In Rome, to celebrate the Coronation of King George, a group of Dominican Fathers of British nationality from the " Angelicum," the Dominican Pontifical University, offered their Masses in the Basilica of St. George in Velabro. The private Masses were followed by a Missa Cantata in Dominican Plainchant, at the conclusion of which the Domine salvum fac and the prayer for the King were sung.
The ancient basilica, built probably in the sixth century on the ruins of the Foro Boario, is dedicated to St. George, the "Great Soldier-Martyr," as the Greeks call him, who under the first Norman Kings was chosen as Patron of England. The church bore originally the name of " Basilica Sempronia," from the house of Titus Sempronius.
St, George's was restored by Pope Leo 11 in the seventh century, and lately, in 1926, by Anthony Munoz, The Papal High Altar has a fine marble baldaechino of the eighth century and an ancient Greek picture let into the front, and in the apse a fresco of the thirteenth century representing Our Lord between St. George and St. Sebastian. This basilica was the titular church of Cardinal Newman.