Churches of Rome

The Churches of Rome are very many, over 900.

Ancient churches

The first churches of Rome originated by the places where the Christians met, and are divided into three classes:

the houses of private Roman citizens, who hosted the meeting of Christians (oratoria, oracula);
the deaconries were places where charity distributions were given to the poor, and were under the control of a deacon The greatest deaconries had many deacons, and one of them was elected archdeacon;
other houses, holding a titulus. These places were known as domus ecclesia.

The Tituli

Only the Tituli were allowed to distribute sacraments, and the most important priest in a titulus was given the name of Cardinal. Pope Marcellus I (beginning 4th century) confirmed that only the tituli were centres of administration of the Church. In 499, a synod held by Pope Symmachus indicated all the presbyters participating, listing their tituli, the ones present in that time^*:

Titulus Aemilianae (Santi Quattro Coronati)
Titulus Anastasiae (Santa Anastasia)
Titulus SS Apostolorum (Santi Apostoli)
Titulus Byzantis or Vizantis (unknown)
Titulus S Caeciliae (Santa Cecilia in Trastevere)
Titulus Clementis (San Clemente)
Titulus Crescentianae (San Sisto Vecchio)
Titulus Crysogoni (San Crisogono)
Titulus Cyriaci (Uncertain; theories include Santa Maria Antiqua and Santa Maria in Domnica)
Titulus Damasi (San Lorenzo in Damaso)
Titulus Equitii (San Martino ai Monti)
Titulus Eusebi (Sant'Eusebio)
Titulus Fasciolae (Santi Nereo e Achilleo)
Titulus Gaii (Santa Susanna)
Titulus Iulii (Santa Maria in Trastevere, identical with Titulus Callixti)
Titulus Lucinae (San Lorenzo in Lucina)
Titulus Marcelli (San Marcello al Corso)
Titulus Marci (San Marco)
Titulus Matthaei (in Via Merulana, destroyed in 1810)
Titulus Nicomedis (in Via Nomentana, destroyed)
Titulus Pammachii (Santi Giovanni e Paolo)
Titulus Praxedis (Santa Prassede)
Titulus Priscae (Santa Prisca)
Titulus Pudentis (Santa Pudenziana)
Titulus Romani (unknown)
Titulus S Sabinae (Santa Sabina)
Titulus Tigridae (uncertain, perhaps Santa Balbina)
Titulus Vestinae (San Vitale)

The "Seven churches of Rome"

It is known that in 336, Pope Julius I had set the number of presbyter cardinals to 28, so that for each day of the week, a different presbyter cardinal would say mass in one of the four major basilicas of Rome, St. Peter's, St. Paul's, St. Mary Major, and St. Lawrence. These four basilicas had no cardinal, since they were under the Pope's direction. The Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano was the see of the bishop of Rome, and thus included in the number of most venerable churches. When, in the following centuries, the devotion extended to San Sebastiano fuori le mura and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, the seven churches of Rome constituted the obligatory path for all the pilgrims visiting Rome in Medieval times.

Churches

This is a list of churches of Rome cited in Wikipedia articles or with related files on Wikicommons. The churches are grouped according to the time of their initial construction: the dates are those of the first record of each church. The reader, however, should not expect the current fabric of the buildings to reflect that age, since over the centuries all have undergone reconstruction. Almost all the churches will thus appear considerably more recent, and of a patchwork of periods and styles.