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
_Cemetery of SS. Processus and Martinianus._--(Apostolic age.)
Tradition relates that these saints were the gaolers of S. Peter,
and owed their conversion to their prisoner. They suffered martyrdom
shortly after S. Peter’s death, being decapitated on the Via Aurelia;
Lucina, a wealthy Roman matron, buried them in her garden near the
place of their martyrdom. This Lucina was probably the same who gave
her name to the ancient cemetery on the Via Appia, and which now
forms part of the great network of cemeteries known generally as S.
Callistus’ Catacomb.
Very little is known of this Catacomb. Among the network of sepulchral
corridors on this portion of the Via Aurelia this special cemetery has
not as yet been clearly identified.
These cemeteries are in a sadly ruined condition. The loculi which
have been examined are evidently of a very early period. Marucchi, in
pleading for a more detailed exploration here, suggests the probability
of some “Memories” of S. Peter being eventually discovered.
_Cemetery of S. Calepodius._--This saint appears to have been a priest
who suffered martyrdom, probably in a popular rising, in the reign of
Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-35). This cemetery is principally
famous as being the resting-place of Pope Callistus, who also suffered
in a popular rising, A.D. 222, and was laid to rest in this
cemetery, perhaps as being nearer to the scene of his martyrdom than
the official Papal Crypt on the Via Appia to which he gave his name.
The exploration work here, as far as it has gone, has been carried out
with difficulty owing to the ruinous state of the corridors.
_Cemetery of S. Pancratius._--S. Pancras was a boy-martyr twelve, or as
some accounts give fourteen years of age when in A.D. 304 he
suffered for his faith in the Diocletian persecution.
This cemetery was in the first instance known under the name of
Octavilla, a Christian matron who buried the young confessor in her
garden on the Aurelian Way. It had probably been a cemetery before the
deposition of the remains of the famous boy-martyr gave it a new name
and not a little celebrity.
The story of S. Pancras has ever been an attractive one, and a certain
number of churches named in his honour are scattered over many lands.
A small basilica was built over the crypt containing his grave. Pope
Siricius (end of fourth century) restored and adorned it. Honorius I,
A.D. 620, rebuilt it. In the present Church of S. Pancras there are
scarcely any traces of the original basilica. The remains of the martyr
have disappeared. Strange to say, in the great translation of the ashes
of saints and martyrs by Pope Paul I and Paschal I, S. Pancras was left
undisturbed in his tomb. The corridors, however, have been completely
wrecked, and have been very partially explored.
The site of the cemeteries mentioned in the Pilgrim Itineraries,
named after two saints each bearing the name of Felix, has not been
discovered.
THE VIA PORTUENSIS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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