The church was one of the tituli, the first parish churches of Rome. It was probably built in the 4th century under Pope Silvester I (314-335), rebuilt in the 12th century by John of Crema, and again by Giovanni Battista Soria, funded by Scipione Borghese (it was the Cardinal's titular church). Between 1620 and 1627 Soria attended to the major restoration. He reorganized the nave elevation, enlarged the windows, added delicate stucco ornamentation and inserted Ionic capitals and an entablature in stucco above the antique granite columns. He changed the vaulting and articulation of the aisles and transepts and designed a carved wooden ceiling with coffers shaped by a complex geometry and a copy of Guercino's St Crisogono in Glory in the central field. He modernized the medieval façade portico by spanning its volume with a barrel vault and shifting its four porphyry columns closer together between new wall segments at the ends; he then ordered the whole façade with a careful composition of pilasters and entablatures in low relief.