The works for the construction of the church began in 1870 by the will of Pope Pius IX but the events of that year (namely the end of the Papal Kingdom and the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy) blocked them.
Only for the help, support and pressure by St. John Bosco in 1879 the works were resumed by the architect Francesco Vespignani and therefore Pope Leo XIII entrusted the new church to Don Bosco and to the order he had founded, the Salesians.
The consecration of the church took place in 1887 and it was St. John Bosco himself who celebrated the first Mass there on May 16.
The initial project was modified, the church was lengthened by 30 meters.
The neo-Renaissance façade is in travertine and is surmounted by a bell tower on which rests the statue of the Redeemer in gilded copper.
The interior, with three naves with granite columns and a transept with a dome, is completely covered with marble, stucco, gilding and paintings: Virginio Monti is the author of the paintings in the carved wooden ceilings, in the dome and in the cupolas while Cesare Caroselli painted the pendentives, arches and walls.
The three main altars are composed of seventeenth-century elements from demolished churches.
A few meters from Termini Station, it is a beautiful church, an evocative place, with its very high bell tower visible from all corners of the Piazza dei Cinquecento, and full of great spirituality and mysticism.