The current church, built under Pope Honorius in the 7th century, rises above one of the largest catacombs in Rome. The total length of the underground passages is ten kilometers, but only a small part is accessible. Agnes was buried here, which led to the desire of many Romans to find her final resting place in the immediate vicinity of this saint's tomb.
When this church became more and more dilapidated, Pope Honorius had a small, three-nave church built right next to it between 625 and 630, with the altar directly above the tomb of Agnes.[1] The individual naves are divided by 16 antique columns, which are worth seeing and which were removed from Roman buildings that were no longer needed.
In this church, two lambs are blessed by the Pope every year on the feast day of Saint Agnes (January 21) after a solemn high mass. Their wool is used to make the pallium worn by the newly appointed archbishops as a sign of their allegiance to the pope.