Tradition states that the first edifice on the site was constructed during the reign of Emperor Constantine I, only 100 years after the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. In the fifth century, this church was one of the Stational Churches of Rome that the Pope visited on its titular day: the Thursday of the first week in Lent. Recent popes have revived this ancient custom. The first written evidence of an ecclesiastical edifice on the site is from 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII rebuilt the church and annexed an abbey to it. That abbey was given to the Benedictines in 1451 and later hosted the Poor Clares. They were removed in February 1872 as part of the confiscations of the new Italian government, but were restored through the efforts of Cardinal Jacopo Colonna in 1896, who also restored the church and abbey. The Franciscans presently serve the church.