Santi Sergio e Bacco al Foro Romano
Santi Sergio e Bacco al Foro Romano also called Santi Sergio e Bacco sub Capitolio was an ancient titular church in Rome, now lost. Located in the ruins of the Roman Forum, it had been one of the ancient diaconiae of the city and a collect church for one of the station days of Lent, but it was demolished in the sixteenth century.
A sketch of the church from Lanciani's Ruins and excavations of ancient Rome (1897), showing the church's position between the columns of the Temple of Vespasian.
Pope Innocent III served as Cardinal Deacon of the church before his election as pope in 1198, endowing the church with gifts and performing renovations both before and during his pontificate.
Station days were days of fasting in the early Christian Church, associated with a procession to certain prescribed churches in Rome, where the Mass and Vespers would be celebrated to mark important days of the liturgical year. Although other cities also had similar practices, and the fasting is no longer prescribed, the Roman churches associated with the various station days are still the object of pilgrimage and ritual, especially in the season of Lent.
Gregory the Great set the classic order of churches for the Lenten station days in the sixth century. (The Procession of Saint Gregory to the Castle Sant'Angelo, c. 1465.)
Popes since John XXIII have revived the practice of visiting the station for Ash Wednesday, Santa Sabina all'Aventino.
