“Hard by the City walls--amid the orchards--there is a Crypt.... Into its secret cells there is a steep path with winding stairs.... As you advance, the darkness as of night grows more dense.... At intervals, however, there are contrived openings cut in the roof above, which bring the bright rays of the sun into the crypt. Although the recesses twisting this way and that form narrow chambers, with galleries in deep gloom, yet some light finds its way through the pierced vaulting down into the hollow recesses.... And thus throughout the subterranean crypt it is possible still to revel in the brightness of the absent sun. “To such secret recesses was the body of Hippolytus borne, quite near to the spot where now stands the altar dedicated to God. “That same altar-slab provides the sacrament, and is the trusty guardian of its martyr’s bones, which it guards there in the waiting for the Eternal Life, while it feeds the dwellers by the River Tiber with holy food. “Marvellous is the sanctity of the place. The altar is close by for those who pray, and it assists the hopes of such by mercifully giving what they require. Here, too, have I when sick with ills of soul and body, often knelt in prayer and found help.... Early in the morning men come to salute (Hippolytus); all the youth of the place worship here; they come--they go--until the setting of the sun. Love of religion gathers into one vast crowd both Latins and strangers.”--_Translated from Prudentius, “Peristephanôn,” Passion of S. Hippolytus._ The close proximity of the Cemetery and Basilica of S. Laurence (above described) as years passed on was fatal to the memory of S. Hippolytus. From very early times S. Laurence, the deacon of Sixtus II, received extraordinary honour. He suffered, as we have stated, in the persecution of Decius, _circa_ A.D. 258, and occupies the place of S. Stephen in the Church of the West. It was of this famous and popular saint that Augustine wrote: “Quam non potest abscondi Roma, tam non potest abscondi Laurentii corona.” In the prayer of the oldest Roman sacramentary we read, “De beati solemnitate Laurentii, peculiaris præ ceteris Roma lætatur.” “No marvel,” writes Bishop Lightfoot, “that the aureole which encircled the heads of other neighbouring saints and martyrs, _even of the famous Hippolytus himself_, should have faded in the light of his unique splendour.” As years rolled on, the neighbouring Basilica of S. Laurence grew larger and grander. The Basilica of S. Hippolytus built over his cemetery faded away, comparatively uncared for; the great scholar was forgotten in the fame which gathered round the neighbouring popular saint. Paul I, A.D. 756-67, removed the sacred relique of the saint scholar to the well-known City Church of S. Silvester in Capite.