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Ostia had in 'antiquity the privilege of being the second most important diocese after Rome.

And the bishop of Ostia had the prerogative to consecrate bishop the elected pontiff of Rome, and to anoint the emperor. Toward the end of 1500 by decision of Pope Sixtus V Ostia was the seat assigned to the Cardinal Dean of the Sacred College. Twelve bishops from Ostia were elected popes.

The church of St. Aurea was completed in 1483. It had been commissioned by the French Cardinal d'Estouteville who, dying, left the task of completing it to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II.

The architect was the Florentine Baccio Pontelli, who also designed Julius II's castle.

Saint Aurea.
Who was Aurea, (Greek for 'Chryse)?
She was born in the early third century to a noble family. She embraced the Christian faith. and was exiled to Ostia, imprisoned,and then martyred, chained and drowned in the sea. Bishop Cyriacus and other Christians were also martyred at Ostia. Aurea's body, recovered, was buried in.a plot of land owned by the saint that later became a Christian cemetery. After many centuries, a cushion of, marble with the inscription 'Chryse hic dormit' was found in Ostia in 1981. There is also a small column from the fifth century, with the Latin inscription, where St. Aur is mentioned.In the same place where the church of St. Aurea stands, St. Monica, who was in 387 in Ostia together with St. Augustine, her son, was buried. She died and was interred almost certainly in the same place where Aurea had been buried. In the church is the tombstone of the deceased Monica. In short, an early Christian basilica already existed and it is not known for sure whether it was the same one on which the present church of St. Aurea was later built.
Aurea became the patron saint of the sailors of Ostia, she who "carries the ships on the waves with the wind."
The primitive building, was larger in size and opposite orientation, the entrance was from the side of the 'apse.
Later the Rocca square was created and the church changed its front.

Ceiling.
The church is twelve meters high at the top. Illuminated by fifteenth-century mullioned windows and a rose window. Inside, the nave is covered by wooden trusses decorated with lilies.

Chapel.
To the right is the chapel of St. Monica built in 1627 on the ancient Christian necropolis where the saint was buried. Monica's tombstone is an archaeological find of great value. The chapel's beautiful and intense canvas, attributed to Pietro da Cortona, depicts the ecstasy of St. Monica at Ostia.

In the same chapel are a sculpture by Raoul Vistoli and a copy of the funerary pillow of St. Aurea.

Apse.
The apse is framed by a triumphal arch of ancient marble. The altar is new, but it retains two bas-reliefs from the 400s similar to those on the pilasters outside the church. On the wall of the triumphal arch can be seen shreds of 16th-century Roman school frescoes. On the right St. Paul, and on the left St. Peter together with a pope. In the center is an oval by Andrea Sacchi, 1627, depicting the martyrdom of St. Aurea.

Next to it is the marble stump of St. Aurea. Along the walls are tiles inspired by Luca della Robbia depicting the fourteen Stations of the Cross.