Altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 1578

Altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the right transept of St. Peter's Basilica. The central icon is a 12th-century fresco brought here by Pope Gregory XIII in 1578. The altar was designed by G. Muziano (1528-92) and contains rare alabaster, amethysts and other semi-precious stones, and four columns of African marble and green porphyry. Below the altar in a porphyry urn are the remains of the theologian St. Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 390), one of the Cappadocian fathers. St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.