San Paolo (1041-71)

An inscription [on the external door of the cloister] says that Aginaldo, Abbot of San Benedetto on Monte Subasio founded the church and adjacent priory in 1071.  During the 12th century, the church and its adjacent canonica was known as San Paolo dell’ Abbadia in recognition of its continuing dependence on San Benedetto.
 
The church underwent successive transformations, and Pope Innocent IV reconsecrated it in 1253. The monks of San Benedetto came here in 1339 when their monastery was seriously damaged.  

Canons of San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome, who were subordinate to the Venetian Congregazione di San Giorgio in Alga, owned the church from ca. 1481 until their suppression in 1652, when it passed to the canons of San Rufino.  

Much of the canonica was subsequently demolished.  The Confraternita di San Crispino met in the church from 1581 until 1790, and it now belongs to the Confraternita di San Rufino.

Frescoes

A fresco (late 16th century) of SS Paul, Benedict and Laurence Giustiniani is in the lunette of the portal on the right wall of the church (in Via San Paolo).  [Laurence Giustiniani (1381-1455) was a Venetian nobleman who founded the Congregazione di San Giorgio in Alga.  He became the patriarch of Venice in 1451 and was canonised in 1690].

A fresco (1475) by Matteo da Gualdo of the Madonna and Child with SS Lucy and Ansanus and a donor is on the back wall.

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