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
In the same category with the Pilgrim Itineraries which the great Roman
scholar has found so helpful in his Catacomb researches must be placed
the celebrated papyrus preserved in the Cathedral of Monza. This
is a contemporary catalogue or list of the sacred oils sent by Pope
Gregory the Great (A.D. 590-604) to Theodelinda, Queen of the
Lombards. The Lombard Queen sent a special messenger, one Abbot John,
to Pope Gregory the Great asking him for relics of the saints buried
in the Catacombs. At that period no portions of the sacred bodies were
allowed to be removed, even at the request of so powerful a petitioner
as Theodelinda; but as a substitute the Pope sent a little of the oil
which fed the lamps which were ever kept burning before the tombs or
shrines of the saints in question.
Each phial containing the oil was carefully ticketed or labelled, and
a list of these tickets or labels was written on this Monza papyrus.
Some sixty or seventy saints’ shrines are specially enumerated, besides
about eight places mentioned before which oils were kept burning,
before tombs which contained a crowd of unnamed saints and martyrs.
This Monza catalogue of the sacred oils De Rossi carefully compared
with the topographical notices in the Pilgrim Itineraries above
referred to. It was of great service to the scholar explorer in
discovering and identifying many of the principal sanctuaries of the
Catacombs.
Another and quite a different material for his investigations De Rossi
found amidst the desolate Catacombs themselves: he noticed that certain
unmistakable indications ever marked the near neighbourhood of some
historic crypt.
1. The existence above ground of more or less ruined basilicas
of various dimensions,--in some cases showing the remains of a
considerable building, in others of a comparatively small edifice as
of a chapel or an oratory. Such a ruined building evidently pointed to
there being beneath the soil, at times deep down, an historic crypt
of importance. Such a small basilica or oratory had no doubt been
built after the Peace of the Church in the middle or latter years of
the fourth or in the fifth century, when pilgrimage to the shrines
of the saints and martyrs had become the fashion. It was intended
to accommodate the ever-growing crowds who came often from distant
countries to pray near and to venerate the saints and martyrs whose
remains lay buried in the crypt immediately beneath.
2. The remains, more or less perfect, of a staircase or staircases
leading down to the sacred crypt containing a tomb of some great
confessor known and honoured in the tradition of the Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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