It has been already told how this Catacomb of St. Callixtus was, as it were, consecrated by the blood of St. Sixtus II., St. Stephen’s successor. About thirty years later, during the Pontificate of St. Caius, who himself had to lie hid in a catacomb for several years, we read of a number of the faithful who were seen entering a cemetery on the Via Salara to visit the tombs of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria; how, by order of the Emperor (Numerian), the entrance was at once closed, and a vast mound of sand and stones heaped up in front, that so they might all be buried alive, even as the martyrs they had come to venerate. St. Gregory of Tours tells us, that when the tombs of these martyrs were rediscovered after the ages of persecution had ceased, there were found with them not only the relics of those worshippers who had been thus cruelly put to death—skeletons of men, women, and children lying on the floor—but also the silver cruets which they had taken down with them for the celebration of the sacred mysteries; and De Rossi holds out hopes that some traces of this precious sanctuary may be restored even to our own generation. For we know that Pope Damasus (by whom it was discovered) abstained from making any of those changes whereby he sometimes decorated the martyrs’ tombs, but contented himself with setting up an historical inscription, and opening a window in the adjacent wall or rock, that all might see, without disturbing, a monument so unique and touching; and this was still visible in St. Gregory’s days in the sixth century. It is from another inscription of Pope Damasus that we learn the history of the noble young acolyte and martyr, St. Tharsicius, who was seized one day as he was leaving a catacomb in which the holy mysteries had just been celebrated, and was carrying the Blessed Sacrament secretly about his person to convey to some of the absent faithful, who were either sick, or had not dared to fly in the face of the law prohibiting the Christian assemblies. The youth sacrificed his life rather than betray to Pagan eyes the priceless treasure that had been intrusted to his keeping. Then they rifled his corpse, yet their profane curiosity was not gratified; and the holy martyr was buried in the cemetery of St. Callixtus, whence he had probably set out.