The church belonged originally to the "rione" Ripa, but after the demolitions around the Theater of Marcellus between 1926 and 1930, it was assigned to the "rione" Sant'Angelo. Until 1870, the pope required the Jews living in the nearby ghetto to attend compulsory sermons () every sabbath in front of the church, which faced two gates of the Jewish quarter, but they avoided hearing them by putting wax in their ears. Because of this, during a restoration in 1858, a bilingual (Hebrew and Latin) inscription with a passage from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah (), in which the Lord complains about the obstinacy of the Jews, was put on the facade.