THE CEMETERIES.
+=========================+ || M. ANTONI || || VS. RESTVTV || || S.
FECIT. YPO || || CEVSIBI. ET || || SVIS. FIDENTI || || BVS. IN.
DOMINO.][81]|| +=========================+
It seems to us as though we had neglected one, whose character and
thoughts opened this little history, the pious Lucina. Her virtues were
indeed of that quiet, unobtrusive nature, which affords little scope for
appearing on a public scene, or taking part in general affairs. Her
house, besides being, or rather containing, a title or parochial church,
was now honored by being the residence of the supreme Pontiff. The
approach of a violent persecution, in which the rulers of Christ’s
spiritual kingdom were sure to be the first sought out, as the enemies
of Cæsar,
[Illustration: A Staircase in the Catacombs.]
[Illustration: The Martyr’s Widow.]
rendered it necessary to transfer the residence of the Ruler of the
Church, from his ordinary dwelling, to a securer asylum. For this
purpose Lucina’s house was chosen; and it continued to be so occupied,
to her great delight, in that and the following pontificate, when the
wild beasts were ordered to be transferred to it, that Pope Marcellus
might feed them at home. This loathsome punishment soon caused his
death.
Lucina admitted, at forty,[82] into the order of deaconesses, found
plenty of occupation in the duties of her office. The charge and
supervision of the women in church, the care of the sick and poor of her
own sex, the making, and keeping in order of sacred vestments and linen
for the altar, and the instruction of children and female converts
preparing for baptism, as well as the attending them at that sacred
rite, belonged to the deaconesses, and gave sufficient occupation in
addition to domestic offices. In the exercise of both these classes of
duties, Lucina quietly passed her life. Its main object seemed to be
attained. Her son had offered himself to God; and lived ready to shed
his blood for the faith. To watch over him, and pray for him, were her
delight, rather than an additional employment.
Early in the morning of the appointed day, the meeting mentioned in our
last chapter took place. It will be sufficient to say, that in it full
instructions were given for increasing the collection of alms, to be
employed in enlarging the cemeteries and burying the dead, in succoring
those driven to concealment by persecution, in nourishing prisoners, and
obtaining access to them, and finally in ransoming or rescuing the
bodies of martyrs. A notary was named for each region, to collect their
acts and record interesting events. The cardinals, or titular priests,
received instructions about the administration of sacraments,
particularly of the Holy Eucharist, during the persecution; and to each
was intrusted one cemetery or more, in whose subterranean church he was
to perform the sacred mysteries. The holy Pontiff chose for himself that
of Callistus, which made Diogenes, its chief sexton, not a little, but
innocently, proud.
[Illustration: A Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.]
The good old excavator seemed rather more cheery than otherwise, under
the exciting forebodings of a coming persecution. No commanding officer
of engineers could have given his orders more briskly, or more
decidedly, for the defence of a fortified city committed to his skill to
guard, than he issued his to the subordinate superintendents of the
various cemeteries round Rome, who met him by appointment at his own
house, to learn the instructions of the superior assembly. The shadow of
the sun-dial at the Porta Capena was pointing to mid-day, as he issued
from it with his sons, and found already waiting the three young men.
They walked in parties of two along the Appian road; and at nearly two
miles from the
[Illustration: Underground gallery in the Catacombs, from Th. Roller’s
“Catacombes de Rome.”]
gate,[83] they entered by various ways (slipping round different tombs
that lined the road) into the same villa on the right-hand. Here they
found all the requisites for a descent into the subterranean cemeteries,
such as candles, lanterns, and the instruments for procuring light.
Severus proposed that, as the guides and the strangers were in equal
number, they should be divided into pairs; and in the division he
allotted Torquatus to himself. What his reason was we may easily
conjecture.
It would probably weary our readers to follow the whole conversation of
the party. Diogenes not only answered all questions put to him, but,
from time to time, gave intelligent little lectures, on such objects as
he considered peculiarly attractive. But we believe we shall better
interest and inform _our_ friends, if we digest the whole matter of
these into a more connected narrative. And besides, they will wish to
know something of the subsequent history of those wonderful excavations,
into which we have conducted our youthful pilgrims.
The history of the early Christian cemeteries, the _Catacombs_ as they
are commonly called, may be divided into three portions: from their
beginning to the period of our narrative, or a few years later; from
this term to the eighth century; then down to our own time, when we have
reason to hope that a new epoch is being commenced.
We have generally avoided using the name of catacombs, because it might
mislead our readers into an idea that this was either the original or a
generic name of those early Christian crypts. It is not so, however:
Rome might be said to be surrounded by a circumvallation of cemeteries,
sixty or thereabouts in number, each of which was generally known by the
name of some saint or saints, whose bodies reposed there. Thus we have
the cemeteries of SS. Nereus and Achilleus,
[Illustration: THE TOMB OF SAINT CECILIA.
On October 20, 1599, Cardinal Sfondrati had her tomb opened, and the
body of the saint, in a state of perfect preservation, was found in the
position here depicted. The sculptor, Stefano Maderno, made an exact
copy of it, and his statue now ornaments her tomb.] of St. Agnes, of
St. Pancratius, of Prætextatus, Priscilla, Hermes, &c. Sometimes these
cemeteries were known by the names of the places where they existed.[84]
The cemetery of St. Sebastian, which was called sometimes _Cœmeterium ad
Sanctam Cæciliam_,[85] and by other names, had among them that of _Ad
Catacumbas_.[86] The meaning of this word is completely unknown; though
it may be attributed to the circumstance of the relics of SS. Peter and
Paul having been for a time buried there, in a crypt still existing near
the cemetery. This term became the name of that particular cemetery,
then was generalized, till we familiarly call the whole system of these
underground excavations--the Catacombs.
Their origin was, in the last century, a subject of controversy.
Following two or three vague and equivocal passages, some learned
writers pronounced the catacombs to have been originally heathen
excavations, made to extract sand for the building of the city. These
sand-pits were called _arenaria_, and so occasionally are the Christian
cemeteries. But a more scientific and minute examination, particularly
made by the accurate F. Marchi, has completely confuted this theory. The
entrance to the catacombs was often, as can yet be seen, from these
sand-pits, which are themselves under ground, and no doubt were a
convenient cover for the cemetery; but several circumstances prove that
they were never used for Christian burial, nor converted into Christian
cemeteries.
The man who wishes to get the sand out of the ground will keep his
excavation as near as may be to the surface; will have it of easiest
possible access, for drawing out materials; and will make it as ample as
is consistent with the safety of the roof, and the supply of what he is
seeking. And all this we find in the _arenaria_ still abounding round
Rome. But the catacombs are constructed on principles exactly contrary
to all these.
The catacomb dives at once, generally by a steep flight of steps, below
the stratum of loose and friable sand,[87] into that where it is
indurated to the hardness of a tender, but consistent rock; on the
surface of which every stroke of the pickaxe is yet distinctly
traceable. When you have reached this depth you are in the first story
of the cemetery, for you descend again by stairs to the second and third
below, all constructed on the same principle.
A catacomb may be divided into three parts, its passages or streets, its
chambers or squares, and its churches. The passages are long, narrow
galleries, cut with tolerable regularity, so that the roof and floor are
at right angles with the sides, often so narrow as scarcely to allow two
persons to go abreast. They sometimes run quite straight to a great
length; but they are crossed by others, and these again by others, so as
to form a complete labyrinth, or net-work, of subterranean corridors. To
be lost among them would easily be fatal.
But these passages are not constructed, as the name would imply, merely
to lead to something else. They are themselves the catacomb or cemetery.
Their walls, as well as the sides of the staircases, are honeycombed
with graves, that is, with rows of excavations, large and small, of
sufficient length to admit a human body, from a child to a full-grown
man, laid with its side to the gallery. Sometimes there are as many as
fourteen, sometimes as few as three or four, of these rows, one above
the other. They are evidently so made to measure, that it is probable
the body was lying by the side of the grave, while this was being dug.
When the corpse, wrapped up, as we heard from Diogenes, was laid in its
narrow cell, the front was hermetically closed either by a marble slab,
or more frequently by several broad tiles, put edgeways in a groove or
mortice, cut for them in the rock, and cemented all round. The
inscription was cut upon the marble, or scratched in the wet mortar.
Thousands of the former sort have been collected, and may be seen in
museums and churches; many of the latter have been copied and published;
but by far the greater number of tombs are anonymous, and have no record
upon them. And now the reader may reasonably ask, through what period
does the interment in the catacombs range, and how are its limits
determined. We will try to content him, as briefly as possible.
[Illustration: A _loculus_, closed.]
There is no evidence of the Christians having ever buried any where,
anteriorily to the construction of catacombs. Two principles as old as
Christianity regulate this mode of burial. The first is, the manner of
Christ’s entombment. He was laid in a grave in a cavern, wrapped up in
linen, embalmed with spices; and a stone, sealed up, closed His
sepulchre. As St. Paul so often proposes Him for the model of our
resurrection, and speaks of our being buried with Him in baptism, it was
natural for His disciples to wish to be buried after His example, so as
to be ready to rise with Him.
This lying in wait for resurrection was the second thought that guided
the formation of these cemeteries. Every expression connected with them
alluded to the rising again. The word to _bury_ is unknown in Christian
inscriptions. “_Deposited_ in peace,” “the _deposition_ of ----,” are the
expressions used: that is, the dead are but left there for a time, till
called for again, as a pledge, or precious thing, intrusted to faithful,
but temporary, keeping. The very name of cemetery suggests that it is
only a place where many lie, as in a dormitory, slumbering for a while;
till dawn come, and the trumpet’s sound awake them. Hence the grave is
only called “the place,” or more technically, “the small home,”[88] of
the dead in Christ.
These two ideas, which are combined in the planning of the catacombs,
were not later insertions into the Christian system, but must have been
more vivid in its earlier times. They inspired abhorrence of the pagan
custom of burning the dead; nor have we a hint that this mode was, at
any time, adopted by Christians.
But ample proof is to be found in the catacombs themselves, of their
early origin. The style of paintings, yet remaining, belongs to a period
of still flourishing art. Their symbols, and the symbolical taste
itself, are characteristic of a very ancient period. For this peculiar
taste declined, as time went on. Although inscriptions with dates are
rare, yet out of ten thousand collected, and about to be published, by
the learned and sagacious Cavalier De Rossi, about three hundred are
found bearing consular dates, through every period, from the early
emperors to the middle of the fourth
[Illustration: A COLUMBARIUM,
Or underground sepulchre in which the Romans deposited the urns
containing the ashes of the dead.]
century (A.D. 350). Another curious and interesting custom furnishes us
with dates on tombs. At the closing of the grave, the relations or
friends, to mark it, would press into its wet plaster, and leave there a
coin, a cameo, or engraved gem, sometimes even a shell or pebble;
probably that they might find the sepulchre again, especially where no
inscription was left. Many of these objects continue to be found, many
have been long collected. But it is not uncommon, where the coin, or, to
speak scientifically, the medal, has fallen from its place, to find a
mould of it left, distinct and clear in the cement, which equally gives
its date. This is sometimes of Domitian, or other early emperors.
[Illustration: A _loculus_, open.]
It may be asked, wherefore this anxiety to rediscover with certainty the
tomb? Besides motives of natural piety, there is one constantly recorded
on sepulchral inscriptions. In England, if want of space prevented the
full date of a person’s death being given, we should prefer chronicling
the year, to the day of the month, when it occurred. It is more
historical. No one cares about remembering the day on which a person
died, without the year; but the year without the day, is an important
recollection. Yet while so few ancient Christian inscriptions supply the
year of people’s deaths, thousands give us the very day of it, on which
they died, whether in the hopefulness of believers, or in the assurance
of martyrs. This is easily explained. Of both classes annual
commemoration had to be made, on the very day of their departure; and
accurate knowledge of this was necessary. Therefore it alone was
recorded.
In a cemetery close to the one in which we have left our three youths,
with Diogenes and his sons,[89] were lately found inscriptions mingled
together, belonging to both orders of the dead. One in Greek, after
mentioning the “Deposition of Augenda on the 13th day before the
Calends, or 1st of June,” adds this simple address:
ΖΗCΑΙC ENKῶ KAI
EPωTA ΥΠΕΡΗΜωΝ
“Live in the Lord, and pray for us.”
Another fragment is as follows:
.....N. IVN-
......IVIBAS-
IN PACE ET PETE
PRO NOBIS
“Nones of June ... Live in peace, and pray for us.”
This is a third:
VICTORIA. REFRIGERER [ET]
ISSPIRITVS. TVS IN BONO
“Victoria, be refreshed, and may thy spirit be in enjoyment” (good).
]
This last reminds us of a most peculiar inscription found scratched in
the mortar beside a grave in the cemetery of Prætextatus, not many yards
from that of Callistus. It is remarkable, first, for being in Latin
written with Greek letters; then, for containing a testimony of the
Divinity of our Lord; lastly, for expressing a prayer for the
refreshment of the departed. We fill up the portions of words wanting,
from the falling out of part of the plaster.
[Illustration: “To the well-deserving sister Bon ... The eighth day
before the calends of Nov. Christ God Almighty refresh thy spirit in
Christ.”]
In spite of this digression on prayers inscribed over tombs, the reader
will not, we trust, have forgotten, that we were establishing the fact,
that the Christian cemeteries of Rome owe their origin to the earliest
ages. We have now to state down to what period they were used. After
peace was restored to the Church, the devotion of Christians prompted
them to desire burial near the martyrs, and holy people of an earlier
age. But, generally speaking, they were satisfied to lie under the
pavement. Hence the sepulchral stones which are often found in the
rubbish of the catacombs, and sometimes in their places, bearing
consular dates of the fourth century, are thicker, larger, better
carved, and in a less simple style, than those of an earlier period,
placed upon the walls. But before the end of that century, these
monuments become rarer; and interment in the catacombs ceased in the
following, at latest. Pope Damasus, who died in 384, reverently shrunk,
as he tells us, in his own epitaph, from intruding into the company of
the saints.
[Illustration: A Lamb with a Milk Pail, emblematic of the Blessed
Eucharist, found in the Catacombs.]
Restitutus, therefore, whose sepulchral tablet we gave for a title to
our chapter, may well be considered as speaking in the name of the early
Christians, and claiming as their own exclusive work and property, the
thousand miles of subterranean city, with their six millions of
slumbering inhabitants, who trust in the Lord, and await His
resurrection.[90]