The church was located in the southern corner of the Palatine Hill, and takes its name from the ancient Roman ruin Septizodium of Septimius Severus which was located there.[1] The name septizodium is in turn derived from septisolium, meaning "temple of seven suns,"[2] and was probably named for the seven planetary deities (Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus),[3] or for the fact that it was originally divided into seven parts. As such, the church of Saint Lucy which was built nearby is variously called in Septisolio, in Septizonium (both of which refer to the Septizodium), in septem solium, de septum solis, de sedes solis (referring to the "seven suns"), or even de septem viae or in septem vias (meaning, "at the seven ways").[1] The catalogue of Pietro Mallio, produced during the pontificate of Pope Alexander III (1159–1181) calls it S. Lucie Palatii in cyrco iuxta Septa Solis ("[the church of] Saint Lucy of the Palatine, in the circus, near the Seven Suns").[4] Mariano Armellini assures his readers that these names are all more or less corrupted versions of the same ancient monument's name.[1]
During the height of the Roman stational liturgy in the sixth century until its decline in the eleventh and extinction in the fourteenth, the church served as the ecclesia collecta for Friday of the first week of Lent, meaning that it was the meeting point for the papal procession that then moved to the day's statio, Santi Giovanni e Paolo.[5]
