Sant'Apollinare was founded by
Pope Hadrian I around 780, on the remains of pre-existing Roman buildings. It is first mentioned in the
Liber Pontificalis under Pope Hadrian, using
spolia from the ruins of an imperial building. The first priests who served the church were probably eastern
Basilian monks who had fled from persecution during the
iconoclast period. In 1284 a Chapter of Canons held the church. It is listed in the Catalogue of Turin as a papal chapel with eight clerics and became a parish church in 1562. In 1574 it was granted to the
Jesuits by
Pope Gregory XIII, and it was used as the church of the next-door Collegium Germanicum in the Palazzo di Sant'Apollinare, which was later united with the Hungarian College to form the
Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum. This remained a Jesuit institution until the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 when this church passed to the
Lazarists. In the late 17th century, the church was in a poor state of repair. Its rebuilding was considered over a long period but wasn't carried out, probably due to the lack of funds. Despite this, in 1702 a chapel was redecorated and dedicated to
St Francis Xavier, and a statue of the saint was commissioned from
Pierre Le Gros who carved the marble with extraordinary
virtuosity (the statue was preserved when the church was eventually rebuilt some 40 years later and is still
in situ). Only in 1742,
Pope Benedict XIV commissioned
Ferdinando Fuga to rebuild the church. In 1984 the church was elevated to
minor basilica status. On 18 December 1990, the church was granted to
Opus Dei, and is now part of their
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. The new Chaplain of the Opus Dei settled on 1 September 1991. On 24 April 1990, when the Church had not yet been entrusted to Opus Dei, the notorious gangster
Enrico De Pedis, boss of the so-called
Banda della Magliana, was buried in the church's crypt, by authorization of Cardinal
Ugo Poletti. The unusual interment has been linked to the case of
Emanuela Orlandi's kidnapping and the tomb was opened for investigation in 2012. With the authorisation of the Italian judiciary in accordance with the desire expressed by the widow of De Pedis, on 18 June 2012, at the end of the further investigations carried out on the burial, the body of De Pedis was moved from the basilica of Sant'Apollinare and transferred to the Prima Porta Cemetery where it was cremated. Subsequently, the ashes were dispersed into the sea. ==Architecture==