The Catacombs of Rome, and Their Testimony Relative to Primitive ChristianityWithrow, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The Catacombs of Rome, and Their Testimony Relative to Primitive Christianity
Withrow, W. H. (William Henry)
Catacombs -- Italy -- Rome; Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
There are comparatively few Catacombs of interest on the northwest
bank of the Tiber, owing to the smaller population of that part of
Rome in ancient times. We shall briefly enumerate the more important.
On the Flaminian Way is the cemetery of St. Valentinus. On the
Aurelian Way are those of Agatha, Pancratius, and Calepodius. The
latter, the reputed burial place of Callixtus and of many martyrs, 200
is beneath the church dedicated to Pancratius--the English
Pancras--and on the supposed scene of his sufferings. On the Via
Portuensis, near the city, is the Catacomb of Pontianus, a patrician
Roman of the third century. It is remarkable for the very perfect
subterranean baptistery to be hereafter described. On the Ostian Way,
near the basilica of _S. Paolo fuori le Mura_, is the ancient cemetery
of Commodilla, or Lucina, in which tradition asserts that the body of
the apostle Paul was laid after his martyrdom. It is in a very ruinous
condition, most of the galleries being choked up and impassable; but
here Boldetti found the two oldest extant inscriptions. On this road
also is the Catacomb of St. Zeno, in which were said to be buried
twelve thousand Christians employed in building the Baths of
Diocletian.
On the Vatican Hill, now crowned with the grandest temple in
Christendom, is said to have existed the oldest Christian cemetery of
Rome. Tradition asserts that the remains of St. Peter were interred on
this spot, on the site of an ancient temple of Apollo, and near the
alleged scene of the apostle’s martyrdom in the circus of Nero, and
that hither they were restored after their removal to the crypt of
Sebastian.[322] Here also ancient ecclesiastical documents record the
burial of ten of the Roman bishops of the first and second
centuries;[323] after which, we have seen, the Catacomb of Callixtus
became their chief place of burial. The series of papal interments in 201
this place again begins with that of Leo the Great, A. D. 461. In the
dim crypts beneath the high altar of St. Peter’s are shown the tombs
of most of his successors, many of them far removed in life and
character from the lowly Galilean fisherman.[324]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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