"The Olivetan monks inhabited the church and cloisters of Sta. Maria in Domenica, commonly called in Navicella, from the rudely sculptured marble monument that stands on the grass before its portal, a remnant of bygone days, to which neither history nor tradition has given a name, but which has itself given one to the picturesque old church which stands on the brow of the Cœlian Hill."--_Lady Georgiana Fullerton._ A tradition of the Church narrates that St. Lorenzo, deacon and martyr, daily distributed alms to the poor in front of this church--then the house of Sta. Cyriaca--with whom he had taken refuge. Opposite, is the round _Church of S. Stefano Rotondo_, dedicated by St. Simplicius in 467. It appears to have been built on the site of an ancient circular building, and to have belonged to the great victual market--Macellum Magnum--erected by Nero in this quarter.[167] It is seldom used for service, except on St. Stephen's Day (December 26), but visitors are admitted through a little cloister, in which stands a well of beautiful proportions, of temp. Leo X.--attributed to Michael Angelo. The interior is exceedingly curious architecturally. It is one hundred and thirty-three feet in diameter, with a double circle of granite columns, thirty-six in the outer and twenty in the inner series, enclosing two tall Corinthian columns, with two pilasters supporting a cross wall. In the centre is a kind of temple in which are relics of St. Stephen (his body is said to be at S. Lorenzo). In the entrance of the church is an ancient marble seat from which St. Gregory is said to have read his fourth homily. The walls are lined with frescoes by _Pomerancio_ and _Tempesta_. They begin with the Crucifixion, but as the Holy Innocents really suffered before our Saviour, one of them is represented lying on each side of the cross. Next comes the stoning of St. Stephen, and the frescoes continue to pourtray every phase of human agony in the most revolting detail, but are interesting as showing a historical series of what the Roman Catholic Church considers as the best authenticated martyrdoms, viz.: {St. Peter, crucified. {St. Paul, beheaded. {St. Vitale, buried alive. {St. Thecla, tossed by a bull. Under Nero {St. Gervase, beaten to death. {SS. Protasius, Processus, and Martinianus, beheaded. {St. Faustus and others, clothed in skins of beasts {and torn to pieces by dogs. {St. John, boiled in oil (which he survived) at the {Porta Latina. {St. Cletus, Pope, beheaded. Under Domitian {St. Denis, beheaded (and carrying his head). {St. Domitilla, roasted alive. {SS. Nereus and Achilles, beheaded.