Christian antiquities -- Italy -- Rome; Rome (Italy) -- Antiquities
The repairs must have been made in haste, between March, 537, the date
of the flight of Vitiges, and the following November, the date of the
journey of Virgilius to Constantinople, from which he never returned.
Traces of this Pope's restorations have been found in other catacombs.
In those of Callixtus the fragments of a tablet, dedicated by Damasus
to S. Eusebius, have been found, dispersed over a large area, and also
a copy set up by Virgilius in the place of the original. In those of
Hippolytus, on the Via Tiburtina, an inscription was discovered in
1881, which stated that the "sacred caverns" had been restored
_præsule Virgilio_. The example of Virgilius and his successors in the
See of Rome was followed by private individuals. The tomb of
Crysanthus and Daria on the Via Salaria was restored, after the
retreat of the barbarians, _pauperis ex censu_, that is to say, with
the modest means of a devotee.
Nibby has attributed the origin of cemeteries within the walls to the
invasion of Vitiges, burial within the city limits having been
strictly forbidden by the laws of Rome. But the law seems to have been
practically disregarded even before the Gothic wars. Christians were
buried in the Prætorian camp, and in the gardens of Mæcenas, during
the reign of Theodoric (493-526). I have mentioned this particular
because it marks another step towards the abandonment of suburban
cemeteries. The country around Rome having become insecure and
deserted, it was deemed necessary to place within the protection of
the city walls the bodies of martyrs who had been buried at a great
distance from the gates. The first translation took place in 648: the
second in 682, when the bodies of Primus and Felicianus were removed
from Nomentum, and those of Viatrix, Faustinus and Simplicius from the
_Lucus Arvalium_ (Monte delle Piche, by la Magliana). The last blow to
the catacombs was given by Paschal I. (817-824). Contemporary
documents mention innumerable transferences of bodies. The mosaic
legend of the apse of S. Prassede says that Pope Paschal buried the
bodies of many saints within its walls.[152]
The official catalogue of the remains removed on July 20, 817, which
was compiled by the Pope's notary and engraved on marble, has come
down to us. It speaks of the translation of twenty-three hundred
bodies, most of which were buried under the chapel of S. Zeno, which
Paschal I. had built as a memorial to his mother, Theodora Episcopa.
The legend in the apse of S. Cæcilia speaks, likewise, of the
transference to her church of bodies "which had formerly reposed in
crypts" (_quæ primum in cryptis pausabant_): among them those of
Cæcilia herself, Valerianus, Tiburtius, and Maximus. The finding and
removal of Cæcilia's remains from the Catacombs of Callixtus is one of
the most graceful episodes in the life of Paschal I. He describes it
at length in a letter addressed to the people of Rome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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