Santi Sergio e Bacco al Foro Romano (Italian:Saints Sergius and Bacchus at the Roman Forum) also calledSanti Sergio e Baccosub Capitolio (Saints Sergius and Bacchus under the Capitoline) was an ancienttitular church inRome, now lost. Located in the ruins of theRoman Forum, it had been one of the ancientdiaconiae of the city and a collect church for one of thestation days ofLent, but it was demolished in the sixteenth century.
The church was dedicated to the fourth-century Syrian martyrsSergius and Bacchus, and was one of four churches in Rome listed by the ninth-centuryLiber Pontificalis as being named in their honor. (The only one that survives today isSanti Sergio e Baccoin Callinico.) Its epithets, listed byChristian Hülsen,[2] weresub Capitolio orretro Capitolium, both of which refer to its position in the Forum, which is "under" or "behind" theCapitoline Hill.
The church was constructed up against theArch of Septimius Severus.[3]Mariano Armellini notes that it had a smallcampanile that was constructed on the attic of the arch,[3] butRodolfo Lanciani maintains that that tower was not connected to the church, having been pulled down in 1636, much later than the church itself. He supports his claim with a report of the city council of Rome that appropriated the tower's materials for the church ofSanta Martina.[1] Lanciani further points out that Santi Sergio e Bacco was the only church in the Roman Forum that "did not occupy the site of an ancient building, but stood in its own ground."[1]
Before its destruction the church served as theecclesia collecta for Tuesday of the third week of Lent, meaning that it was the meeting point for the papal procession that then moved to the day's station,Santa Pudenziana.[4]
The church was one of the ancient deaconries of the city, which were set up in order to distribute alms and food to the poor. One of thelibri pontificales records that the SyrianPope Gregory III (731–741) had performed a major expansion of the church in the early 700s, which had been up until then a small oratory.[1][3][5]
It was, however, apparently already in bad condition by the pontificate ofPope Adrian I (772–795), who rebuilt it.[2][3] An anonymous pilgrim ofEinsiedeln, writing in the same century, refers to it asS. Sergii, ibi umbilicum ("[the church] of Saint Sergius, near theumbilicus).[2] It later appears in an 1199 bull ofPope Innocent III, which defines its rights and privileges and lists the churches of San Salvatorede statera and San Lorenzosub Capitolio as its dependents.[2] (In 1190, Innocent, as Lotario di Segni, had inherited the church as his cardinal deaconry and donated a basilica shrine, a silver chalice, and altar vestments to it.[6]) Innocent III also erected a facade on the church consisting of a porch supported by many columns,[1][3] and the following inscription:[3]
| Latin | English |
|---|---|
PENE RVI, QVASI NVLLA FVI, SED ME RELEVAVIT LOTHARIVS [...] | I was almost ruined; I was near to nothing before, but Lothario raised me up again [...] after he renewed me. And then the Father of the City and the World took me up as a prize. Yet from his very own [resources] he made me; I am therefore renewed once more. |
It was further enriched with donations byLeo III (795–816) andGregory IV (827–844).[2]
Records of the church reappear with the 1461Liber Anniversariorum Sancti Salvatoris ad Sancta Sanctorum and a catalogue of Roman churches in 1492.[2][7] It did not, however, last longer than a century after that.
While both Lanciani and Armellini record the popular belief that the church was demolished by order ofPope Paul III in order to enable the triumphal march ofEmperor Charles V through the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1536,[1][3] Hülsen contests that story.[2] To support his argument, Hülsen references the record of Michele Lonigo, who wrote that the church, "being reduced to meager terms, was destroyed after many years, and the relics of SaintsFelicissimus and Agapitus and the body of SaintVincent that were there, were placed in the nearbychurch of theConsolazione."[2][3] The transfer of those relics occurred in 1562, with Ascanio Cesarini overseeing the process by appointment of Pope Pius IV.[2] (An inscription was placed behind the altar of Santa Maria della Consolazione to commemorate it, but that appears to have been lost.[2]) Since the transfer of the relics occurred thirty years after the visit of Charles V, Hulsen concludes that the church could not have been demolished for that reason.
Whatever the reason for its destruction, it was certainly gone by the end of the 16th century, when its incomes were transferred into aprebend for a simple canonry of eighty crowns in the chapel of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in the nearby church ofSant'Adriano al Foro (now deconsecrated and despoiled, remains only visible as theCuria Julia).[3] Proof of this is a catalogue dating from the pontificate ofPope Pius V (1566–1572), which states:Sto. Sergio e Baccho sotto Campid[oglio]; ruinato ("Saints Sergius and Bacchus under the Capitoline: ruined").[2] The remains of its apse were still extant until 1812, when they were finally removed during excavation of the nearbyTemple of Vespasian.[2][3]
The title ofCardinal Titular Church of Santi Sergio e Bacco was suppressed in 1587.[8]
41°53′34″N12°29′4.8″E / 41.89278°N 12.484667°E /41.89278; 12.484667