Hagiographical narratives, especially depictions of
the acta martyrum, stand out in the pre-Carolingian Rome and reach
an apex in the transept of Santa Prassede. Whether this reflects the renewal of a late-antique tradition, the survival of a tradition erased
by conservation, or something new in eighth- and ninth-century Rome remains unclear. To understand the transept program in the cultural and political context of Pope Paschal i’s papacy, this paper considers the main developments of the hagiographical paintings in the early Middle Ages, the role of Saint Peter’s basilica as a model, and the specifics of the transept’s space, coming back to the repetitiveness of the cycles of Santa Prassede and to the redundant scene of the martyr trial.