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
(1) According to a very general tradition, S. Paul suffered martyrdom,
A.D. 67, and his body was laid in a tomb on the Ostian Way in
a garden belonging to a Christian lady named Lucina,--some identify
her with the “Lucina” of the Cemetery of Callistus on the Appian Way.
There it rested, according to the most recent investigations, until the
persecution and confiscation of the cemeteries in A.D. 258,
when for security’s sake it was secretly removed at the same time as
the body of S. Peter was brought from the grave on the Vatican Hill.
The sacred remains of the two apostles were laid in the “Platonia”
Crypt, in what was subsequently known as the Catacomb of S. Sebastian,
on the Via Appia; and probably after an interval of some two years,
when the cemeteries were restored to the Christian congregations by the
Emperor Gallerius, the bodies of the two apostles were brought back
again to their original resting-places.
Anacletus, the third in succession of the Roman bishops, erected in the
first century a small “Memoria” or chapel over the tomb of S. Paul,
like the one he built over the tomb of S. Peter on the Vatican Hill.
In the year 324-5 the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, over
the apostle’s tomb and little “Memoria,” caused the first important
basilica, known as S. Paul’s, to be erected; the Emperor treated the
loculus or sarcophagus of S. Paul in the same manner as he had treated
the sarcophagus of S. Peter, enclosing it in a solid bronze coffin,
on which he laid a cross of gold. When the basilica was rebuilt,
after the fire of A.D. 1813, a marble slab, which apparently
was a part of the vaulted roof of the original sepulchral chamber of
the apostle, came to light. On this slab, or rather slabs of marble,
which now lie directly under the altar, are engraved the simple words
_Pavlo Apostolo Mart_: the inscription evidently dating from the days
of Constantine (A.D. 324-5). No further investigation of the
tomb was permitted. It is believed that the bronze sarcophagus with its
sacred contents, with the golden cross, lie immediately under the solid
masonry upon which the slab of marble we have been speaking of rests.
On the slab of marble in question, besides the simple inscription
above quoted, are three apertures: the most important of these is
circular; it is, in fact, a little well, and is 23½ inches in depth,
and was no doubt originally what is termed the “billicum confessionis,”
through which handkerchiefs and other objects were lowered, so as to
be hallowed by resting for a brief space on the sarcophagus when
access to the vault itself was not permitted. The other two apertures
or little wells are only 12½ and 8 inches deep respectively. It is not
known for what purpose these two were intended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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