Churches of Rome

There are more than 900 churches in Rome, which makes it the city with the largest number of churches in the world. Almost all of these are Catholic.

The first churches of Rome originated in places where Christians met. They were divided into three main categories:

1. the houses of private Roman citizens (people who hosted the meetings of Christians – also known as oratoria, oracula)
2. the deaconries (places where charity distributions were given to the poor and placed under the control of a deacon; the greatest deaconries had many deacons, and one of them was elected archdeacon)
3. other houses holding a titulus (known as domus ecclesia)