The Basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso gets its name from Pope Damasus I, who held the papacy from 366 to 384 AD. He is known as the pope who commissioned Jerome to translate the Bible into the Latin Vulgate. Unlike the other churches bearing the name of Lorenzo, there are no relics or physical elements related to Saint Lawrence. Instead, Damasus was an admirer of Saint Lawrence and built the church over his own home. San Lorenzo in Damaso is a titulus church.

San Sisto Vecchio honors Pope Sixtus II, who was martyred in 258 in the same persecution and orders which brought about the death of St. Laurence; Sixtus was the Pope, and Laurence was one of his deacons. He was laid to rest in the catacombs outside of Rome, and translated here to this church sometime in the 500s. To be clear, there is really no question of the veracity of the relics; shortly after his death his resting place was memorialized with a plaque, allowing for ea