Church of Santi Benedetto e Scolastica all'Argentina

It is the regional church of the people of Norcia, who, in the early 17th century, founded an archconfraternity in Rome dedicated to the two holy siblings born in Norcia and built an oratory in 1625. The confraternity was approved by Pope Paul V in 1615 and by Pope Gregory XV in 1623. Upon his death, a member of the confraternity, Pier Matteo Lucarucci, bequeathed one of his properties to it (where it already held its meetings, on the ground floor), thereby giving the association the opportunity to expand the oratory and transform it into a church.

The church is also known as San Benedetto della Ciambella; here is how Marcello Armellini explains this curious name:

… il cardinale della Valle, incapricciandosi di cavar tesoro, fece cavare nelle terme di M. Agrippa nelle quali vi trovò una gran corona civica imperiale di metallo dorato, e perché avea simiglianza di certe ciambelle che a quel tempo si vedevano per Roma, quelli cavatori dissero: ecco una ciambella; e per avere la mancia corsero al cardinale dicendoli: havemo trovato una ciambella di bronzo, e di lì a poco venendoci ad abitare un oste fece per insegna la detta ciambella; ed in questo modo è stato sempre chiamato la ciambella" (… Cardinal della Valle, taken by a whim to unearth treasure, ordered excavations in the Baths of M. Agrippa, where he found a large imperial civic crown of gilded metal; and because it resembled certain ciambelle [ring-shaped pastries] seen around Rome at that time, those excavators said: 'Look, a ciambella!' Seeking a tip, they ran to the Cardinal and told him, 'We have found a bronze ciambella.' Shortly thereafter, an innkeeper came to live there and used the said ciambella as a shop sign; and in this way, it has always been called la ciambella.")

(Armellini, op. cit., p. 457)

The church was stripped of most of its rich works of art by the French in 1798 and by the Roman Republic in 1849, and was consequently restored on several occasions by Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII. During the French plundering, the archive was also lost.

The church has no facade of its own; however, its entrance, consisting of an elegant portal surmounted by a tondo with the Latin inscription Divis Benedicto et Scholasticae patronis ordo et populus nursinus (To the honoured patrons Benedict and Scholastica, the council and people of Norcia), is set within the façade facing Via di Torre Argentina of the ancient Palazzo Lucarucci.

The interior consists of a single nave, with painted faux columns on the walls, and the inscription Felix Nursiae tellus quae talem genuit alumnun (Happy land of Norcia, which gave birth to such a pupil); there are also 19th-century paintings and decorations depicting the papal restorers. The nave is divided into two sections by an arch resting on half-pillars: the section dedicated to the worshippers has a barrel vault, whilst the presbytery has a flat ceiling.

Church of Santi Benedetto e Scolastica ph. Turismo Roma