Editing Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (section)

===Cimitero dei Cappuccini: The Capuchin Crypt===
[[File:Cripta Cappuccini.jpg|right|thumb|The remains of 4,000 [[friars]] adorn the [[ossuary]] of the [[Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini|Santa Maria della Concezione]]]]

The crypt is located just under the Church of [[Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini|Santa Maria della Concezione]] in Rome, a church commissioned by [[Pope Urban VIII]] in 1626. The pope's brother, Cardinal [[Antonio Barberini]], who was of the Capuchin Order, in 1631 ordered the remains of thousands of Capuchin friars exhumed and transferred from the [[friary]] on the Via dei Lucchesi to the crypt. The bones were arranged along the walls in varied designs, and the friars began to bury their own dead here, as well as the bodies of poor Romans whose tomb was under the floor of the present Mass chapel. Here the Capuchins would come to pray and reflect each evening before retiring for the night.

The [[crypt]], or [[ossuary]], now contains the remains of 4,000 friars buried between 1500 and 1870, during which time the [[Roman Catholic Church]] permitted burial in and under churches. The underground crypt is divided into five [[chapel]]s, lit only by dim natural light seeping in through cracks, and small [[fluorescent lamp]]s. The crypt walls are decorated extensively with the remains, depicting various religious themes. Some of the skeletons are intact and draped with Franciscan [[religious habit|habits]], but for the most part, individual bones are used to create the elaborate ornamental designs.

A [[:wikt:plaque|plaque]] in the [[chapel]] reads:

''What you are now, we used to be.''<br>''What we are now, you will be.''<ref>[http://www.thesilent45.com/2008/02/crypto-archeologico-capuchin-crypts.html Capuchin Crypt Placard] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022085756/http://www.thesilent45.com/2008/02/crypto-archeologico-capuchin-crypts.html |date=2008-10-22 }}, Crypto Archeologico: Capuchin Crypts</ref>

[[Mark Twain]] visited the crypt in the summer of 1867, and begins Volume 2, Chapter 1, of ''[[The Innocents Abroad]]'' with five pages of his observations.