Santi Sergio E Bacco - Original 9th-century Church

Original 9th-century Church

The first unambiguous references to the predecessor of the church in Monti are to an “oratory of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus which is located in Callinico,” to which Pope Leo III (795‑816) gave gifts (LP 98.24, 98.78), and the “monastery of Christ’s holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus called Callinicum” to which Pope Benedict III (855‑858) gave silver gifts including two chalices, a paten and incense boat (LP 106.26). Callinicum is a city in Syria. The ninth century monastery was under the authority of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls.

In the eleventh century the monastery was populated by Benedictine monks, known in the Catalogue of Turin as the “Church of St. Sergius in Suburra.” Suburra is an ancient and modern name of the neighborhood.

A bull of 1045 of Pope Gregory VI (1045-6) put under the authority of the monastery of St. Peter of Perugia “the monastery of St. Sergius, which is called Canelicum, situated in the fourth region of Rome in the Subura, with the church of St. Euphemia located near it.” Canelicum is evidently a scribal metathesis for Callinicum and should not be taken as another name for the monastery. Monti is here being referred to by the Augustan region number.

In 1413 Sts. Sergius and Bacchus became no longer a monastery as an archpriest and secular clerics replaced the Benedictine abbot and monks. By 1500 there were two chapels in the church, one to S. Angelo and one to S. Nicolò, built by two families from Monti, the Paulelli and the dello Ciuoto.