The Church of the Jesuits was built on the ruins of the ancient church of Saint Catherine on 23 May 1589, the day on which the first stone of the reconstruction was blessed by the bishop of Bitonto Fortiguerra.
The Jesuits, who entered Bari in 1583, carefully chose the site on which to build the church, competing in terms of grandeur of the main facade with the nearby monastery of Saint Theresa.
The small Church of Jesus is one of the few sacred buildings built from scratch in the Apulian city in the Baroque style.
The interior consists of a single nave with a sloping roof, each of the side walls marked by three arches, in each of which is placed a marble altar. Among these, those dedicated respectively to St. Ignatius of Lojola and St. Francis Xavier stand out.
The statue of Jesus is located on the high altar that contains a sarcophagus in which rests the body of Orsolina Capriati, as evidenced by a plaque on the back wall. At the foot of the same is, instead, buried the Jesuit Domenico Bruno.