student of the Catacombs who was really impressed with the
possibilities of a more careful exploration than had hitherto been
undertaken. Marchi’s real title to honour will ever be that he imbued
his pupil with a passionate love of the work to which he has devoted a
long and strenuous life.
The great City of the Dead, largely thanks to De Rossi’s lifelong
labours, is to us something far more than a vast museum of inscriptions
and memorials, the work of the Christian congregations in Rome during
the first two and a half centuries which followed the preaching and
martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul. It is true that most important is the
testimony of these precious relics to the earliest popular estimate of
Christianity: we shall dwell later on the wonderful witness which the
numberless inscriptions and strange emblems painted and graven on the
tombs bear to the faith and belief of the early Church; but the eminent
Roman scholar of whom we are speaking has taught us that there was more
than even the witness of these precious inscriptions and emblems to be
gathered from a patient study of the Catacomb secret.
De Rossi believed, and the splendid results of his long toil have
strikingly verified his belief, that amidst the ruined and desolated
streets of graves the _historic crypts_ of the more famous and
illustrious martyrs of Christ, of the men and women who during the
first two centuries and a half through pain and agony passed to their
rest and won their crowns, could be found and identified, and that thus
a new and striking proof would be furnished of the truth of much of the
martyr story of the early Church.
The official records of well-nigh all the Roman martyrdoms of the age
of persecution, we know, were destroyed by the imperial government
in the days of Diocletian. The martyrologies or histories of these
heroes and heroines of the faith of Jesus which have come down to us,
it is well known, were with a few notable exceptions for the most part
largely composed some two or even more centuries _after_ the events
they relate had happened, and have in consequence been treated by
careful Christian scholars as not dependable sources of early Christian
history; this has been conceded by the most scholarly of the devout
Christian students.
De Rossi’s great work, however, strange to say, has curiously
rehabilitated very many of these long-discredited martyr stories,[121]
and has clearly shown us that not a few of the more important of these
have been absolutely founded on fact; of course, some of the various
details as recounted in these martyrologies are more or less legendary,
but the great cardinal fact of the existence, of the life-work and
suffering, and noble testimony to the faith sealed with their
life-blood, of these true servants of the adored Master, is positively
established by what has been found in the last fifty years in the Roman
city of the Christian dead.
De Rossi and his companions have indeed given us a perfectly new and
most striking page in the history of this early Christian Church.
II
It will be of special interest briefly to glance over the principal
portion of the materials which De Rossi made use of as his guide during
his long forty years’ labours in the exploration of the Catacombs.
First in order must be taken what may be termed the literature bearing
on the City of the Dead.
The most important of these pieces are
1. _The Acts of the Martyrs._ These have already been alluded to as
possessing, save in a few instances, little historic authority, as they
were mostly composed two centuries or even more after the events which
they purported to relate happened. But they were not without their
value to the Catacomb explorers, for it must be remembered that when
these “Acts” were put together in the form we now possess them, in the
fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, the Catacombs were still an object
of eager pilgrimage from all lands, and many of the details in these
“Acts” evidently were based on an historical tradition, such as the
place exactly where the martyr of the “Acts” was buried; such a detail,
for instance, served as a guide to the explorer.
2. _The Martyrology of S. Jerome_--a compilation dating from about the
middle of the sixth century, but certainly containing memoranda of an
earlier date.
3. The (so-called) _Liber Pontificalis_--a generally reliable and most
interesting work, the earlier portion of which has been largely used
throughout Western Christendom, certainly since the sixth century. The
first part of this work contains biographical notices of the Bishops
of Rome from the days of S. Peter to the times of Pope Nicholas,
A.D. 807. The earliest redaction of the first Papal notices in
the _Liber Pontificalis_ which has come down to us was made towards
the end of the fifth century, or in the first years of the sixth. But
it is evidently based on records of a much older date preserved in the
Roman Church.
4. But what De Rossi found most valuable for the purposes of his great
work was a group of writings known as _Itineraries of Pilgrims_. These
were founded on handbooks composed for the use of devout pilgrims from
Britain, Gaul, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland,--men and women who were
desirous to see and to pay their devotions at the celebrated shrines of
Rome.
Some five at least of these precious Pilgrim Itineraries or Guide-Books
to the more celebrated shrines or places where martyrs were interred
in the vast Roman City of the Dead have come down to us. They have
proved of the highest value to De Rossi in his exploration work. The
first perhaps in value of these is contained in the works of William of
Malmesbury, which treat of the doings of the Crusaders in Rome. William
of Malmesbury wrote in the year of grace 1095. But the Itinerary
section in question speaks of the martyr saints as though they were
_still resting_ in their Catacomb graves, although we know that they
had been translated into churches in the city about three centuries
earlier. This clearly shows that the “Itinerary” section had been
written several centuries before the writer William of Malmesbury lived
and copied it into his work.
Other Pilgrim Itineraries have been found in famous monastic libraries,
such as in the libraries of Einsiedeln and Salzburg. These may be
roughly dated about the middle of the seventh century,--that is, before
the days of the Pontificate of Paul I, A.D. 757, and Paschal I, A.D.
817, when the wholesale translation of the remains of the martyrs
from the Catacombs to the securer shelter of the city churches took
place. These were therefore written in a period when the traditions
connected with the historic crypts and their venerated contents were
all comparatively fresh and vivid.
In the same category with the Pilgrim Itineraries which the great Roman
scholar has found so helpful in his Catacomb researches must be placed
the celebrated papyrus preserved in the Cathedral of Monza. This
is a contemporary catalogue or list of the sacred oils sent by Pope
Gregory the Great (A.D. 590-604) to Theodelinda, Queen of the
Lombards. The Lombard Queen sent a special messenger, one Abbot John,
to Pope Gregory the Great asking him for relics of the saints buried
in the Catacombs. At that period no portions of the sacred bodies were
allowed to be removed, even at the request of so powerful a petitioner
as Theodelinda; but as a substitute the Pope sent a little of the oil
which fed the lamps which were ever kept burning before the tombs or
shrines of the saints in question.
Each phial containing the oil was carefully ticketed or labelled, and
a list of these tickets or labels was written on this Monza papyrus.
Some sixty or seventy saints’ shrines are specially enumerated, besides
about eight places mentioned before which oils were kept burning,
before tombs which contained a crowd of unnamed saints and martyrs.
This Monza catalogue of the sacred oils De Rossi carefully compared
with the topographical notices in the Pilgrim Itineraries above
referred to. It was of great service to the scholar explorer in
discovering and identifying many of the principal sanctuaries of the
Catacombs.
Another and quite a different material for his investigations De Rossi
found amidst the desolate Catacombs themselves: he noticed that certain
unmistakable indications ever marked the near neighbourhood of some
historic crypt.
1. The existence above ground of more or less ruined basilicas
of various dimensions,--in some cases showing the remains of a
considerable building, in others of a comparatively small edifice as
of a chapel or an oratory. Such a ruined building evidently pointed to
there being beneath the soil, at times deep down, an historic crypt
of importance. Such a small basilica or oratory had no doubt been
built after the Peace of the Church in the middle or latter years of
the fourth or in the fifth century, when pilgrimage to the shrines
of the saints and martyrs had become the fashion. It was intended
to accommodate the ever-growing crowds who came often from distant
countries to pray near and to venerate the saints and martyrs whose
remains lay buried in the crypt immediately beneath.
2. The remains, more or less perfect, of a staircase or staircases
leading down to the sacred crypt containing a tomb of some great
confessor known and honoured in the tradition of the Church.
3. The presence of a “luminare” or shaft, sometimes of considerable
size, which was constructed to give light and air to a subterranean
chamber in the Catacombs, indicated that in the immediate neighbourhood
of the “luminare” an historic crypt had once existed. These openings
or shafts were mostly the work of Pope Damasus and his successors in
the latter years of the fourth and in the earlier years of the fifth
centuries.
4. Below--in some of the ruined corridors of tombs and in certain of
the cubicula or separate chambers leading out of the corridors--on
the walls a number of “graffiti” or inscriptions, often very rudely
graved or painted, are visible, some of the inscriptions or questions
being simply a name, others containing a brief prayer for the writer
or for one dear to the writer. It was evident that the presence of
such inscriptions indicated the immediate neighbourhood of an historic
crypt which once contained the remains of a revered “great one,”--not
unfrequently the name of the “great one” was included in some of the
graffiti.
Such “graffiti” were clearly the work of the many pilgrims to the
Catacombs in the fifth and following centuries.
5. In certain of the cubicula or separate chambers leading out of the
corridors, remains of paintings, evidently of a period much later than
the original Catacomb work, are discernible--paintings which belong to
the Byzantine rather than to any classical school of art, and which
cannot be dated earlier than the sixth or seventh centuries. The
existence of such later decorative work clearly indicated that the spot
so adorned was one of traditional sanctity, and no doubt had been the
resting-place of a venerated saint and martyr.
6. In his “materials” for the identification of the historic crypts De
Rossi found the inscriptions of Pope Damasus, who died A.D.
384, of the greatest assistance.
Damasus’ love for and work in the Catacombs is well known. He was a
considerable poet, and precious fragments of poetical inscriptions
composed by him have been found in many of the more important
Catacombs which have been explored. These inscriptions were engraved
on marble tablets by his friend and skilful artist Furius Dionysius
Filocalus in clear beautiful characters. These fragments have been in
many cases put together, and where the broken pieces were wanting have
been wonderfully restored with the aid of “syllogæ” or collections
of early Christian inscriptions gathered mostly in the ninth century
by the industry of the monks. These “syllogæ” or collections have
preserved for us some forty of the inscriptions of Pope Damasus in
honour of martyrs and confessors buried in the Catacombs. With perhaps
one solitary exception, they are all written in hexameter verse.
Such collections of early Christian inscriptions have been preserved in
the libraries of such monasteries as Einsiedeln, S. Riquier, S. Gall,
etc.
The result of the forty years of De Rossi’s researches and work in
the Catacombs, based on the above-mentioned historical documents and
on the evidence derived from what he found in the ruined corridors of
tombs and the chambers leading out of them, has been that, whereas
before his time at most three important historical crypts were
known, now already more than fifteen[122] of these have been clearly
identified, a wonderful and striking proof of the reality of the
sufferings and constancy of the heroes and heroines of the faith in the
first two hundred and fifty years of the existence of the religion of
Jesus--sufferings and constancy which resulted in the final triumph of
Christianity.
Briefly to enumerate just a very few of the more prominent later
historical discoveries which have lifted much of the early history and
inner life of the great Church of the Roman congregations from the
domain of tradition into the realm of scientific history--
In the first century--the discoveries in the cemeteries of Domitilla
and Priscilla. The long-disputed story of Nereus and Achilles; the
existence and fate of the two Domitillas, kinswomen of the imperial
house; the Christianity and martyrdom of the patrician Acilius Glabrio
the Consul, have been largely authenticated.
In the second century--the discovery of the tombs of SS. Felicitas
and Cecilia, of the grave of S. Januarius, the eldest son of
Felicitas,[123] substantiate the existence and death of the famous
martyrs, whose very existence has been doubted even by earnest
Christian students, and whose life-story has been generally relegated
to the sphere of religious romance.
In the early years of the third century--the wonderful “find” of the
Papal Crypt in the Callistus Cemetery, and the ruined remains of the
tombs of several of the Bishops of Rome, confessors and martyrs, bear
irrefragable testimony to the truth of records of early Christian
history, and set a seal upon tradition hitherto only held with but a
half-hearted confidence. In the middle years of the same century the
identification of the tombs of Agnes and her foster-sister Emerentiana
replaced in the pages of serious history scenes often quoted in early
martyrology, but which competent Christian critics had long relegated
to the region of the merely legendary. The exploration and labours of
De Rossi and his band of fellow-workers and pupils have also thrown
a flood of light on the days of the fierce continuous persecution of
the Emperor Diocletian, and have opened out to publicity a number of
tombs of nameless martyrs who suffered under the iron hand of imperial
Rome in the bloody times of that last and fiercest of attacks on
Christianity. And besides the many nameless graves of a great multitude
of martyrs and confessors who suffered under Diocletian, these
explorations have identified the tombs of not a few of the more famous
Christian leaders who witnessed a good confession at that same dread
epoch, notably the resting-places of Peter and Marcellinus, of the
Roman bishops Caius and Eusebius, of Marcus and Marcellinus. “A very
glorious group of monuments--a group, too, which we may well expect to
become larger and more far-reaching in its teaching, for _innumerable
crypts are still waiting to be explored and searched out_. Each of the
ancient roads leading from the immemorial capital of Italy, and once
of the world; each historic cemetery or catacomb contains such a crypt
with its central shrine of some once well-known martyr or illustrious
confessor of the Name.”
So writes Marucchi, one of the foremost of the living Roman scholars
in Catacomb lore, the disciple and successor of De Rossi. (These words
were written in the year of grace 1903.)
Following closely upon the notices contained in the Pilgrim Itineraries
of the seventh and eighth centuries, De Rossi, in a catalogue carefully
composed, enumerates thirty-seven cemeteries or Catacombs. Several,
however, of these have not been clearly identified. One or two of them
are very small; while others, apparently extending over a wide area,
communicate with one another; and some are very imperfectly known,
others as yet quite unexplored.
III
It will be an assistance to the student wishing to grasp something
of the vast extent of the great subterranean City of the Dead, and
desirous to arrive at some idea of the present knowledge of the mighty
Christian necropolis of the first days, if a brief sketch of the known
cemeteries and their more important crypts is presented.
The sketch will deal with each of the “Viæ” or public roads leading
out of Rome, in the immediate neighbourhood of which the different
cemeteries or Catacombs have been excavated,--each public road having
its own special group of cemeteries, lying hard by beneath the
vineyards or gardens abutting on the road.
THE VATICAN HILL
Naturally, the cemetery on the Vatican Hill, which includes the tomb
of S. Peter, must be mentioned first. The whole district of the
Vatican in the days of Nero (middle years of the first century of the
Christian era) was covered with gardens and villas; it communicated
directly with the city by means of the Pons Triumphalis, afterwards
termed the Pons Neronianus, and was traversed by the Via Triumphalis
and the Via Cornelia. Between these two roads the Apostle S. Peter
was buried. The Pilgrim Itineraries describe the sacred tomb now as
“juxta viam Corneliam”--now as “juxta viam Triumphalem.” Directly
over the apostle’s tomb[124] Anacletus, the Bishop of Rome, third in
succession, erected a “Memoria” or little chapel. This “Memoria” or
Chapel of Anacletus grew into the lordly basilica known subsequently as
S. Peter’s at Rome.
The tomb in question is situated close by the spot where without doubt
the apostle suffered martyrdom in the year of grace 67. Around the tomb
of S. Peter, as we shall see, were buried the nine or ten first Bishops
or Popes of Rome, as well as other nameless saints once famous in the
early years of the story of the Roman congregations.
It is doubtful if there was ever a Catacomb, as we understand the term,
on the Vatican Hill. No trace of subterranean corridors, or of chambers
leading out of the corridors, have been found; only, it must be
remembered that the neighbourhood of the tomb of S. Peter and the early
Bishops of Rome has been completely changed owing to the excavations
necessary for the foundations of the great basilica erected over the
little Memoria of Anacletus by Constantine the Great in the first half
of the fourth century.
THE VIA AURELIA
The Via Aurelia Vetus was probably originally laid out by C. Aurelius,
Censor in the year of grace 512. It started from the Janiculum (the
modern Gate of S. Pancras) and led directly towards the sea-board. It
was the road from Rome to Centumcellæ (Civita Vecchia).
The cemeteries along the Via Aurelia have been as yet very imperfectly
explored.[125] The ancient Pilgrim Itineraries mention four distinct
cemeteries here. (1) That of SS. Processus and Martinianus, first
century. (2) S. Calepodius or S. Callistus, third century. (3) S.
Pancratius, fourth century. (4) The two Felixes, fourth century.
_Cemetery of SS. Processus and Martinianus._--(Apostolic age.)
Tradition relates that these saints were the gaolers of S. Peter,
and owed their conversion to their prisoner. They suffered martyrdom
shortly after S. Peter’s death, being decapitated on the Via Aurelia;
Lucina, a wealthy Roman matron, buried them in her garden near the
place of their martyrdom. This Lucina was probably the same who gave
her name to the ancient cemetery on the Via Appia, and which now
forms part of the great network of cemeteries known generally as S.
Callistus’ Catacomb.
Very little is known of this Catacomb. Among the network of sepulchral
corridors on this portion of the Via Aurelia this special cemetery has
not as yet been clearly identified.
These cemeteries are in a sadly ruined condition. The loculi which
have been examined are evidently of a very early period. Marucchi, in
pleading for a more detailed exploration here, suggests the probability
of some “Memories” of S. Peter being eventually discovered.
_Cemetery of S. Calepodius._--This saint appears to have been a priest
who suffered martyrdom, probably in a popular rising, in the reign of
Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-35). This cemetery is principally
famous as being the resting-place of Pope Callistus, who also suffered
in a popular rising, A.D. 222, and was laid to rest in this
cemetery, perhaps as being nearer to the scene of his martyrdom than
the official Papal Crypt on the Via Appia to which he gave his name.
The exploration work here, as far as it has gone, has been carried out
with difficulty owing to the ruinous state of the corridors.
_Cemetery of S. Pancratius._--S. Pancras was a boy-martyr twelve, or as
some accounts give fourteen years of age when in A.D. 304 he
suffered for his faith in the Diocletian persecution.
This cemetery was in the first instance known under the name of
Octavilla, a Christian matron who buried the young confessor in her
garden on the Aurelian Way. It had probably been a cemetery before the
deposition of the remains of the famous boy-martyr gave it a new name
and not a little celebrity.
The story of S. Pancras has ever been an attractive one, and a certain
number of churches named in his honour are scattered over many lands.
A small basilica was built over the crypt containing his grave. Pope
Siricius (end of fourth century) restored and adorned it. Honorius I,
A.D. 620, rebuilt it. In the present Church of S. Pancras there are
scarcely any traces of the original basilica. The remains of the martyr
have disappeared. Strange to say, in the great translation of the ashes
of saints and martyrs by Pope Paul I and Paschal I, S. Pancras was left
undisturbed in his tomb. The corridors, however, have been completely
wrecked, and have been very partially explored.
The site of the cemeteries mentioned in the Pilgrim Itineraries,
named after two saints each bearing the name of Felix, has not been
discovered.
THE VIA PORTUENSIS
This road leads from the old Porta Navalis in the Trastevere, the city
“across the Tiber,” direct to Portus the port of Rome, a construction
of Claudius when Ostia (Centumcellæ) was unable to cope with the
commerce of the capital. Three cemeteries, according to the ancient
Itineraries, were excavated on the Via Portuensis. That of Pontianus,
the best known of the three, where lie the remains of SS. Abdon and
Sennen; and a second, nearly five miles from the city, the Catacomb of
Generosa. There is a third, the Cemetery of S. Felix, the position of
which has not yet been discovered.
_The Cemetery of Pontianus._--Pontianus was a wealthy Christian of
the Trastevere quarter, who used in the second century--probably in
the latter years of the century--to gather his fellow-Christians
to prayer and teaching in his house. The cemetery which bears his
name was originally excavated in one of his gardens. The old Pilgrim
Itineraries speak of there being a vast number of martyrs in this
Catacomb--“innumerabilis multitudo Martyrum.” Several of these are
named; the most notable, however, are the two noble Persians, Abdon and
Sennen, who, visiting Rome at the time of the persecution of Decius,
suffered for their faith.
In this Catacomb there is a well-known ancient baptistery of
considerable size, which was richly decorated in the sixth century.
Such baptisteries have been found in other Catacombs, notably in
that of S. Priscilla, a very ancient and vast cemetery which will be
described with some detail later.
The remains of the more famous martyrs were removed into the city at
the period of the great translation of sacred bodies in the ninth
century, after which date this cemetery ceased to be visited. It has
only been partially explored.
_The Cemetery of S. Felix_ mentioned in the Itineraries is completely
unknown as yet.
_The Cemetery of Generosa_, on the road to Porta, is not alluded to
in the Pilgrim Guides, no doubt owing to its distance--some five
miles--from the city. Lanciani gives a vivid description of its story
and of its discovery in 1867. It is of small extent, and apparently was
excavated in the persecution of Diocletian, _circa_ A.D. 303,
in what was once a sacred grove belonging to the College of the Arval
Brothers, but which had been abandoned, probably after the dissolution
of the Brotherhood, which is supposed to have taken place about the
middle of the third century.
IV
THE VIA OSTIENSIS
The _Via Ostiensis_, on the city side of the Tiber, one of the
principal roads of the Empire, begins at the ancient Porta Ostiensis,
known from the sixth century onwards as the Porta S. Pauli, and leads
to the old harbour of Ostia. The Pilgrim Itineraries enumerate three
cemeteries as situated hard by this road--the tomb of the Apostle S.
Paul with the little Cemetery of Lucina, the Cemetery of Commodilla,
and that of S. Theckla.
(1) According to a very general tradition, S. Paul suffered martyrdom,
A.D. 67, and his body was laid in a tomb on the Ostian Way in
a garden belonging to a Christian lady named Lucina,--some identify
her with the “Lucina” of the Cemetery of Callistus on the Appian Way.
There it rested, according to the most recent investigations, until the
persecution and confiscation of the cemeteries in A.D. 258,
when for security’s sake it was secretly removed at the same time as
the body of S. Peter was brought from the grave on the Vatican Hill.
The sacred remains of the two apostles were laid in the “Platonia”
Crypt, in what was subsequently known as the Catacomb of S. Sebastian,
on the Via Appia; and probably after an interval of some two years,
when the cemeteries were restored to the Christian congregations by the
Emperor Gallerius, the bodies of the two apostles were brought back
again to their original resting-places.
Anacletus, the third in succession of the Roman bishops, erected in the
first century a small “Memoria” or chapel over the tomb of S. Paul,
like the one he built over the tomb of S. Peter on the Vatican Hill.
In the year 324-5 the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, over
the apostle’s tomb and little “Memoria,” caused the first important
basilica, known as S. Paul’s, to be erected; the Emperor treated the
loculus or sarcophagus of S. Paul in the same manner as he had treated
the sarcophagus of S. Peter, enclosing it in a solid bronze coffin,
on which he laid a cross of gold. When the basilica was rebuilt,
after the fire of A.D. 1813, a marble slab, which apparently
was a part of the vaulted roof of the original sepulchral chamber of
the apostle, came to light. On this slab, or rather slabs of marble,
which now lie directly under the altar, are engraved the simple words
_Pavlo Apostolo Mart_: the inscription evidently dating from the days
of Constantine (A.D. 324-5). No further investigation of the
tomb was permitted. It is believed that the bronze sarcophagus with its
sacred contents, with the golden cross, lie immediately under the solid
masonry upon which the slab of marble we have been speaking of rests.
On the slab of marble in question, besides the simple inscription
above quoted, are three apertures: the most important of these is
circular; it is, in fact, a little well, and is 23½ inches in depth,
and was no doubt originally what is termed the “billicum confessionis,”
through which handkerchiefs and other objects were lowered, so as to
be hallowed by resting for a brief space on the sarcophagus when
access to the vault itself was not permitted. The other two apertures
or little wells are only 12½ and 8 inches deep respectively. It is not
known for what purpose these two were intended.
The history of the famous basilica is as follows. Lanciani writes how
“wonder has been manifested at the behaviour of Constantine the Great
towards S. Paul, whose basilica at the second milestone of the Via
Ostiensis appears like a pigmy structure in comparison with that which
he erected over the tomb of S. Peter. Constantine had no intention of
placing S. Paul in an inferior rank, or of showing less honour to his
memory.” In his original design which he carried out, the high road
to Ostia ran close by the grave; thus the space at his disposal was
limited. But before the fourth century had run out it was imperatively
felt that the Church of S. Paul ought to be equal in size and beauty to
that on the Vatican Hill: so, in rebuilding the basilica the original
plan was changed by the Emperor Valentinian II., in A.D. 386. The tomb
and the altar above it were left undisturbed, a great arch was raised
above the altar, and westwards from that point, in the direction of
the Tiber, a vast church was built. The great work was continued by
Theodosius and completed by Honorius, and the splendid decorative work
finally carried out by Honorius’ sister, the famous Placidia, who
died in A.D. 450. Certain Popes, notably Gregory the Great, and later
Honorius III, in A.D. 1226, added to the decorations of Placidia.
There was evidently in very early times a cemetery around the crypt
which contained the body of S. Paul; this was the original Cemetery of
Lucina. But it has been disturbed by the subsequent erection of the
Basilica of Constantine, and later by the far larger church begun under
Valentinian II. It is hoped that a future careful exploration of the
cemetery will bring to light much that is at present unknown.
(2) _Cemetery of Commodilla_--is situated on the left of the Via
Ostiensis on the road of the Seven Churches. Commodilla was evidently
a wealthy Roman lady who, like many other Christians of position and
means, gave up her garden to the Christian dead. Nothing, however, is
known of her history.
Two martyrs, SS. Felix and Adauctus, once well known in Christian
story, were interred here. They belong to the time of Diocletian. This
Catacomb, apparently of considerable extent, is only very imperfectly
known. The Martyrologies mention other “confessors” buried here,
but the corridors are either earthed up or are in a state of ruin
and confusion, and any thorough investigation would be a costly and
difficult piece of work.
(3) _Cemetery of S. Thekla._--Nothing is known of the martyr who has
given her name to this Catacomb; who must not, however, be confounded
with the celebrated saint of the same name who belongs to Lycaonia, and
is traditionally connected with S. Paul. This cemetery has been but
imperfectly examined as yet; its extent is unknown.
THE VIA ARDEATINA
The Via Ardeatina lies a little distance to the right of the Via Appia,
from which it branches off close to the Church of “Domine quo vadis,”
the traditional scene of the appearance of the Lord to S. Peter. In
the immediate neighbourhood of the Via Ardeatina and the Via Appia
lie, roughly speaking scarcely two miles from the city, the wonderful
group of cemeteries generally known under the names of Domitilla and
Callistus. These include the Cemetery of Lucina--really an area of
Callistus, the Cemeteries of SS. Marcus and Balbinus and also that of
S. Soteris. This enormous network of subterranean corridors, chambers,
and chapels are all more or less united by passages and corridors
(though this is not quite certain); but much is as yet unexplored,
and the lines of demarcation between the several Catacombs uncertain.
Recent careful investigations of De Rossi, Armellini, Marucchi, and
others less known have, however, led to the discovery of certain
great and notable historic crypts, centres round which the network
of corridors are grouped. These identifications have thrown a flood
of light upon the very early history of the numerous and influential
Roman congregations; much that was supposed to be purely legendary
and fabulous has passed, as we have observed, into the domain of real
history. Very briefly we will touch on a few of the more remarkable
“finds.”
_Cemetery of Domitilla._--The famous group of Catacombs known under
this general title--perhaps with the sole exception of the Cemetery
of S. Priscilla and the Cemetery of S. Callistus, hereafter to be
described, is the vastest of all the Catacombs; and with the exceptions
just alluded to, in some of its areas, the oldest in point of date.
Much of this great cemetery dates from the time of men who knew the
Apostles Peter and Paul.
Its _grandeur_.--It was the burying-place of certain Christian members
of the imperial house of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian in the days
of their power, and it tells us with no uncertain voice that in the
ranks of the Christian congregation of Rome in the very first days were
members drawn from the highest ranks of the proudest aristocracy of
the world, and who did not shrink from sharing the same seats in the
Christian prayer homes with the slave and the little trader.
Writing of the Domitilla Cemetery in 1903, Marucchi does not hesitate
to style it perhaps the most important of all the Catacombs;
but, “alas!” he goes on to say, “it has been terribly ravaged by
comparatively modern explorers.” These destructive explorations have
sadly affected the importance which the Catacomb and its several
divisions, or areas, would have possessed as a great monument of very
early Christian history, had these recent excavations been carried out
with due care and reverence.
Roughly, the Cemetery of Domitilla is composed of three distinct
divisions or areas. The first, the work of the first and second
centuries. In this area there are several famous historical centres,
_e.g._ the tombs of the two saints Nereus and Achilles, and of the once
famous S. Petronilla, and the well-known entrance or vestibule which
opens on the Via Ardeatina, and the Chapel or Chamber of Ampliatus. The
second area is the work of the third century, and the third dates from
the last years of the third and the first quarter of the fourth. These
areas have been connected with corridors of different periods in the
second, third, and fourth centuries; the whole network is of very great
extent.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE CEMETERY OF S. DOMITILLA--(CRYPT OF THE
FLAVIANS) CENTURY I]
At the end of the sixth century, in the Pontificate of Siricius, great
damage was occasioned to much of the earlier part of the cemetery by
the construction of the Basilica of S. Petronilla, a building which
also bears the names of Nereus and Achilles.
The fame of these early martyrs and the number of pilgrims to their
shrines in the closing years of the fourth century, induced Pope
Siricius--regardless of the mischief which such a work would occasion
to the many unknown graves of an early period--to build a somewhat
large church or basilica over the tombs of SS. Nereus and Achilles
and S. Petronilla. The position of the tombs of these two saints has
been ascertained; the grave of Petronilla has also been localized with
fair certainty. The high altar of the fourth-century basilica was
placed over the graves of the two martyrs; the remains of Petronilla
lay in a chamber behind the apse of the basilica; without, of
course, maintaining the accuracy of the details of the sixth-century
martyrology of Nereus and Achilles, the discoveries in the Cemetery
of Domitilla have established the fact of the existence of these two
traditional saints and martyrs. Scholars recognize now that much of the
sixth-century martyrology was founded upon dependable tradition.
The much disputed tradition of Petronilla, the wanderings of her body,
and the question whether or not she was the daughter of S. Peter, is
discussed in Appendix I., p. 277, where the story of her tomb is told
at some length.
The crypt of Ampliatus--another of the historic centres of this great
catacomb, is situated in the middle of the area or district originally
occupied by the tombs of the Christian members of the Imperial Flavian
House. The decorations of the sepulchral chambers here and the style of
inscriptions belong to the first century and first half of the second.
In one of the carefully decorated crypts of the Flavian family is an
arched tomb with the word “Ampliatus” graven on marble in characters
which belong to a very early period. De Rossi, after examining the
question at some length, concludes that this grave can be with very
high probability considered to be the sleeping-place of the remains
of the Ampliatus loved of S. Paul (Rom. xvi. 8). The name is clearly
that of a slave or freedman; subsequently the name (Ampliatus) became
the recognized surname of the various members of the family and their
descendants. It seems strange on first thoughts that one of servile
rank should occupy a tomb of considerable importance in the very heart
of a Christian cemetery belonging to so great a House. This is no
doubt explained by the fact that this Ampliatus occupied some very
distinguished position in the early Christian community at Rome. De
Rossi concludes from this, that Ampliatus was most probably the friend
of S. Paul; this would account for the estimation in which this person
of servile origin was held by the noblest of the Roman Christian Houses.
V
THE VIA APPIA
On the Via Appia--“the Queen of Ways” as it was termed--there are four
groups of cemeteries in close proximity. Two of these groups, probably
three, are linked together by corridors.
The “Via Appia” led from the ancient Porta Capena through Albano,
Aricia, etc., on to Capua, and later it was continued to Brindisi.
Three of the four groups of cemeteries or catacombs coming from Rome
are on the right of the way: the cemetery of S. Callistus, of S.
Sebastian (“ad Catacombas”), of S. Soteris; and on the left that of
Prætextatus.
We have alluded above to the ancient Pilgrim Itineraries as giving a
sure index to De Rossi in his investigation and exploration work. As
an example we append a short extract from the older of the two Pilgrim
Guides known as the Salzburg Itinerary, which dates from about the
year of grace 625: “You come by the Appian Way to S. Sebastian Martyr,
whose body lies deep down; there too are the sepulchres of the Apostles
Peter and Paul, in which they rested for 40 years.... North on the same
Appian Way you come to the Martyrs Tiburtius, Valerianus, and Maximus.
When there you pass into a large crypt and you find S. Urban, Martyr
and Confessor; in another spot Felicissimus and Agapitus, Martyrs; in
a third place, Cyrinus Martyr; in a fourth, Januarius Martyr. On the
same way you find S. Cecilia and a countless multitude of martyrs (‘ibi
innumerabilis multitudo Martyrum’), Sixtus Pope and Martyr, Dionysius
Pope and Martyr, Julianus Pope and Martyr, Flavianus Pope and Martyr.
There are 80 martyrs resting there. Zephyrinus Pope and Martyr rests
above Eusebius; and Cornelius Pope and Martyr rests in a crypt a little
further off; and then you come to the holy Virgin and Martyr Soteris.”
Comparing the various Pilgrim Guides together, De Rossi found that,
with very minor differences in the details, they agreed wonderfully;
and in the main, although composed a thousand to thirteen hundred years
ago, he was able with their help to identify the principal shrines
visited by the pilgrim crowds of the sixth and two following centuries.
(1) _The Cemetery of S. Sebastian_ (“_ad Catacombas_”) is situated on
the Via Appia, right-hand side; about one and a half miles from the
Porta S. Sebastiana (the ancient Porta Appia). The principal “memory”
belonging to this catacomb is the Platonia chamber--so called from
its having been lined with marble--in which for a brief season were
deposited the bodies of the two Apostles SS. Peter and Paul. The fact
of this chamber having been the temporary home of the sacred bodies
is undisputed; the exact date of their having been placed there, and
the length of the period during which they were left in the Platonia
chamber in question, have been the subject of much controversy. The
period of forty years mentioned in the above-quoted Pilgrim Itinerary
is now reduced by the most dependable of modern scholars to two years,
and the date of the placing of the bodies in this spot is now generally
assumed to have been A.D. 258, in the days of the short but
bitter persecution of Valerian, when the tombs on the Vatican Hill
and on the Via Ostiensis were not considered safe from outrage. When
the active persecution ceased, the remains of the two apostles were
restored to their original resting-places; the spot, however, where
the sacred bodies had rested for a brief season assumed in the eyes of
the faithful a singular sanctity, and very many desired to be laid in
the immediate neighbourhood of the hallowed place. This was no doubt
the original reason for the formation of the Cemetery “ad Catacombas,”
the name of the little district in which the temporary tomb of the two
apostles was situated.
The catacomb in question was eventually named after Sebastian, a brave
confessor in the persecution of Diocletian, _circa_ A.D.
289-303. This Sebastian was tribune in the first cohort and commanded
a company of the Prætorians, which was stationed on guard on the
Palatine. He died for his faith under circumstances of a peculiar
dramatic interest, being pierced with arrows and cruelly scourged.
His body, so runs the probably true story, was taken out of the
common sewer, into which it was ignominiously thrown, by a Christian
matron named Lucina, who reverently interred it in the Cemetery “ad
Catacombas” in the neighbourhood of the sacred Platonia chamber.
The remains of S. Sebastian were removed in the seventeenth century
by Cardinal Borghesi from the crypt in which they were originally
deposited and re-interred in the modern chapel which was erected over
the ancient sanctuary. During the Middle Ages, when owing to the raids
of the barbarians and consequent translation of the more celebrated
martyrs to churches within the city, the eventful story of the
catacombs was forgotten, this cemetery, owing to its connection with
the two great apostles, was ever a hallowed sanctuary, and was visited
by an unbroken stream of pilgrim visitors, and after the rediscovery
of the City of the Dead in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
gave the name of its now famous district “ad Catacombas” to the various
subterranean cemeteries which from time to time since then have been
discovered.
The corridors with their graves in this famous cemetery have not yet
been fully excavated.
_The Cemetery of S. Callistus._--The great group of catacombs generally
known under the title “S. Callistus” is situated on the right of the
Via Appia, about a quarter of a mile nearer Rome than the Cemetery of
S. Sebastian (“ad Catacombas”) just described; the usual entrance being
about one and a quarter miles from the Porta S. Sebastiana (Porta
Appia).
[Illustration: PAINTING IN A CHAPEL OF CATACOMB OF S.
CALLISTUS--SHEWING A TOMB SUBSEQUENTLY EXCAVATED ABOVE THE ORIGINAL
TOMB OF THE SAINT]
It is composed of several groups of cemeteries of different periods
from the first century to the fourth. These groups are so united
by corridors that they may be considered as one vast catacomb. The
Cemetery of Callistus in part dates from the first century, but it only
obtained the designation of “Callistus” in the last years of the second
or in the first years of the third century, when Callistus the deacon
was appointed by Zephyrinus the Bishop of Rome as superintendent of
_The Cemetery_. Subsequently Callistus succeeded Zephyrinus as bishop,
and greatly enlarged the original area, one chamber of which he set
apart as the official burying-place of the bishops or popes of Rome.
Before the time of Callistus the official burying-place of the bishops
was the cemetery on the Vatican Hill, immediately contiguous to the
sepulchre of S. Peter. At the end of the second century the limited
space on the Vatican Hill was completely occupied--hence the necessity
for arranging a new papal crypt.
The oldest portion of the “Callistus” group is the so-called Crypt
of Lucina (first and second century). It was evidently in the first
instance excavated in the property of the noble family of the Cæcilii,
and was used as the burying-place of Christian members of that great
House. De Rossi believes that the “Lucina” in whose land the crypt
was originally arranged was no other than the well-known Pomponia
Græcina, wife of Plautius, the famous general in the days of Nero,
whose conversion to Christianity about the year of grace 58 is alluded
to in scarcely veiled language by Tacitus. If this be the case, the
name “Lucina” was assumed by the great lady in question, and by which
she was generally known in Christian circles. The assuming of such an
“agnomen” was not uncommon among Roman ladies. The original area of
the Cemetery of Lucina was greatly enlarged in the days of the Emperor
Marcus and in the last years of the second century. The chapel of the
popes, above alluded to, and other important funereal chambers, are
included in this enlarged area.
It was in the course of the third century, no doubt after the
construction of the new crypt or chapel of the popes[126] by
Callistus, and of course in part owing to the presence of this great
historical centre, that the cemetery assumed its grandiose proportions.
_The Cemetery of S. Soteris_, a vast catacomb, communicates with the
older portion of the Callistus crypt and corridors. Much is as yet
unexplored here. S. Soteris--virgin and martyr--who has given her name
to this great cemetery, was buried “in Cemeterio suo,” A.D.
304. She suffered when the persecution of Diocletian was raging.
What we have termed the group, included generally under the term of
the Callistus Catacomb, is the largest and most extensive of the
catacombs which lie on the great roads which run through the suburbs
and immediate neighbourhood of Rome.
The discovery of this important area of the ancient Christian City
of the Dead was made in the year 1849, when De Rossi found in an old
vineyard bordering on the Via Appia a fragment of an inscription
bearing the letters “NELIUS Martyr.” The Itineraries had
recorded that Cornelius, Bishop of Rome and Martyr, had been buried
in the “Callistus” Cemetery. In the course of subsequent searches the
other portion of the broken tablet was found, which completed the
inscription “Cornelius Martyr.” The vineyard was purchased by Pope Pius
IX, and very soon the searchers came upon the ruined chapel of
the popes and the crypt of S. Cecilia.
The position of the historic Callistus Catacomb was thus established
beyond doubt, and for some fifty years portions of the great cemetery
have been slowly excavated by De Rossi and his companions; the results
have been of the highest importance, and have contributed in no
little degree to our knowledge of early Christianity--its faith--its
hopes--its anticipations.
_The Cemetery of Prætextatus_ is on the left hand of the Via Appia,
almost parallel with the usual entrance to the vast network of the
Catacomb of Callistus. It is, comparatively speaking, a cemetery of
small dimensions, but of great antiquity. It must have been arranged
quite early in the second century; not improbably portions of this
cemetery date from the first century. Some of the decorations of the
historic crypt are elaborate and striking, and evidently belong to
the best period of classical art. As yet it has only partially been
explored. It runs under private property, and the owner apparently is
unwilling to allow a detailed examination: this is disappointing, as
owing to its great antiquity and possessing some historic crypts, once
the resting-places of famous heroes in the early Christian combat,
probably discoveries of high interest would result from a prolonged and
careful search.
As early as A.D. 1857 De Rossi discovered in this cemetery of
Prætextatus some crypts highly decorated, evidently the resting-places
of certain famous martyrs referred to in the Pilgrim Itineraries as
sleeping in this catacomb.
There are many indications that we meet with here which tell us
that this is a very ancient cemetery. Speaking of this catacomb of
Prætextatus, the pilgrim itineraries mention particularly three of
those small Basilicas in the immediate vicinity, which frequently
in the fourth or fifth centuries were built directly over the crypt
or crypts which contained the remains of well-known martyrs and
confessors; this was for the convenience of pilgrims who came after
from distant countries to pray at the shrines: the ruins of two of
these Basilicas, apparently dedicated to SS. Valerian, Tiburtius,
Maximus, and Zeno, have been discovered here. Of these confessors,
Valerian and Tiburtius were respectively the husband and brother-in-law
of S. Cecilia. Zeno[127] was also a martyr. Maximus was the Roman
officer who had charge of the execution of Valerian and Tiburtius, and
who, seeing their constancy under torture, became a Christian, and was
in consequence put to death.
Other historic crypts have been ascertained to have existed in this
little catacomb--namely, those of SS. Felicissimus, Agapetus, and
Quirinus, with his daughter Balbina--of whom Felicissimus and Agapitus
were deacons in attendance upon Pope Sixtus. They suffered martyrdom
under Valerian, A.D. 258. Quirinus was a tribune who was put
to death at an earlier period under the Emperor Hadrian.
A yet more famous confessor than any of these, S. Januarius, the eldest
of the seven martyr-sons of S. Felicitas, was buried in this sacred
second-century catacomb of Prætextatus. The number of graffiti, the
work of pilgrim visitors in the neighbourhood of the tomb of this
Januarius, bears witness to the great veneration in which this martyr
was held.
The ceiling of the tomb, which has been identified as that of S.
Januarius, is beautifully decorated with paintings of the second
century--representing the four seasons: the spring by flowers, the
summer by ears of corn, the autumn by a vine, the winter by laurels;
birds and little winged figures are artistically mingled in this very
early decorative work. On the wall below a painting, representing the
Good Shepherd with a sheep on His shoulder, has been almost destroyed
by a grave excavated in the fourth century. The grave held the body of
some devout Christian whose friends were anxious to lay their loved
dead as near as possible to the sacred remains of the famous martyr S.
Januarius. Not a few of the more striking of the catacomb paintings
are thus unhappily disfigured by the mistaken piety of subsequent
generations.[128]
The personality of Prætextatus, after whom this cemetery is named, is
unknown.
VI
THE VIA LATINA
The ancient Via Latina branches off from the Via Appia near the Baths
of Caracalla. It is soon, however, lost among the vineyards, but
reappears and leads eventually to the Alban Hills.
The Pilgrim Itineraries mention three cemeteries here. They give a
certain number of names of martyrs buried in these catacombs--none,
however, apparently well known. They also allude to “many martyrs”
interred in these catacombs.
The names of the three catacombs in question are (1)
Apronienus--perhaps the name of the original donor; (2) SS. Gordianus
and Epimachus; and (3) S. Tertullinus. These cemeteries have never been
carefully examined, and even the site of the third has not yet been
identified.
THE VIA LABICANA
Leads from the Porta Maggiore, the ancient Porta Prænestina, to
Palestrina. The Itineraries tell us of two cemeteries on this road,
that of S. Castulus and that of SS. Peter and Marcellinus. The
Catacomb of S. Castulus has only been very partially examined. It is
in a ruinous condition, and is not at present accessible. S. Castulus
suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian.
The Catacomb of SS. Peter and Marcellinus, sometimes called “ad duas
lauros,” from the original name of the district, is in the immediate
neighbourhood of the famous Torre Pignatara, the tomb of S. Helena,
this appellation being derived from the pignatte or earthen pots
used in the building. The magnificent porphyry sarcophagus now in
the Vatican was removed from this tomb. SS. Peter and Marcellinus,
from whom this once celebrated catacomb is named, suffered in the
persecution of Diocletian. S. Peter was in orders as an exorcist. S.
Marcellinus was a priest. Pope Damasus, in his inscription originally
placed on their crypt, tells us he learned the particulars of their
martyrdom from the executioner employed by the State. This cemetery
has lately been partially explored. The bodies of the two saints who
gave their names to the catacomb were carried away, and are now in
Seligenstadt, near Mayence. The saints termed “the Quatuor Coronati”
were in the first instance buried here, but their remains were
subsequently translated by Pope Leo IV to the church on the Cœlian.
This cemetery is of considerable extent.
The Itineraries enumerate the names of several martyrs once evidently
well known. They also speak of many other martyrs buried here,
using such expressions as “innumerabilis martyrum multitudo sepulta
jacent”--“alii (Martyres) innumerabiles,” etc.
THE VIA TIBURTINA
The Via Tiburtina leads to Tivoli. It quits Rome by the Porta S.
Lorenzo, which stands on the site of the ancient Porta Tiburtina.
On this road are two large cemeteries, that of S. Cyriaca and that
of S. Hippolytus. S. Cyriaca was a Christian widow. The importance,
however, of this catacomb is mainly derived from its possessing the
tomb of S. Laurence. S. Laurence suffered martyrdom A.D. 258,
three days after the death of Pope Sixtus II, to whom he was
attached as deacon. A very general tradition relates that Laurence
suffered on a gridiron. An extraordinary popularity is attached to his
memory. Marucchi, one of the latest scholars who has written on the
catacombs, does not hesitate to say that the veneration paid to him
was almost equal that accorded to the apostles. There is scarcely a
city in Western Christendom which does not possess a church bearing his
honoured name. In Rome itself there are six of these.
Over the crypt containing the tomb of S. Laurence, Constantine the
Great built a little oratory or memoria, which soon became too small
for the crowds of pilgrims. A second church was erected by Pope
Sixtus III, A.D. 432, by the side of Constantine’s Memoria which was
ever known as “Basilica ad Corpus.” The second church was termed the
“Basilica Major.” Three of the fifth century Popes of Rome were buried
in the “Basilica ad Corpus.” In the thirteenth century the two churches
were made into one by Honorius III, A.D. 1218.
The Itineraries mention several well-known martyrs buried in the
cemetery which was excavated round the martyr’s sacred tomb, notably
SS. Justus, Cyriaca, Simferosa, etc., “cum multis martyribus.” The
catacomb in comparatively modern times has been ruthlessly damaged by
the works in connection with a very large modern cemetery. Only since
A.D. 1894 has more care been taken in the preservation of the
precious remains of this once important catacomb.
_Cemetery of S. Hippolytus._--On the same great road, the Via
Tiburtina which stretches across the now desolate Campagna to Tivoli,
on the northern side of the road almost opposite the Cemetery of S.
Cyriaca on which stands the Basilica of S. Laurentius just described,
is the Catacomb of S. Hippolytus. It is only comparatively recently
that this cemetery has been really explored, and much still remains to
be excavated here. A small basilica underground was discovered, with
the historic crypt in which the once famous martyr was buried. The
corridors around have been sadly ravaged again and again by barbarian
invaders in the fifth and following centuries, and the whole catacomb
is in ruin, and has been only in part investigated. It is evidently
of considerable extent. Proximity to the tomb of the great scholar
martyr was evidently a privilege eagerly sought by many from the middle
years of the third century onward. The numbers of Pilgrim “Graffiti”
or inscriptions more or less roughly carved and painted in the
neighbourhood of the sanctuary, tell us that the spot where the remains
of Hippolytus lay, was long the object of reverent pilgrimage after the
Peace of the Church all through the fourth and following centuries. The
Itineraries mention many martyrs buried here, among whom S. Genesius is
perhaps the best known; he was a celebrated actor; once a mocker at the
religion of which eventually he became the brave confessor; he died for
his faith.
But the glory of this now ruined cemetery was the tomb of S.
Hippolytus. He has been well described by Bishop Lightfoot in his long
and exhaustive Memoir (_Apostolic Fathers_, Part 1. vol. ii.).
“The position and influence of Hippolytus were unique among the
Roman Christians of his age. He linked together the learning and the
traditions of the East, the original home of Christianity, with the
practical energy of the West, the scene of his own life labours. He
was by far the most learned man in the Western Church.... Though he
lived till within a few years of the middle of the third century, he
could trace his pedigree back by only three steps, literary as well as
ministerial, to the life and teaching of the Saviour Himself, Irenæus,
of whom he was the pupil, Polycarp, and S. John. This was his direct
ancestry. No wonder if these facts secured to him exceptional honour in
his own generation.”
The position he occupied in the Christian world has been much disputed.
He is usually described as Bishop of Portus, the harbour of Rome,
and modern scholarship has come to the conclusion that he exercised
a general superintendence with the rank of a bishop over the various
congregations of foreigners, traders and others, on the Italian
sea-board, with Portus as his headquarters.
A very dignified and striking statue, alas much mutilated, has been
found amid the ruins over the Cemetery of Hippolytus. On the back
and sides of the chair on which the figure of the scholar-bishop is
sitting, is engraved a generally received list of his works. There is
no doubt as to the genuineness of the statue in question, which dates
from about the year 222. It ranks as the oldest Christian statue which
has come to light; indeed, it stands alone as an example of very early
Christian sculpture, and was probably erected in an interval of the
Church’s peace in the reign of the Emperor Alexander Severus, and is a
striking proof of the unique position which the writer and scholar held
in the Christian community.
There is no doubt he was done to death--what, however, was the peculiar
form of his martyrdom is uncertain. We know he was exiled to Sardinia,
where he suffered, and his remains were brought back to Rome with the
remains of Pontianus, somewhile Bishop of Rome, who also suffered
martyrdom at the same time in Sardinia; Pontianus being laid in the
papal crypt in the Cemetery of Callistus, and Hippolytus in the
catacomb which bears his name on the Via Tiburtina, about the year 237.
Pope Damasus, the great restorer of the sanctuaries of Rome, enlarged
and beautified the crypt where the honoured remains were deposited,
in the latter years of the fourth century, and a few years later
Prudentius the Christian poet in his collection of hymns entitled
_Peristephanôn_--the Crowns of the Martyrs--devotes a long poem to the
shrine and memory of Hippolytus.
In the opening years of the fourth century, when Honorius, Theodosius’
son, was reigning over the Western Empire, it is evident that the
fame and reputation of Hippolytus, scholar and martyr, were among the
popular histories of Christendom, and his tomb one of the chief objects
of pilgrimage.
The lines of Prudentius, written in the closing years of the fourth
century, are quoted as giving a picture of a famous catacomb as it
appeared to a scholar and poet in the days of Theodosius and Honorius.
They also give some idea of the estimation and reverential regard with
which the martyrs and confessors of the first age of Christianity were
held in the century which immediately followed the Peace of the Church:
“Hard by the City walls--amid the orchards--there is a Crypt....
Into its secret cells there is a steep path with winding
stairs.... As you advance, the darkness as of night grows more
dense.... At intervals, however, there are contrived openings
cut in the roof above, which bring the bright rays of the sun
into the crypt. Although the recesses twisting this way and that
form narrow chambers, with galleries in deep gloom, yet some
light finds its way through the pierced vaulting down into the
hollow recesses.... And thus throughout the subterranean crypt
it is possible still to revel in the brightness of the absent
sun.
“To such secret recesses was the body of Hippolytus borne, quite
near to the spot where now stands the altar dedicated to God.
“That same altar-slab provides the sacrament, and is the trusty
guardian of its martyr’s bones, which it guards there in the
waiting for the Eternal Life, while it feeds the dwellers by the
River Tiber with holy food.
“Marvellous is the sanctity of the place. The altar is close
by for those who pray, and it assists the hopes of such by
mercifully giving what they require. Here, too, have I when sick
with ills of soul and body, often knelt in prayer and found
help.... Early in the morning men come to salute (Hippolytus);
all the youth of the place worship here; they come--they
go--until the setting of the sun. Love of religion gathers into
one vast crowd both Latins and strangers.”--_Translated from
Prudentius, “Peristephanôn,” Passion of S. Hippolytus._
The close proximity of the Cemetery and Basilica of S. Laurence (above
described) as years passed on was fatal to the memory of S. Hippolytus.
From very early times S. Laurence, the deacon of Sixtus II,
received extraordinary honour. He suffered, as we have stated, in the
persecution of Decius, _circa_ A.D. 258, and occupies the
place of S. Stephen in the Church of the West. It was of this famous
and popular saint that Augustine wrote: “Quam non potest abscondi Roma,
tam non potest abscondi Laurentii corona.” In the prayer of the oldest
Roman sacramentary we read, “De beati solemnitate Laurentii, peculiaris
præ ceteris Roma lætatur.” “No marvel,” writes Bishop Lightfoot, “that
the aureole which encircled the heads of other neighbouring saints and
martyrs, _even of the famous Hippolytus himself_, should have faded in
the light of his unique splendour.”
As years rolled on, the neighbouring Basilica of S. Laurence grew
larger and grander. The Basilica of S. Hippolytus built over his
cemetery faded away, comparatively uncared for; the great scholar was
forgotten in the fame which gathered round the neighbouring popular
saint. Paul I, A.D. 756-67, removed the sacred relique of the saint
scholar to the well-known City Church of S. Silvester in Capite.
The Cemetery and Basilica of Hippolytus after the remains of the
saint had been translated were quickly forgotten, and the very site
was in time confused with that of the Cemetery and stately Church of
S. Laurence on the other side of the Via Tiburtina. It was only in
1881 that De Rossi discovered the ancient cemetery and the ruined
subterranean basilica above briefly described,--the basilica and
catacomb visited by Prudentius in the last years of the fourth century,
and so vividly painted by him in his hymn in the _Peristephanôn_.
Outside Rome there are traces of the fame of the great scholar, but
not many. There is a ruined church in Portus bearing his name; its
tower, still noticeable, is a conspicuous landmark in the desolate
Campagna. Arles possesses a church dedicated to Hippolytus. A strange
story connects his remains with the once famous royal Abbey of S.
Denis close to Paris. His body, or at least portions of his body, are
also traditionally enshrined in churches at Brescia and Cologne. The
Roman Churches of S. Laurence and the “Quatuor Coronati” also claim to
possess reliques of S. Hippolytus.
But these few scattered and doubtful reliques are well-nigh all that
remains of Hippolytus, and while many of his writings are still
with us, bearing witness to his industry and scholarship, his name
and life-work are virtually forgotten by men; and in ecclesiastical
annals only a dim, blurred memory of the career of one of the greatest
scholars and writers of the first two Christian centuries lives in the
pages of that eventful story.
Of the two saints whose basilicas and cemeteries were so close together
on that Campagna Road just outside Rome, the one, S. Laurence, men have
crowned with an aureole of surpassing glory; the other, S. Hippolytus,
whose title to honour was really far superior to that of his companion
in the tombs of the Via Tiburtina, men have chosen to forget.
THE VIA NOMENTANA
The Via Nomentana leaves Rome on the north through the modern Porta
Pia; in ancient times the Porta Nomentana, and in the Middle Ages
the Porta S. Agnesi. On this road the Itineraries tell us of three
cemeteries: that of S. Nicomedes, of S. Agnes, and the cemetery
generally termed “Cœmeterium majus. De Rossi calls this last the
Ostrian Cemetery; some call it after the famous martyred foster-sister
of Agnes, S. Emerentiana, who was buried there.”
(1) _Cemetery of S. Nicomedes._--This is only a small catacomb, but it
possesses a high interest on account of its age. It dates evidently
from the first century. Tradition tells us that Nicomedes was a
presbyter who lived in the days of Domitian. He suffered martyrdom for
his faith’s sake, and his body was thrown into the Tiber. A disciple of
his, one Justus, recovered his master’s body and buried it “in horto
juxta muros.” The garden in question, hard by the city walls, was the
site of the present little catacomb.
The masonry work here is of a very early date, and the various Greek
inscriptions on the loculi also bear witness to its great antiquity;
Marucchi alludes to a reservoir of water in the principal gallery, and
believes that the presence of water prevented the cemetery from being
further extended.
(2) _The Cemetery of S. Agnes_ is on the Via Nomentana, about a
mile from the Porta Pia. S. Agnes has been from very early times a
singularly loved figure among the heroines of the days of persecution.
Jerome well voices this popular estimate “omnium gentium litteris
atque linguis .... vita laudata est.” Her story is well known; how she
refused to become the bride of the Proconsul’s son, alleging that she
was already the bride of Christ. After some terrible experiences she
was condemned to be burned as a Christian, but the fire was too tardy
or insufficient, so the executioner stabbed her in the throat. The name
“Agnes” is simply a Christian appellation which she assumed signifying
her purity and chastity. The name of her family is unknown; it is,
however, certain that she belonged to a wealthy, probably to a noble
House. She was interred in a cemetery, the property of her parents “in
prædiolo suo.”
Her martyrdom took place in the course of the persecution of the
Emperor Valerian, _circa_ A.D. 253-7. Portions of the catacomb
which bears her name are of a yet older date than S. Agnes. Among other
signs of great antiquity are the Greek inscriptions on various loculi.
The cemetery, which has been explored with some care, consists of three
stories, of different dates. It was, however, after the burying of the
young martyr that the catacomb was developed and assumed considerable
proportions, as many of the Christian congregation of Rome were
desirous of depositing their loved dead in the immediate neighbourhood
of the tomb of Agnes. The Emperor Constantine in the fourth century
built the basilica known as S. Agnes over the tomb. There is an
inscription on a small marble tablet at Naples, originally brought
from Rome, which Armellini considers was originally on the loculus
containing the body of the saint. The inscription is as follows:
AGNE · SANC
TISSIMA
The basilica has been several times restored, but preserves with fair
accuracy the original disposition of the Church of Constantine.
When it was first built in the fourth century, as we find in other
similar instances, considerable destruction and havoc were wrought
in the galleries of the catacomb. The fourth-century builders often
mercilessly cut away and destroyed galleries, cubicula, loculi, when
they arranged for the foundations and lower stories of the church large
or small which arose over the tomb of the special saint and martyr. We
would instance as conspicuous examples of this strange disregard of the
older burying-places, the Basilicas of S. Domitilla, of S. Laurence, of
S. Sylvester; the last-named is built over the Cemetery of S. Priscilla.
The body of S. Agnes was never translated from its original home. In
the year 1605, in the pontificate of Paul V, her remains,
together with those of her foster-sister the martyr S. Emerentiana,
were placed in a silver sarcophagus or urn. This was seen in the year
1901-2, when some work beneath the altar was being carried out.
(3) _The Cœmeterium majus_ in the immediate neighbourhood of the
Catacomb of S. Agnes. De Rossi names it the “Ostrian” Cemetery, and
connects it with the memories of S. Peter, as being the place where
the apostle used to baptize. Marucchi, however, in the light of recent
discoveries in the Catacomb of Priscilla on the adjacent Via Salaria,
unhesitatingly believes that the site of S. Peter’s work and preaching
must be sought for in the last-named cemetery. A brief résumé of
Marucchi’s arguments, which are most weighty, will be given when the
Cemetery of Priscilla is described.
The glory of this cemetery (Cœmeterium majus), as the memory of S.
Peter seems really to belong to the Catacomb of S. Priscilla, is that
here was the original tomb of S. Emerentiana, who for her devotion to
her foster-sister Agnes suffered martyrdom very shortly after the
death of Agnes. The site of the tomb has been ascertained, but the
remains of Emerentiana now rest in the silver urn which contains the
body of S. Agnes in her basilica beneath the altar.
The appellation “Cœmeterium majus” dates certainly from the fifth
century. One of the more striking features of this catacomb is a little
basilica not of later construction but belonging to the original work.
It is simply excavated in the tufa stone, and is divided into two
parts by the passage running through the cemetery. It is a perfect
subterranean church, containing separate divisions for men and women.
The presbytery and the position of the altar are clearly defined; the
very chair for the bishop or presiding presbyter is in its place, as
is the pillar on which the sacred oil burned in front of some hallowed
sanctuary. We wonder what was the special purpose for which this little
church, in the middle of the cemetery, was designed?
The Itineraries mention that various martyrs, whose life-stories are
generally unknown to us, were buried here.
VII
THE VIA SALARIA NOVA
The Via Salaria Nova, like the Via Nomentana, from which it is but
a little distant, lies on the north side of the city. Abutting on
the road are four cemeteries: S. Felicitas, Thrason and Saturninus,
Jordani, and the very important and most ancient Catacomb of S.
Priscilla.
The story of S. Felicitas, who with her seven sons was put to death
for her religion in the reign of and by the direct commandment of the
Emperor Marcus Aurelius, _circa_ A.D. 162, is fairly well
known. The “Acts” of the martyrdom by many scholars are not reckoned
authentic, although the document in question is allowed to be of very
high antiquity.
The story is generally very sharply criticized, as a reproduction of
a story from the Fourth Book of Maccabees. The high estimation in
which the Emperor Marcus universally now is held, no doubt contributes
to the severe criticism with which the story of Felicitas and her
seven sons is received. Naturally there is considerable reluctance in
acknowledging in any way the truth of a story in which the favourite
hero of historians and philosophers, the noble Emperor Marcus, plays so
sorry a part, and in which the brave constancy and noble endurance of a
group of those Christians he so much disliked and tried to despise, is
so conspicuously displayed.
But this is one of the many instances, a witness no one can gainsay,
of the catacombs to the main truth of a story hitherto largely
discredited. The tombs of the heroic mother and her brave sons have
been identified. We recapitulate.
In the Catacomb of S. Felicitas the body of the mother was interred
and subsequently removed to the basilica built over the cemetery in
question. In the ancient Catacomb of Prætextatus, Januarius’ (the
eldest of Felicitas’ sons) tomb has been found; nay more--from the
numerous prayers and allusions in the graffiti around it, it is evident
that the tomb in question was deeply reverenced by generations of
pilgrim visitors. In the famous Priscilla Catacomb two out of the
seven have been found--Felix and Philip. We know, too, that in the
Jordani Cemetery, Martialis, Vitalis, and Alexander lie buried. In
the Catacomb of Maximus, a cemetery on the Via Salaria which has not
been identified, Silanus, the seventh of the faithful band, was laid.
The body of Silanus, the youngest, apparently was carried away, but
subsequently restored, and laid in the same catacomb with his mother.
After the Peace of the Church a little basilica was erected over the
Cemetery of S. Felicitas, and Pope Damasus wrote in her honour one of
his Epistles. At the end of the eighth century Pope Leo III
translated the remains of the mother and her son Silanus to the Church
of S. Suzanna.[129] There they are still resting.
After the translation of its precious relics, the cemetery of which
we are speaking, in common with so many of the catacombs; was deserted
by the pilgrim visitors, and its very site was quickly forgotten. De
Rossi, in 1858, was enabled to point out its situation, but it was not
examined until the year 1884, when some workmen digging the foundations
of a house came upon some ancient loculi, with inscriptions, and a
number of dim faint pictures. The little basilica of the sixth century
thus came to light, and the ruins of what had once been the tomb and
shrine of S. Felicitas in the catacomb which bears her name.
On the Via Salaria Nova, between the Cemetery of S. Felicitas and
the very important Cemetery of S. Priscilla, there exists what may
be termed a network of catacombs only very partially explored. The
first is called after _Thrason_, a wealthy Roman citizen who gave the
hospitality of the tomb in a catacomb beneath his gardens to several
martyrs to the Diocletian persecution--notably to Saturninus. This
portion of the catacombs has as yet been only very little explored; the
corridors, etc., are still earthed up.
A little farther on the same road is another cemetery, generally
known too under the same name--“Thrason.” Marucchi, however, calls it
“_Cœmeterium Jordanorum_.” It is probable that it was joined originally
to that of Thrason. The meaning of the term “Jordani” used in the old
Pilgrim Itineraries is uncertain. This is one of the deepest excavated
cemeteries. As many as four stories of galleries, one beneath the
other, have been found here. Several “Arenaria” or sand-pits intervene
between the groups of galleries of this catacomb. All this extensive
network of catacombs and arenaria has only been partially excavated as
yet. The work is naturally costly to execute, and is accompanied with
some danger.
De Rossi places in one of these “Arenaria” or sand-pits in the midst of
this group of Catacombs of Thrason and the Jordani on the Via Salaria,
the scene of the martyrdom of the well-known SS. Chrysanthus and his
wife Daria, who bore their witness unto death in the persecution of
the Emperor Numerian, _circa_ A.D. 284. Daria had once been a
Vestal Virgin; she became a Christian, and was the especial object of
hatred by the fading pagan party.
S. Gregory of Tours, in his De Gloriâ Martyrum relates how after the
Peace of the Church, when the tombs of these two famous martyrs were
searched for and discovered, in the historic crypt of their tomb were
found the sad remains of a large group of Christians--men, women, and
even children. Some time after the martyrdom of SS. Chrysanthus and
Daria, a number of Christians secretly came to the crypt to pray at
the martyrs’ tomb. Information was given, and the Imperial authority
with all haste directed that the entrance should be walled up. This
was speedily done, and the group of Christian worshippers were thus
buried alive. The bodies were found, as Gregory of Tours relates, and
with them the eucharistic vessels of silver they had brought for the
celebration of the Holy Communion.
Pope Damasus, who made this singular discovery in the latter
years of the fourth century--about a century after this wholesale
martyrdom--would not allow the group or the sacred tomb to be touched;
but simply in the piled-up stones caused a little window to be made,
that pilgrims might look on and venerate this strange sad group of
martyrs.
De Rossi ever hoped to come upon this little window in question, and
after fifteen centuries again to gaze with all reverence on this
“miniature Christian Pompeii!”
S. Gregory in the sixth century tells us the little window looking on
this moving scene was shown to pilgrims of his day and time.
De Rossi’s hope--nay more, his expectation--of finding the window has
not yet been gratified, the ruinous state of the catacomb preventing
any exhaustive search.
There are many martyrs’ tombs and historic crypts, we learn from the
Pilgrim Itineraries, still to be uncovered in this group of cemeteries.
_The Cemetery of S. Priscilla._--Recent researches have added much to
our previous knowledge of this catacomb, and have confirmed De Rossi’s
judgment of its great antiquity and importance. Indeed, it ranks with
the great network of the Callistus and Domitilla Cemeteries on the
Appian and Ardeatina Roads--not in extent perhaps, but certainly in
antiquity and interest. It lies along the Salarian Way above described
as on the north of the city.
De Rossi’s words are memorable: “The Cemetery of Priscilla is a centre
where the various memories connected with the Churches of Pudens and
Priscilla meet like lines drawn from different places.”
Now three of the most ancient churches of Rome--churches whose
foundation stories were laid in apostolic times--are referred to by
the great scholar and archæologist here. They are S. Pudentiana on
the Viminal Hill, S. Prassedis on the Esquiline, and S. Priscilla
(S. Prisca) on the Aventine. Of these S. Priscilla is no doubt the
lineal descendant of the church that was in the house of Aquila and
Priscilla, the friends of Paul. We trace it back to the fifth century.
It is evident that before the fourth century the little church in the
house of the tent-makers had become the public church of S. Priscilla.
Its founders, the well-known Aquila and Priscilla, were buried in the
Cemetery of Priscilla.
Pope Leo IV in the ninth century specially refers to their
tombs in the Priscilla Cemetery.
The second of the three ancient churches, S. Prassedis, in common
with S. Pudentiana, was on the vast estate which the family of
Pudens possessed at the foot of the Esquiline. There is, however, no
tradition extant as to when it was first founded. It is mentioned in an
inscription of the fifth century in the Cemetery of S. Hippolytus, and
again in the year 490 in the Acts of the Council under the presidency
of Pope Symmachus. It has been restored several times, and in the early
Middle Ages is famous as the first place where Pope Paschal I
deposited the remains of the 2400 martyrs which were translated for
security’s sake from the various catacombs.
In our day and time this most ancient church is best known for the
little chapel, called from its unusual and mysterious splendour “Orto
del Paradiso.” It is commonly called the Chapel of S. Zeno, to whom it
was originally dedicated. S. Zeno suffered in the reign of Claudius
(Gothicus), A.D. 268-70. He is buried in a crypt in the Cemetery of
Prætextaus. S. Zeno is called in one of the Itineraries “The Brother of
the S. Valentinus of the Catacomb on the Flaminian Way.” This famous
chapel contains one of the great relics of Rome, the column to which
it is said our Saviour in His Passion was bound--it is of the rarest
blood jasper. In S. Prassedis are two ancient sarcophagi containing
the remains of the two sainted sisters SS. Prassedis and Pudentiana,
brought from their original tombs in the Cemetery of S. Priscilla at
the time of the great translation of the remains of the saints by
Paschal I. In the centre of the nave the well is still shown where S.
Prassedis probably buried the remains of martyrs; a similar well exists
in the sister church of S. Pudentiana.
[Illustration: MOSAIC IN THE APSE OF THE CHURCH OF STA. PUDENZIANA,
ROME
FOURTH CENTURY. OUR LORD WITH APOSTLES AND OTHERS: THE BUILDINGS
IN THE BACKGROUND PROBABLY REPRESENT JERUSALEM. OF THE TWO FEMALE
FIGURES STANDING BEHIND THE APOSTLES, THAT ON THE RIGHT OF THE SAVIOUR
REPRESENTS S. PRASSEDIS, THAT ON THE LEFT S. PUDENZIANA--THE DAUGHTERS
OF PUDENS. THE MOSAIC IS OF THE TIME OF POPE SIRICIUS, A.D. 384-398]
The first of the three churches, S. Pudentiana, is by far the most
interesting of the three. It is generally assumed to be the most
ancient church in Rome; originally--so says the tradition--it was
the church in the house of a senator named Pudens, who received and
gave hospitality to S. Peter. It is mentioned in inscriptions of the
fourth century. Siricius, who followed Damasus in the Roman Episcopate,
A.D. 384-398, restored it. This would imply that it had existed long
before the age of the Peace of the Church. It has alas! undergone many
restorations since; but it still preserves a magnificent and stately
mosaic in the apse, of the date of Siricius. This is the oldest piece
of mosaic work in a Roman church. (S. Constantia with its beautiful
mosaic roof, which is slightly older, was not in the first instance
a church, but simply a mausoleum.) The figures of the two sisters
SS. Prassedis and Pudentiana holding crowns, appear standing behind
the Lord and His apostles. Recent investigations have brought other
indications of its great antiquity to light, and Marucchi considers
that yet more may be discovered.
A close connection evidently exists between these most ancient churches
and the Cemetery of Priscilla we are about to speak of.
A very ancient document--“the Acts of Pastor and Timotheus”--which
Baronius, Cardinal Wiseman, and others deem authentic, gives at some
length the story of the foundation of this very early Church of S.
Pudentiana; the majority of scholars, however, while acknowledging
their great antiquity, hesitate to receive these “Acts” as belonging
to the very early period at which they purport to be written. They
probably, however, embody the substance of the generally received
tradition. This ancient document consists of two letters; the first
from one Pastor, a priest, addressed to Timotheus; the second the
answer of Timotheus. To these is added an appendix by Pastor, which
takes up and completes the story. We give a portion of this:
“Pudens went to his Saviour leaving his daughters, strengthened with
chastity, and learned in all the divine law. These sold their goods,
and distributed the produce to the poor and persevered strictly in the
love of Christ.... They desired to have a baptistery in their house, to
which the blessed Pius (the Bishop of Rome, A.D. 142-57) not
only consented but with his own hand drew the plan of the fountain....
By the advice of the blessed Pius, the enfranchisement of the Christian
slaves was declared with all the ancient usages in the oratory founded
by Pudens; there at the festival of Easter 96 were baptized, so that
henceforth assemblies were constantly held in the said oratory, which
night and day resounded with hymns of praise. Many pagans gladly came
thither to find the faith and receive baptism.... The blessed Bishop
Pius himself often visited it with joy, and offered the sacrifice for
us to the Saviour.
“Then Pudentiana went to God. Her sister (Prassedis) and I (Pastor)
wrapped her in perfumes, and kept her concealed in the oratory. Then
after 28 days we carried her to the Cemetery of Priscilla and laid her
near her father Pudens.”
(Then follows an account of the death of Novatus, who, according to
the Note in the Liber Pontificalis (2nd Recension) in the account of
Pope Pius I, was apparently a brother of the two sisters; he
bequeathed his goods to Prassedis, who proceeded to erect a church in
his Baths.)
“At the end of two years a great persecution was declared against the
Christians, and many of them received the crown of martyrdom. Prassedis
concealed a great number of them in her oratory.... The Emperor
Antoninus heard of these meetings in the oratory of Prassedis, and many
Christians were taken.... The blessed Prassedis collected their bodies
by night and buried them in the Cemetery of Priscilla.... Then the
Virgin of the Saviour, worn out with sorrow, only asked for death. Her
tears and her prayers reached to heaven, and 54 days after her brethren
had suffered, she passed to God. And I, Pastor, the priest, have buried
her body near that of her father Pudens.”[130]
To sum up the general tradition, which the recent investigations in the
Church of Pudentiana and in the Catacomb of S. Priscilla largely bear
out:
A disciple of the Apostles Peter and Paul, one Pudens, a Roman of
senatorial rank and rich, received S. Peter in his house, which
became a meeting-place for Christian folk at Rome in very early days.
This subsequently became the Church of S. Pudentiana. Pudens had
two daughters, Pudentiana and Prassedis. Later the Baths of Novatus
(who was brother of the two sisters), which apparently formed part
of the house or palace of Pudens, became a recognized meeting-place
for Christians, and this subsequently was termed the Church of S.
Pudentiana.
The Cemetery of S. Priscilla on the Via Salaria also belonged to this
Christian family, and was no doubt constructed on the property of the
same Pudens. Pudens and his two daughters were buried in this cemetery.
One portion of this catacomb was used as the burying-place of the
illustrious family of the Acilii Glabriones which evidently numbered
many Christian members.
De Rossi believes that Pudens, the father of the two sisters Pudentiana
and Prassedis, belonged to this illustrious house of the Acilii
Glabriones.
There was also evidently a near connection between the Aquila and
Priscilla so closely associated with S. Paul and the family of Pudens.
It has been suggested with great probability that Aquila was a
freedman or client of Pudens, and that Aquila and his wife Priscilla
were intimately connected with the noble family we have been speaking
of, Priscilla, S. Paul’s friend, being named after the older Priscilla.
All these, we know, were buried in the Cemetery of Priscilla. The
Priscilla who has given her name to the catacomb was the mother of
Pudens.
The foregoing little sketch, showing the connection of this Cemetery of
Priscilla with these most ancient churches, is a necessary introduction
to the description of the catacomb in question, which we have not
hesitated to style one of the most important of the Roman cemeteries.
It is, we think, one of the oldest, ranking here with the Cemeteries
of Domitilla and the Lucina area of S. Callistus. Each of these three
belongs probably to the first century of the Christian era.
From the references in the _Liberian Calendar_, compiled A.D.
354, under the head of “Depositiones Martyrum”; in the _Liber
Pontificalis_, and in the Pilgrim Itineraries, we learn that in the
Cemetery of Priscilla were interred the remains of many martyrs,
confessors, and saints. There for several centuries rested the bodies
of Aquila and Priscilla; Pudens and his sainted daughters Prassedis
and Pudentiana; two of the martyred sons of S. Felicitas, Felix and
Philip, who bore their witness in the days of the Emperor Marcus, and
the Martyr Crescentius. Here too were buried seven of the Bishops of
Rome, two of whom wear the martyr’s crown--Marcellinus and Marcellus,
who suffered in the Diocletian persecution. These are the most notable,
but many other martyrs were interred in this most ancient God’s acre.
Some of these hallowed remains, after the Peace of the Church in the
fourth century, were brought up from the crypts of the great catacomb
and laid in the basilica subsequently known as S. Sylvester.[131]
[Illustration: IN THE CATACOMB OF S. PRISCILLA (II OR III CENTURY).
THE FIGURE OF THE DEAD ONE AS AN ORANTE ON RIGHT THE THREE CHILDREN
IN THE FURNACE--ON THE CEILING THE GOOD SHEPHERD WITH A GOAT ON HIS
SHOULDERS]
In the ninth century, when the great translation of the precious
remains of the saints and martyrs from their old resting-places in
the catacombs outside Rome to securer resting-places within the city,
took place, the Cemetery of Priscilla in common with the other God’s
acres we term catacombs was despoiled of many of its sacred deposits.
In common too with the other catacombs, S. Priscilla at once ceased to
be an object of reverent pilgrimage, and was quickly forgotten, and
remained forgotten for many hundred years. It has only been explored in
the last thirty or forty years, and not yet by any means exhaustively.
It was only in A.D. 1887 that the crypt of the noble family of
the Acilii Glabriones was discovered.
Quite recent investigation and discoveries have now satisfied Marucchi,
the last explorer and student of the catacombs, long the assistant and
disciple of De Rossi, that the Cemetery of Priscilla must be identified
as the locality of the preaching and teaching of S. Peter--so often
alluded to as the “Sedes ubi prius sedit sanctus Petrus”--that the
Cemetery of S. Priscilla was the “_Cœmeterium ad Nymphas beati Petri
ubi baptizaverat_.” Marucchi has with infinite pains and scholarship
proved his point, and has shown to a wondering group of interested
scholars the very pools still filled with water in the dark crypts
of S. Priscilla in which the great apostle probably baptized the
first converts to the religion of his Master, for whom in the end he
witnessed his noble confession on the Vatican Hill in the reign of the
Emperor Nero.
The Cemetery of Priscilla, as at present explored, consists roughly of
two vast galleries; many of its crypts and corridors dating from the
first and second centuries. Their age is accurately determined, among
other well-known signs, by the character of the decorative work and by
the nature and phraseology of the inscriptions; the existence of the
many _Greek_ epitaphs is one other sure proof of the very early date of
the interments.
From the notices in the Pilgrim Itineraries, notwithstanding their
present often ruined and desolate condition, a good many of the
original tombs of the more famous confessors and saints can be fairly
identified. We will indicate a few of the more remarkable features of
this important and venerable cemetery.
On the first story, the original tomb of Priscilla, according to the
ancient Itineraries, is in a crypt close to an old entrance staircase.
Close to the crypt is a large chamber of the second century, evidently
used for public worship. Small chambers or chapels lead out of this
large crypt, one of these being the famous Greek Chapel, so called in
later times from some Greek inscriptions on the walls. The paintings
on the walls are important and highly interesting. This ancient chapel
was also used for worship. In the neighbourhood of this portion of the
cemetery is a large crypt which from various sure signs, such as the
evident desire on the part of many to make it their last home; from
the pillars on which once were placed the lamps which used ever to
burn close to specially revered sanctuaries; from the many means of
access for pilgrims of the third and fourth centuries,--was clearly
the last resting-place of several of the more famous saints of the
Catacomb of S. Priscilla. No inscription or graffiti of pilgrims have
yet been deciphered to tell us _who_ lay here. It has been suggested
that Prassedis, Pudentiana, and other well-known saints were probably
interred in or near this place. Marucchi calls attention to the great
number of loculi in this cemetery, still untouched--not rifled of their
precious contents. The inscriptions on many of these loculi for the
most part are very short and simple, containing little besides the name
of the dead, with just a brief beautiful reference to the sure hope of
the dead in Christ.
In this first or uppermost gallery of the catacomb on which we are
dwelling, was discovered quite lately a very large crypt surrounded
with corridors, sadly ruined, but with the remains of elaborate
decoration still visible and with fragments of marble lying about, with
pieces of sarcophagi and portions of inscriptions carefully carved,
some in Greek, beautifully wrought. This area, which is quite distinct
from the great cemetery in the midst of which it lies, once contained
the remains of the Christian members of the noble Roman house of the
Acilii Glabriones. From the inscriptions which have been found and
deciphered, this burying-place of a famous family dates from the first
century, and the interments from the first and following centuries.
These Acilii Glabriones whose names occur and recur in the broken
inscriptions were members of a distinguished family, holding a very
high position in the aristocracy of Rome under the early Emperors.
We learn a good deal about a head of this illustrious house, Acilius
Glabrio, from the historians Suetonius and Dion Cassius.
In the year of grace 91, Acilius Glabrio was consul, and excited the
jealousy of the Emperor Domitian, who condemned him to fight with wild
beasts in the gardens of one of the Imperial villas. From this deadly
combat he came out victorious, but the hatred of the Emperor was not
satisfied, and he exiled the powerful patrician, and eventually put him
to death.
The accusation against Acilius Glabrio seems to have been that he
was among the “devisers of new things” (“molitores novarum rerum”).
It was a vague and mysterious charge made against various persons of
high degree in the reign of Domitian. The accusation was connected
with the practice of some strange foreign superstition unknown to the
State religion. This crime is now generally understood to have been
the practice of Christianity, and Acilius Glabrio, Clemens the near
kinsman of the Emperor, and many others alluded to by Suetonius who
were arraigned under this charge and put to death, were evidently
Christians. This conjecture, since the recent discovery of the great
crypt of the Acilii Glabriones in the Priscilla Cemetery belonging
to this noble house, has become a certainty, for the Christianity of
those buried there has been absolutely proved from words and sacred
Christian signs carved upon the broken slabs which once formed part of
the sarcophagi and loculi bearing the family name.
Thus, according to Marucchi, to Allard the well-known and scholarly
historian of the Persecutions, and to De Rossi, Acilius Glabrio, the
great patrician, the consul of the first century, the contemporary of
the Apostles Peter and Paul and no doubt their friend and convert, was
one of that aristocratic group in Rome which accepted the faith of
Jesus, a group of which so little is known, and whose very existence
hitherto has been generally questioned; and these, recognizing the
brotherhood of slaves and freedmen and the poorest and saddest of the
dwellers of the great city, not only helped them in their life, and
associated them in all their dearest and most certain hopes, but gave
them the “hospitality of the tomb”--constructing round the stately
family crypt the corridors and funereal chambers where these poor and
insignificant members of the Christian congregation might rest. The
Priscilla Cemetery, dating as it does from the days of the apostle, is
a great example of this loving Christian custom.
Now general tradition ascribes the foundation of this vast and ancient
catacomb to Pudens, the wealthy senator; to his mother Priscilla,
of whom beyond her name we know nothing; to her sainted daughters
Prassedis and Pudentiana. The question then arises--Was this Pudens a
member of the great house of the Acilii Glabriones? The leading Italian
scholars in the lore of the catacombs think he certainly was. De Rossi
even suspects that Pudens was the martyr consul himself. With our
present knowledge this supposition cannot be decisively maintained. It
is, however, an interesting hypothesis.
The Basilica of S. Sylvester, of which we shall speak presently,
which was erected shortly after the Peace of the Church in the fourth
century, was directly over the crypt of the Acilii Glabriones.
A very remarkable feature in the Catacomb of S. Priscilla are the
reservoirs of water, which evidently served in very early days as
baptisteries. The most considerable of these reservoirs or tanks is
on the upper story of the cemetery, and is communicated with by a
broad staircase of over twenty-five steps, which come out behind what
was once the apsidal end of the Basilica of S. Sylvester. Marucchi
describes it as “une vaste piscine encore pleine d’eau, desservie par
un petit canal.” This great baptistery became, from the fourth century
onward, a spot of intense interest to the many pilgrims who visited the
catacomb sanctuaries.
Another large reservoir of water has been found on the second story of
this vast catacomb; other and smaller tanks have also been found.
Marucchi believes that this cemetery is the one alluded to in the
many traditions, including the notices in the Pilgrim Itineraries, as
the special scene of S. Peter’s labours and preaching, teaching and
baptizing, as the “cœmeterium beati Petri ubi baptizaverat,” as the
“sedes ubi prius sedit sanctus Petrus.”
The investigation which has led to recent discoveries in this cemetery
had not been completed when De Rossi identified the Cœmeterium
Ostrianum (of which we spoke above) as the scene of S. Peter’s work. It
is these latest “finds” that have induced Marucchi to fix the Priscilla
Cemetery as the place where the great apostle laboured in those early
years of the history of Roman Christianity.
Beneath the first vast gallery of this catacomb with its many memories
of saints and martyrs, including the famous crypt of the “Acilii
Glabriones” house, lies another and very ancient area of sepulchral
galleries.
This area was communicated with by several staircases, some of which
are now completely closed. This vast sepulchral area has been as yet
only partially explored. It is described roughly as consisting of a
long gallery, out of which lead more than twenty other galleries, many
of which as yet are only imperfectly investigated.
Marucchi, who has devoted a long and important section of his great
work to the Priscilla Catacomb, writes of this second story of the
cemetery as the most extensive and carefully planned of all the
cemeteries of subterranean Rome that have been yet examined.
His words here are remarkable, and must be quoted: “On peut dire sans
exaggeration, que c’est la région cemétériale la plus vaste et la plus
régulière de toute la Rome souterraine.”
The masonry used in its construction; its many inscriptions on the
loculi, carved in marble, or painted in red on tiles,--all bear witness
of its hoar antiquity; much of it dates certainly from the second
century. It contains, as we have remarked already, a reservoir or tank
of water--of course a baptistery--deep and of considerable size.
This singular feature, when taken in conjunction with the great
tank or reservoir of the first story and the several smaller tanks
or reservoirs discovered in the various corridors and sepulchral
chambers--peculiarities and features possessed by no other
catacomb--amply justifies the ancient appellation “ad Nymphas,” which
no doubt exclusively belongs to the Cemetery of S. Priscilla, and which
in several parts seems to preserve a memory of the baptisms of S. Peter.
Over most of the catacombs--certainly over the more important--shortly
after the Peace of the Church, basilicas or churches of various
dimensions were erected for the accommodation of pilgrims and members
of the Roman congregations who desired to visit and to venerate the
sanctuaries of the subterranean cemeteries which soon became famous and
objects of reverence in the Christian world. The basilica subsequently
known as S. Sylvester, which was built over the Cemetery of Priscilla,
no doubt before the year 336, has perhaps obtained a greater notoriety
than any other of these fourth-century cemetery churches.
Into this basilica, apparently shortly after its erection, were
translated many of the bodies of martyrs, whose remains had been in the
first instance deposited in the crypts of S. Priscilla beneath. The
Pilgrim Itineraries dwell upon this, and especially mention how under
the high altar of S. Sylvester two of the martyred sons of S. Felicitas
rested--Felix and Philip.
Into S. Sylvester, too, were brought the remains of the two martyr
Popes, Marcellus and Marcellinus. There also Pope Sylvester, the
builder of the basilica after whom it has been named, was interred;
and at his feet Pope Siricius, the successor of Pope Damasus. Three
more of the occupants of the papal dignity have been interred in this
honoured sanctuary, namely, Liberius, A.D. 353-5; Celestinus,
A.D. 422-32; and at a somewhat later date Pope Vigilius,
A.D. 538-55; in all the remains of seven of the Bishops of
Rome rested in S. Sylvester.
Indeed, this little basilica ranks as the third of the sacred places
of interment of the Bishops of Rome. The _first_ is on the Vatican
Hill--in the immediate neighbourhood of the grave of S. Peter--where
ten or eleven of the first occupants of the See of Rome lie. The
_second_ is the famous so-called Papal Crypt in the Cemetery of
S. Callistus on the Appian Way. The _third_ is the Basilica of S.
Sylvester over the Cemetery of Priscilla. The _fourth_ is once more on
the Vatican Hill, near the grave of S. Peter, in the stately church
erected by the Emperor Constantine on the site of the little Memoria
chapel of Linus.
[Illustration: CHAPEL OF THE TOMBS OF THE III CENTURY BISHOPS OF
ROME--PARTLY RESTORED--CATACOMB OF S. CALLISTUS]
It has been well suggested that in each instance the selection of the
spot for the formal creation of an official papal burying-place was
influenced by some direct memory of S. Peter which was attached to the
spot in question. In the case of the first and fourth this is obvious.
In the case of the first was the little Memoria over the sacred tomb.
In the case of the fourth--the place selected was on the Vatican
Hill--under the shadow of the house of God erected by Constantine over
the first Memoria.
Round the grave of S. Peter it was natural and fitting that the
first Bishops of Rome should lie. When the space was entirely filled
up, as was the case at the close of the second century, and a fresh
official burying-place for the Bishops had to be found, Zephyrinus
and Callistus were, with great probability, directed to that great
cemetery which at a very early date bore the name of Callistus, on
account of the memories of S. Peter and S. Paul, which were connected
with the adjacent cemetery “ad Catacombas” (S. Sebastian); and Marucchi
thinks some treasured memory of the great apostle connected with the
beautiful legend of the “Quo vadis”--a spot not far from the Callistus
Cemetery--hung round the God’s acre selected for the site of the Papal
Crypt.
The third choice of a spot for the burying-place of the Popes, the
basilica on the S. Priscilla Catacomb, has been attributed to the many
memories of S. Peter associated with the Catacomb in question, which
are now identified with the scenes of S. Peter’s teaching and baptizing.
There in the Basilica of S. Sylvester, until the great translation
of the Catacomb saints in the pontificates of Paul I and
Paschal I was carried out, the remains of the seven Popes, the
two sons of Felicitas, and of many other famous and heroic martyrs
rested. When, however, the precious treasure of these saints’ remains
was removed to the securer shelter of the metropolis hard by, S.
Priscilla’s Catacomb and Basilica were soon forgotten.
There is, alas! little left of the basilica of S. Sylvester; its very
existence was unknown until De Rossi discovered its ruins in 1889. The
subterranean crypt and corridors and baptisteries have fared better
than the basilica built above them, and have already provided an almost
inexhaustible mine of riches for the antiquarian, the theologian, and
the historian; and in coming years, when further investigations in this
vast historical cemetery are carried out, discoveries of a yet greater
interest may be looked for--discoveries, to use the words of the latest
toiler in S. Priscilla, which may tell us more of the “passing by”
of S. Peter in this venerable home of so many and such varied sacred
memories.
VIII
THE VIA SALARIA VETUS AND VIA FLAMINIA
_Cemetery of S. Pamphilus._--S. Pamphilus, we learn from the
Itineraries, was a martyr; nothing, however, is known of his history.
The cemetery has not been thoroughly explored. It is, however, of some
importance. Several galleries have been partially examined--but with
some risk.
The _Via Salaria Vetus_, by the side of which this Catacomb, is
situated, branches off from the Via Pinciana on the north of the city.
_Cemetery of S. Hermes and S. Basilissa_ is on the same road, a little
farther from the city.
The “Acts of S. Hermes” are not accepted as belonging to the very early
date (A.D. 119--when Hadrian was Emperor) of the martyrdom,
the particular event they profess to relate. These Acts relate that
Hermes was a Prefect of Rome. No such name occurs in the lists of
Prefects. It has been suggested, however, that he was an official of
the Prefect.
The remains of a very considerable basilica have been discovered in
this Catacomb; a yet older building apparently existed in the same
position.
The galleries of graves that have been partially explored are in a very
ruinous and dangerous condition. It is recorded that the body of S.
Hermes was translated by Pope Gregory IV in the ninth century.
There are parts of this crumbling cemetery evidently of great antiquity.
Other martyrs, once well known, rest in this Catacomb; of these, S.
Basilissa, S. Protus and S. Hyacinthus are perhaps the best known.
SS. Protus and Hyacinthus apparently suffered in the persecution of
Valerian, A.D. 257-8. The tomb of S. Basilissa has not been
identified.
The remains of S. Hyacinthus were found as late as 1841 in a _closed_
loculus and wrapped in a cloth which still emitted a sweet perfume. The
bones had evidently been burned. It has been suggested that probably
the martyr had suffered by fire; this was an unusual form of martyrdom.
The name of the saint and date of the deposition and the word _Martyr_
were on the loculus. The inscription and the hallowed remains are now
in the Church of the Propaganda.
Probably further investigation will be made in this interesting but
ruined Catacomb. Researches here, however, are difficult and dangerous.
Much of the work of Damasus in the later part of the fourth century has
been recognized in this place. This cemetery was apparently held in
high estimation by the earlier pilgrims.
The Itineraries speak of another cemetery on the Via Salaria Vetus
under the name of “ad Clivum Cucumeris.” but it has not as yet been
identified.
_Cemetery of S. Valentinus._--The old Via Flaminia leaves the city at
its north-east corner, and is a direct continuation of the Corso. It is
the great road communicating with the north of Italy, as the Via Appia
does with South Italy. It passes through the Porta del Popolo, formerly
the Gate of S. Valentinus; in old days it was termed the Flaminian
Gate. On this Via Flaminia not very far from the city there is the
Catacomb of S. Valentinus--the only cemetery on this road.
S. Valentinus is the last of our long catalogue of subterranean
cemeteries. Little is known of the confessor and martyr after whom
this Catacomb is named. His “Acts,” as we possess them, were only
compiled in the sixth century. Valentinus suffered martyrdom _circa_
A.D. 268-70. (Claudius Gothicus was then Emperor.) He is
stated to have been a Christian priest and physician.
The martyr’s body was recovered by Sabinilla, a Christian lady, and was
buried near the place where he suffered. The desire to be buried near
S. Valentinus led to further excavations, but the tufa in this place
was too hard and did not lend itself to the formation of galleries.
Corridors were excavated above the tomb of the martyr; little,
however, of interest has been found as yet. A third gallery was also
constructed. It was the second gallery above the grave of the martyr
which became the public cemetery, but it has been only very partially
examined; much is still blocked up.
Some time after the Peace of the Church, under Pope Julius, A.D.
337-52, a basilica named after S. Valentinus was built a little to
the right of the martyr’s crypt. This church was restored, probably
rebuilt, by Pope Honorius I, A.D. 625-38. The ruins of this Church of
S. Valentinus have been recently brought to light. The Itineraries
speak of the body of S. Valentinus as in the restored basilica. These
sacred remains were, as in other cases, no doubt translated from their
original resting-place into the church above. The bodies of other
martyrs who probably suffered in the Diocletian persecution are alluded
to in the Pilgrim Guides. In the ruins of the basilica a chapel was
identified by an inscription as having been dedicated to certain of the
local martyrs, and with these nameless saints S. Zeno is mentioned by
name. S. Zeno was evidently once highly venerated. His presence here is
accounted for by a notice in one of the Itineraries, which styles him
“frater Valentini,”--possibly only signifying “frater in Passione.”
S. Zeno was buried in the well-known Cemetery of Prætextatus on the
Appian Way. He is perhaps best known now from the famous Chapel of
S. Zeno in the Church of S. Prassedis, the work of Pope Paschal
I--usually called the “Orto del Paradiso.” A mosaic in that
beautiful chapel pictures the two martyrs S. Valentinus and S. Zeno
together.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I.--ON S. PETRONILLA
Baronius, followed by Bishop Lightfoot of Durham and others, calls
attention to an etymological difficulty which exists in attempting to
derive Petronilla from Petros, which at first sight seems so obvious.
These scholars prefer to connect the name “Petronilla” not with Petros
but with “Petronius.” Now, the founder of the Flavian family was T.
Flavius Petro. Lightfoot then proceeds to suggest that “Petronilla” was
a scion of the Flavian house, and became a convert to Christianity,
probably in the days of Antoninus Pius, and was subsequently buried
with other Christian members of the great Flavian house in the
Domitilla Cemetery.
De Rossi, however, and other recent scholars in the lore of the
Catacombs, in spite of the presumed etymological difficulty, decline
to give up the original “Petrine” tradition, but prefer to assume
that Petronilla _was_ a daughter, but only a _spiritual_ daughter, of
the great apostle--that is, she was simply an ordinary convert of S.
Peter’s.
Of these two hypotheses: (_a_) dealing with the first, in the very free
and rough way in which the Latin tongue was treated at a comparatively
early date in the story of the Empire, when grammar, spelling, and
prosody were very frequently more or less disregarded save in highly
cultured circles, the etymological difficulty referred to by Lightfoot
can scarcely be pressed, for it possesses little weight.
(_b_) As regards the second hypothesis--the shrinking, which
more modern Roman Catholic theologians apparently feel, from the
acknowledgment that S. Peter had a daughter at all, was absolutely
unknown in the earlier Christian centuries. To give an example. As
late as the close of the eighth century, on an altar of a church in
Bourges dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and other saints, there is an
inscription attributed to Alcuin the scholar minister of Charlemagne.
In this inscription occurs the following line:
“Et Petronilla patris præclari filia Petri.”
Now, towards the close of the fourth century, Pope Siricius, between
A.D. 391 and A.D. 395, constructed the important basilica lately
discovered in the Domitilla Cemetery on the Via Ardeatina; but although
the basilica in question contained the historic tombs of the famous
martyrs SS. Nereus and Achilles, confessors of the first century,
as well as the body of S. Petronilla, he dedicated the basilica in
question in her honour. Pope Siricius would surely have never named
this important and very early church after a comparatively unknown
member of the Flavian house; still less would he have called it by the
name of a simple convert of the great apostle.
In Siricius’ eyes there was evidently no shadow of doubt but that the
Petronilla for whom he had so deep a veneration was the daughter of S.
Peter, and nothing but such an illustrious lineage can possibly account
for the persistent devotion paid to her remains, a devotion which,
as we have seen, endured for many centuries; the ancient tradition
that she was the daughter of the apostle was evidently unvarying and
undisputed.
It was left to the modern scholar in his zeal for the purity of the
language he admired, and for the modem devout Romanist in his anxiety
to show that S. Peter was free from all home and family ties, to
throw doubts on the identity of one whom an unbroken tradition and an
unswerving reverence from time immemorial regarded as the daughter of
the great apostle so loved and revered in Rome.
In other places besides in Gaul and Rome we find traces of this very
early cult of S. Petronilla. In the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmunds
her memory was anciently reverenced; under the curious abbreviation
of “S. Parnel,” still in that locality, there is a church named after
her--at Whepstead, Bury St. Edmunds. A yet more remarkable historical
reference appears in “Leland’s Itinerary,” an official writing, be it
understood, which dates _circa_ A.D. 1539-40. Leland, writing
of Osric, somewhile king of Northumbria, the founder of the famous
Abbey of Gloucester, tells us how this King Osric “first laye in St.
Petronell’s Chappel,” of the Gloucester Abbey. Osric died in the year
of grace 729.
Thus before her body, at the instance of the Frankish King Pepin,
was translated into the little imperial mausoleum hard by the great
Basilica of S. Peter from her tomb on the Via Ardeatina, there was a
Mercian chapel named after this Petronilla in the heart of the distant
and only very imperfectly christianized Angle-land (England).
In the “Historia Monasterii S. Petri Gloucestriæ,” a document, or
rather a collection of documents, of great value, we find an entry
which tells us how Kyneburg, the sister of King Osric, and first abbess
of the religious house of Gloucester, ruled the house for twenty-nine
years, and, dying in A.D. 710, was buried _before the altar of S.
Petronilla_; and later an entry in the same Historia relates that Queen
Eadburg, widow of Wulphere, king of the Mercians, abbess of Gloucester
from A.D. 710 to A.D. 735, was buried by the side of Kyneburg _before
S. Petronilla s altar_. King Osric himself, who died in A.D. 729, was
buried in the same grave as his sister Kyneburg, or as it is expressed
in the “Historia,” “in ecclesia Sancti Petri coram altari sanctæ
Petronillæ, in Aquilonari parte ejusdem monasterii.”
Professor Freeman quaintly comments here as follows: “It is certain
that there was a church of some kind, a predecessor, however humble, of
the great Cathedral Church (of Gloucester) that now is, at least from
the days of Osric (_circa_ A.D. 729). But more than this we
cannot say, except that it contained _an altar of S. Petronilla_.”
APPENDIX II.--ON S. PETER’S TOMB
_S. Peter’s Tomb._--While Pope Paul V’s task of destroying and
rebuilding the eastern end of old S. Peter’s (the work of Constantine)
was proceeding, somewhat before A.D. 1615 the same Pope designed to
make the approaches to the sacred “Confession” of the apostle at the
west end of the church more dignified, and it was in the course of
building stairs and making certain excavations which were necessary
to carry out his plans that his architect came upon a number of
graves in the immediate neighbourhood of the walls which encircled
the hallowed tomb of S. Peter. Here was evidently the old Cemetery of
the Vatican which originally had been planned in the first century by
Anacletus. Some memoranda of this discovery were made. But it was a few
years later, when more important excavations were carried on in the
pontificate of Pope Urban VIII (Cardinal Barberini) in connection with
the foundations necessary for the support of the enormous baldachino of
bronze over the high altar, that this most ancient cemetery was more
fully brought to light.
The circumstances which led to these discoveries of Urban VIII
were as follows: The date is about A.D. 1626; Bernini was the
architect in the Pope’s confidence, and it was determined to replace
the existing canopy over the altar and confession, which was considered
too small and insignificant for its position, by the great and massive
bronze baldachino which now covers the high altar and the confession
leading to the sacred tomb.
The materials for this mighty canopy and its pillars were obtained from
the portico of the Pantheon, the roof of the portico of that venerable
building being stripped of its gilded bronze. This portico had survived
from the days of its builder Agrippa, the son-in-law of the Emperor
Augustus.
The act of Urban VIII, thus robbing one of the remaining
glories of ancient Rome, was severely criticised in his day, and the
well-known epigram survives to commemorate this strange act of late
“vandalism”: “Quod barbari non fecerunt, fecit Barberini.”
The new baldachino or canopy of Bernini’s was 95 feet in height, and
is computed to weigh nearly 100 tons. To support this enormous weight
of metal it was judged necessary to construct deep and extensive
foundations. It was in the digging out and building up of these
substructures in the immediate vicinity of the apostle’s tomb that
the remarkable discoveries we are about to relate were made.
[Illustration: S. PETER’S, ROME--THE CONFESSION. 95 EVER-BURNING LAMPS
ARE IN FRONT OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE APOSTLE’S TOMB]
The account from which we quote is virtually a semi-official
procès-verbal, and was compiled by an eye-witness--Ubaldi, a canon of
S. Peter’s, who was present when the discoveries were made, and who has
left us his notes made on the spot and at the time. Singularly enough,
the memoranda of Ubaldi lay disregarded, hidden among the Vatican
archives until comparatively recently. They were found[132] by one
of the keepers of these archives, and have been published lately by
Professor Armellini.
Before, however, giving the extracts from Ubaldi’s memoranda of the
discoveries in the Cemetery of Anacletus in the year 1626, it will be
of material assistance to the reader if a short account of the probable
present position and state of the great apostle’s tomb is subjoined. It
will be borne in mind that the excavations in connection with Bernini’s
baldachino were carried out close to the tomb in question.
The vault, in which we believe rests the sarcophagus which contains
the sacred remains of the apostle, lies now deep under the high altar
of the great church. It was always subterranean, and no doubt from the
earliest days was visited by numbers of believers belonging not only
to the Roman congregation, but by pilgrims from many other countries.
Pope Anacletus, to accommodate these numerous pilgrim visitors, built
directly over the tomb a little Memoria or chapel. This apparently was
done by raising the walls of the vault beneath, and thus a chamber or
chapel above was provided. This Memoria of Anacletus is generally known
as the confession. Both these chambers now lie beneath the floor of the
existing church. Originally the Memoria of Anacletus above the chamber
of the tomb showed above ground; it is no doubt the “Tropæum” alluded
to by the Presbyter Caius, _circa_ A.D. 210.
Roughly, the height of the two chambers from the floor of the original
vault to the ceiling of the Memoria built over it is some 32 feet.
There is little difference in the height of each of these two chambers.
The probable explanation of the details given in the _Liber
Pontificalis_ of the works of Constantine the Great at the tomb is as
follows: Both the chambers of the tomb--the original vault and the
Memoria of Anacletus over it--were left intact, but with certain added
features, simply devised with the view of strengthening and ensuring
the permanence of the sacred spot and its contents. The whole of the
chamber of the tomb was then filled up with solid masonry, except
immediately above the sarcophagus.
The upper chamber, the Memoria, was strengthened with masses of masonry
on each side, so as to bear the weight of a great altar, the high
altar of the Basilica of Constantine, which was erected so as to stand
immediately over the body of S. Peter. A cataract or billicum, as it
is sometimes called, covered with a bronze grating, opened from above
close to the altar. There are two of these little openings, one leading
into the Memoria, and the other from the Memoria to the chamber of
the tomb beneath. Through these openings handkerchiefs and such-like
objects would be lowered so as to touch the sarcophagus. This we know
was not unfrequently permitted in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth
centuries. Such objects after they had touched the coffin were esteemed
as most precious relics.
In addition to these works in the two chambers, the Emperor Constantine
enclosed the original stone coffin which contained the remains of S.
Peter in bronze, and laid upon this bronze sarcophagus the great cross
of gold--the gift of his mother Helena and himself. This is the cross
which Pope Clement VIII and his cardinals saw dimly gleaming
below, when an opening to the tomb was suddenly disclosed in the great
building operations which were carried out during the last years of the
sixteenth century.
There is scarcely room now for doubt that the bronze coffin and the
golden cross are still in the chamber of the tomb where Constantine
placed them.
When it was found necessary to excavate for the foundation of the new
massive baldachino, Pope Urban VIII was alarmed at first lest
the sacred tomb should be disturbed. The warnings of Pope Gregory
the Great against meddling with the tombs of saints like Peter and
Paul being remembered, “no one dare even pray there,” he once wrote,
“without much fear.” Three years were spent in preparation for the
work and in casting the baldachino. Then the sudden death of Alemanni,
the custodian of the Vatican library, who had the chief charge in
the preparative work, and the passing away of two of the Pope’s
confidential staff just as the work commenced, appalled men’s minds;
but after some hesitation it was decided to go on with the necessary
excavations--“All possible precautions,” Ubaldi tells us, “being taken
for the preservation of the reverence due to the spot, and for the
security of the relics.” The Pope commanded, “that while the labourers
were at work there should always be present some of the priests and
ministers of the Church.”
Ubaldi describes at length what was found, when each of the four
foundations for the four great columns of the baldachino was dug out.
We will quote a few of Ubaldi’s memoranda, and then give a little
summary of what apparently was discovered in this perhaps the most
ancient, certainly the most interesting, of the subterranean cemeteries
of Christian Rome.
In the excavation of the first foundation--“only two or three inches
under the pavement they began to find coffins and sarcophagi. Those
nearest to the altar (above) were placed laterally against an
ancient wall” (this was doubtless part of the wall of the Memoria of
Anacletus), “and from this they judged that these must be the bodies
buried nearest to the sepulchre of S. Peter. These were coffins of
marble made of simple slabs of different sizes.” Only one seems to have
borne an inscription, and that was the solitary word “Linus.” Was not
this the coffin of the first Pope, the Linus saluted in S. Paul’s Roman
Epistle?
“Two of these coffins were uncovered. The bodies, which were clothed
with long robes down to the heels, dark and almost black with age, and
which were swathed with bandages, ... when these were touched and moved
they were resolved into dust.... We can only conclude that those who
were found so close to the body of S. Peter must have been the first
(Martyr) Popes or their immediate successors....
“On the same level, close up to the wall (of the Memoria) were found
two other coffins of smaller size, each of which contained a small
body, apparently of a child of ten or twelve years old.” “Were these,
whose bodies had obtained the privilege of interment so close to the
grave of S. Peter, little martyrs?... Close by ... were two (coffins)
of ancient terra-cotta full of ashes and burnt bones, ... other
fragments of similar coffins were found deeper down as the excavations
proceeded, and also pieces of glass from broken phials. It was evident
that all this earth was mixed with ashes and tinged with the blood
of martyrs.... There were also found pieces of charred wood which
one might believe had served for the burning of the martyrs, and had
afterwards been collected as jewels and buried there with their ashes.”
A little farther on Ubaldi writes, still speaking of what was found
where the first foundation was excavated: “There was next found a small
well in which were a great number of bones mixed with ashes and earth;
then again another coffin; near this was found another square place on
the sides of which more bodies were found, while on one side was the
continuation of a very ancient wall (the Memoria of Anacletus). This
wall contained a niche which had been used as a sepulchre, and in it
were found five heads fixed with plaster and carefully arranged, also
being well preserved. Lower down were the ribs all together, and the
other parts in their order mingled with much earth and ashes, not laid
casually, but with accuracy and great care. All this holy company were
shut in and well secured with lime and mortar....
“It now became necessary to consider how the holy bones and bodies
which had been taken up might best be laid in some fitting and
memorable place; they had been placed in several cases of cypress
wood, and had been carried before the little altar of S. Peter in
the confession, and here all through these days they had been kept
locked up and under seal. It was felt that they ought not to be
deprived of the privilege of being near to the body of S. Peter....
So it was resolved that, as they had been found buried together and
undistinguished by names, so still one grave should hold them all,
since the holy martyrs are all one in eternity,”--as S. Gregory
Nazianzen wonderfully says--“ ... a suitable and capacious grave was
constructed” (close to the spot) “and there re-interment took place.
The following inscription cut in a plate of lead was placed within the
tomb--
_Corpora Sanctorum prope sepulchrum sancti Petri inventa, cum
fundamenta effoderentur æreis Columnis (of the baldachino of
Bernini) ab Urbano VIII--super hac fornice erectis, hic
siul collecta et reposita die 28 Julii 1626”_
In digging for the second foundation a very wonderful “find” was
recorded. Ubaldi relates how, “not more than three or four feet down,
there was discovered at the side a large coffin made of great slabs of
marble.... Within were ashes with many bones all adhering together and
half burned. These brought back to mind the famous fire in the time
of Nero, three years before S. Peters martyrdom, when the Christians,
being falsely accused of causing the fire, and pronounced guilty
of the crime, afforded in the circus of the gardens of Nero, which
were situated just here on the Vatican Hill, the first spectacles of
martyrdom. Some were put to death in various cruel ways, while others
were set on fire, and used as torches in the night, thus inaugurating
on the Vatican, by the light that they gave, the living splendour of
the true religion.... These, so they say, were buried close to the
place where they suffered martyrdom, and gave the first occasion for
the religious veneration of this holy spot.... We therefore revered
these holy bones, as being those of the first founders of the great
basilica and the first-fruits of our martyrs, and having put back the
coffin allowed it to remain in the same place.”
* * * * *
With great pathos Mr. Barnes, from whose translation of the Ubaldi
Memoranda on the discoveries in the Cemetery of Anacletus these
extracts are taken, describes the scene of the interment of these
sad remains of the martyrs in the games of Nero. We quote a passage
specially bearing on this strange and wonderful “find,” where, after
describing what took place in the famous games, he went on thus:
“The horrible scene drew to a close at last; the _living_ torches,
burning slowly, flickered and went out, leaving but a heap of ashes
and half-burnt flesh behind them; the crowds of sightseers wended
their way back to the city, and silence fell again on the gardens of
Nero. Then there crept out through the darkness, within the circus and
along the paths of the gardens, a fresh crowd--men and women, maidens
and even little children, taking every one of them as they went their
lives in their hands, for detection meant a cruel death on the morrow;
eager to save what they could of the relics of the martyrs: bones that
had been gnawed by dogs and wild beasts; ashes and half-burnt flesh,
and other sad remnants, all of them precious indeed in the sight of
their brethren who are left, relics that must not be lost.... Close
by the circus, on the other side of the Via Aurelia, some Christians
had already a tiny plot of ground available for purposes of burial.
There on the morrow, in a great chest of stone, were deposited all the
remains that could be collected; for it was out of the question to keep
them separate one from another.” It was the beginning of the Vatican
Cemetery, hereafter to become so famous. “ ... More than 1600 years
afterward, when the excavations were being made for the new baldachino
over the altar tomb of S. Peter himself, the sad relics of this first
great persecution were brought to light. But they were not disturbed,
and still rest in the place where they were originally laid, where now
rises above them the glorious dome of the first Church of Christendom.”
In the memoranda on the third foundation there is nothing of very
special interest to note.
On the fourth foundation Ubaldi wrote the following strange and
peculiarly interesting note: “Almost at the level of the pavement
there was found a coffin made of fine and large slabs of marble....
This coffin was placed, just as were the others which were found on
the other side, within the circle of the presbytery, in such a manner
that they were all directed towards the altar like spokes toward the
centre of a wheel. Hence it was evident with how much reason this
place merited the name of ‘the Council of Martyrs.’ ... These bodies
surrounded S. Peter just as they would have done when living at a synod
or council.”
These apparently were the remains of the first Bishops or Popes of
Rome, for whom Anacletus made special provision when he arranged this
earliest of cemeteries. Their names are, Linus whose coffin lies apart
but still close to the apostle’s tomb, Anacletus, Evaristus, Sixtus I,
Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius I, Eleutherius, and Victor. Victor was laid
in this sacred spot in the year of grace 203. After him no Bishop of
Rome was interred in the Cemetery of Anacletus on the Vatican Hill.
Originally of but small dimensions, by that date it was filled up, and
the successors of Pope Victor, we know, were interred in a chamber
appropriated to them in the Cemetery of S. Callistus in the great
Catacomb so named on the Appian Way.
The other interments in the sacred Vatican Cemetery in the immediate
neighbourhood of the apostle’s tomb--some of the more notable of
which have been noticed in our little extracts from the Ubaldi
Memoranda--were apparently the bodies or the sad remains of martyrs of
the first and second centuries of the Christian era, or in a few cases
of distinguished confessors of the Faith whose names and story are
forgotten, but to whom Prudentius (quoted on p. 216) has alluded.
There is an invaluable record of what lies beneath the high altar and
the western part of the great Mother Church of Christendom.
In a rare plan of this Cemetery of the Vatican drawn by Benedetto
Drei, Master Mason of Pope Paul V, which apparently was made during
the period of the first discoveries under Paul V, some time between
A.D. 1607 and 1615, and which has received certain later corrections
no doubt after the second series of discoveries consequent upon the
excavations for the foundations in the neighbourhood of the tomb of S.
Peter, for the great bronze baldachino of Bernini in the days of Pope
Urban VIII, about A.D. 1626.
This plan of Drei is most valuable, though not accurate in detail. It
marks the position of some of the graves which were found, but not of
all that were disclosed in the second series of discoveries under Urban
VIII. It was not issued until A.D. 1635. This later date explains the
corrections which have been inserted.
PART II
TWO EXAMPLES OF RECENT DISCOVERIES
CRYPT OF S. CECILIA--THE BURIAL-PLACES OF S. FELICITAS, OF
JANUARIUS, AND OF HER OTHER SONS
I
Out of the many pages of Catacomb lore, the story of the Crypt of
S. Cecilia and its recent discovery, and the identification of the
burial-places of S. Felicitas and her seven sons, have been selected
to be told here as specially interesting examples of the historical
and theological importance of these investigations among the forgotten
cemeteries of subterranean Rome.
Allard’s words in his edition of Northcote and Brownlow’s exhaustive
résumé of a portion of De Rossi’s monumental work, deserve quoting.
Writing of S. Cecilia, he says:
“Les découvertes modernes l’ont bien vengée du scepticisme ou
de la prudence excessive de Tillemont: on sait aujourd’hui que
Sainte Cecile n’est ni un mythe, ni une martyre venue de Sicile,
mais une vraie Romaine, du plus pur sang romain; sa noble et
gracieuse figure est décidément sortie des brumes de la légende
pour entrer dans le plein jour de l’histoire.”
The “Acts” of her martyrdom in their present form are probably not
older than the fifth century, although S. Cecilia suffered in the
reign of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus, _circa_ A.D. 177. But
these “Acts” are undoubtedly very largely based upon a contemporaneous
record: the recent discoveries have enabled historical criticism fairly
to restore what was original in the story of the martyr.