San Pasquale Baylón e Santi Quaranti Martiri is an 18th century convent church in Trastevere.
The dedication is to the 40 Roman soldiers who, during the persecution of Licinius (310), not having abjured their Christian faith, were immersed in a frozen lake in Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia (present day Sivas in Turkey) and froze to death. Pasquale Baylón was a Spanish priest, canonized in 1690, popularly considered the protector of women.
For reference, a plan of the church is available
here.
The original church is of unknown origin, but was possibly founded in the 10th century as a small parish church. The first documentary reference to the church is to a restoration by Pope Callixtus II in 1123.
In the reign of Pope Alexander VI it had a small hospital attached. The Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone acquired the complex in 1608, and restored it.
The Confraternity was here for over a century, but in 1736 the church was purchased by the Spanish
Alcantarines or Discalced reform of the Franciscan Friars Minor. On this occasion the church was placed under the Crown of Spain with a royal decree of Philip V in 1738. The Alcantarines totally rebuilt it by 1747 to a design by
Giuseppe Sardi. The interior was restored in 1896 when the fictive marbling was added to the walls.
