that he had studied and admired in the city.

The opening event on December 17, scheduled for 18:00, will be free of charge and open to the public. From December 18 onwards, the exhibition will be open to the public free of charge every day from 9:00 to 19:00 at the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, in Piazza Navona in Rome, until 8 February 2026.

PRESS OFFICE - JUBILEE 2025
Dicastery for Evangelization
Section for Fundamental Questions regarding Evangelization in the World press@iubilaeum2025.va