Chiesa di Sant'Agapito, Roma

Chiesa di Sant’Agapito is the Catholic parish church on Viale della Venezia Giulia, in Rome’s Collatino district. Its plain, hall-like exterior gives little warning of the long sacred history gathered here. An earlier church on this site honoured the martyrs Agapitus and Felicissimus, whom Pope Sixtus the Second buried in the cemetery of Praetextatus in the year 258.

Pope Felix the Third built that earlier church around 490; Popes Adrian the First and Leo the Third later renewed it, before it vanished from the historical record. By 1609, the area still carried Sant’Agapito’s name. The present church has served as a parish since 1962. Inside, the wooden figure of Saint Anthony Abbot is by Perathoner, while Bedini painted the Baptism canvas.