The Early Christians in RomeSpence-Jones, H. D. M. (Henry Donald Maurice)
History
The Early Christians in Rome
Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Henry Donald Maurice)
Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600; Rome (Italy) -- Church history
Another “Guide,” writing of the great ones who rest in the
“Priscilla” Cemetery, adds how they sleep there “with many
saints.” Hard by, the same “Guide” tells us how one of the
confessor-sons of S. Felicitas in the same spot rests “with
many saints”; and again alludes to “the many martyrs buried
there.” And once more, speaking of the shrine of S. Sylvester,
relates that “very many more saints and martyrs lie hard by.” In
one grave, the “Guide” adds, “373 are buried.”--_De Locis SS.
Martyrum._
_William of Malmesbury_, copying--as we said--from a much
older “Pilgrim Guide,” after enumerating the names of the more
prominent martyrs, adds, “and there are innumerable other saints
buried there” (alii innumerabiles).--_William of Malmesbury._
THE VIA SALARIA VETUS. (_This road was in the immediate
neighbourhood of the last mentioned, the “Via Salaria Nova.”_)
The “Itinerary,” describing the group of cemeteries on this
road, writes, after mentioning the better-known names of saints:
“These are buried with many martyrs”; and further on relates how
“230 martyrs are interred here.”--_De Locis SS. Martyrum._
_William of Malmesbury_, writing of the same group, relates
that “in the one grave 260 martyrs rest,” and “in another
30.”--_William of Malmesbury, Itinerary._
THE VIA FLAMINIA. (_This ancient road leads out of the
modern Porta del Popolo, is a direct continuation of the modern
Corso. It is the great road communicating with North Italy._)
There is only one Cemetery or Catacomb on this road, that of S.
Valentinus. The “Guide” relates how the martyr S. Valentinus
rests there together “with other martyrs unnamed.”--_Itinerary
of Salzburg._
Another “Guide” says: “Many saints are buried here.”--_De Locis
SS. Martyrum._
II
Of somewhat less weight than the testimony of the “Itineraries” or
“Pilgrim Guide” books, but still of great importance as throwing a
strong sidelight upon the evidence we have massed together on the
subject of the large numbers of the martyrs and confessors of Rome
interred in the Catacombs, are the Monza “Catalogue” and “Labels” once
attached to the little phials of oil brought to Theodelinda from the
sacred shrines of Rome.
We have elsewhere briefly described this curious and absolutely
authentic relic.[117] Theodelinda asked for relics from the shrines
of the Cemeteries (Catacombs) of Rome; Pope Gregory the Great in the
last years of the sixth century sent to her a little of the oil from
the lamps which in his days were ever kept burning before each of the
shrines in question.
The original “Catalogue” (Notitia) of these oils, and the “Labels”
(Pittacia) once attached to the phials which held the oils, are
preserved in the Cathedral of Monza.
The “Catalogue” (or Notitia) is preceded by the following words:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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