The convent attached to this church was founded in 1318, especially for noble sisters of the house of Colonna who dedicated themselves to God. Here it was that the celebrated Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa di Pescara, came to reside in 1525, when widowed in her thirty-sixth year, and here she began to write her sonnets, a kind of "In Memoriam," to her husband. It is a curious proof of the value placed upon her remaining in the world, that Pope Clement VII. was persuaded to send a brief to the abbess and nuns, desiring them to offer her "all spiritual and temporal consolations," but forbidding them, under pain of the greater excommunication, to permit her to take the veil in her affliction.[8] At the end of this street, continued under the name of Via de Mercede (No. 11 was the residence of Bernini), and behind the Propaganda, is the _Church of S. Andrea delle Fratte_, whose brick cupola by Borromini is so picturesque a feature. The bell-tower beside it swings when the bells are rung. In the second chapel on the right is the beautiful modern tomb of Mademoiselle Julie Falconnet, by Miss Hosmer. The opposite chapel is remarkable for a modern miracle (?) annually commemorated here. "M. Ratisbonne, un juif, appartenant à une très-riche famille d'Alsace, qui se trouvait accidentellement à Rome, se promenant dans l'église de S. Andrea delle Fratte pendant qu'on y faisait les préparatifs pour les obsèques de M. de la Ferronays, s'y est converti subitement. Il se trouvait debout en face d'une chapelle dédiée à l'ange gardien, à quelques pas, lorsque tout-à-coup il a eu une apparition lumineuse de la Sainte Vierge qui lui a fait signe d'aller vers cette chapelle. Une force irrésistible l'y a entraíné, il y est tombé à genoux, et il a été à l'instant chrétien. Sa première parole à celui qui l'avait accompagné a été, en relevant son visage inondé de larmes: 'Il faut que ce monsieur ait beaucoup prié pour moi.'"--_Récit d'une Sœur._ "Era un istante ch'io mi stava in chiesa allora che di colpo mi sentii preso da inesprimibile conturbamento. Alzai gli occhi; tutto l'edifizio s'era dileguato a' miei sguardi; sola una cappella aveva come in se raccolta tutta la luce, e di mezzo di raggianti splendori s' è mostrata diritta sull'altare, grande, sfolgoreggiante, piena di maestà, e di dolcezza, la Vergine Maria. Una forza irresistibile m'ha sospinto verso di lei. La Vergine m'ha fatto della mano segno d'inginocchiarmi; pareva volermi dire, 'Bene!' Ella non mi ha parlato ma io ho inteso tutto."--_Recital of Alfonse Ratisbonne._[9]