Located next to the Jesuit Collegio di San Roberto Bellarmino in the Palazzo Gabrielli-Borromeo, it is the only church in Italy dedicated to the 7th century Breton saint Malo (Latin: Maclovius or Machutus, hence the vulgarized Macuto).

In the second half of the 13th century it was dependent on San Marcello al Corso, then later it belonged to the Dominicans from the neighbouring Santa Maria sopra Minerva (confirmed by Pope Nicholas III in 1279).

The façade was a project of the Ferraran architect Giovanni Alberto Galvani and it was partially reconstructed 1577−1585 to the design of Francesco da Volterra.

They moved to a church then called Santa Maria della Pietà instead, and changed its name to Santi Bartolomeo ed Alessandro dei Bergamaschi (on the Piazza Colonna).

The left altar has a painting (1730s) by Michelangelo Cerruti, depicting The Sacred Heart adored by the Saints John Nepomuk and Aloysius Gonzaga.