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A monumental wooden crucifix dated to the 1300s is placed here. It has always been venerated and considered miraculous so much so that some pontiffs granted plenary indulgence for this reason. This monumental crucifix came to St. Christopher's in 1786 after the suppression of the company of Blessed Andrea Gallerani located in the “Chiesa della Sapienza”. It is the iconography of Christus Patiens, or the suffering Christ on the cross, iconography aimed at arousing pity in the observer.It is a rather well-preserved work, but originally it was probably coloured.
Below the altar is the body of St. Artemius Martyr, apparently he was a veteran of Constantine the Great's army and was appointed imperial prefect in Egypt. Of the Arian faith he felt it his duty to increase the burden of heretics at the expense of Orthodox Christians. When the Orthodox archbishop of Alexandria, St. Athanasius, was sent into exile, Artemus spent a great deal of time and energy finding him, searching unsuccessfully in monasteries and hermitages in the Egyptian desert. He also turned his zeal against the pagans, destroying their temples and idols in an attempt to forcibly convert them to Christianity. This was ultimately the cause of his downfall, for when Emperor Constantius, an Arian, died in 361 and was succeeded by the pagan Julian the Apostate, Artemius was accused of fighting the emperor's religion, and, after having had his property confiscated, around the year 363 he was beheaded. His story is told in the Passio Artemii, an early medieval hagiographic text sometimes attributed to John Damascene. Artemius is called in ancient texts "Dux Aegypti" wich means "commander of Egypt".
To the left of the altar of the crucifix is a walled marble plaque that reads, "HIC MORTUUS IACET CONTES IHOANNIS BARTALINI DE BONSIGNORIBUS QUI OBUIT XXI AUGUSTI 1470" or "Here dead lies Count of Giovanni Bartalini de' Bonsignori who died on August 21, 1470."
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