The actual construction was entrusted to Baccio Pontelli, who had also built the neighboring fortress.

According to tradition, the relics of Saint Monica, mother of Augustine of Hippo, rested at this early church of Santa Aurea before being translated to Rome to the church of San Trifone in Posterula and finally to the Basilica di Sant'Agostino.

The church contains a chapel dedicated to Saint Monica, which contains a sepulchral stone re-discovered in the summer of 1945 that contains a funerary epigraph written by Anicius Bassus.

[2] The fragment was discovered after two boys were digging a hole to plant a football post in the courtyard beside Santa Aurea.

The basilica, center of a parish dating from the Paleochristian age, has been a titulus since the 12th century.