The nave, from the Latin navis meaning ship or the main body of the chapel, adopts a Romanesque design with a barrel-vault and ten Romanesque pendants suspend from the celestial ceiling. This basilica floor plan with three aisles, one main and two sides, is divided by two arcades of six ionic columns with an apse, or half dome, at the west end. In biblical usage, twelve is symbolic of the tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles. The twelve freestanding columns further bring to mind the twelve virtues of Mary. Ionic capitals, a feminine representation for Mary as mother and virgin, gracefully adorn the columns.