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
S. Valentinus is the last of our long catalogue of subterranean
cemeteries. Little is known of the confessor and martyr after whom
this Catacomb is named. His “Acts,” as we possess them, were only
compiled in the sixth century. Valentinus suffered martyrdom _circa_
A.D. 268-70. (Claudius Gothicus was then Emperor.) He is
stated to have been a Christian priest and physician.
The martyr’s body was recovered by Sabinilla, a Christian lady, and was
buried near the place where he suffered. The desire to be buried near
S. Valentinus led to further excavations, but the tufa in this place
was too hard and did not lend itself to the formation of galleries.
Corridors were excavated above the tomb of the martyr; little,
however, of interest has been found as yet. A third gallery was also
constructed. It was the second gallery above the grave of the martyr
which became the public cemetery, but it has been only very partially
examined; much is still blocked up.
Some time after the Peace of the Church, under Pope Julius, A.D.
337-52, a basilica named after S. Valentinus was built a little to
the right of the martyr’s crypt. This church was restored, probably
rebuilt, by Pope Honorius I, A.D. 625-38. The ruins of this Church of
S. Valentinus have been recently brought to light. The Itineraries
speak of the body of S. Valentinus as in the restored basilica. These
sacred remains were, as in other cases, no doubt translated from their
original resting-place into the church above. The bodies of other
martyrs who probably suffered in the Diocletian persecution are alluded
to in the Pilgrim Guides. In the ruins of the basilica a chapel was
identified by an inscription as having been dedicated to certain of the
local martyrs, and with these nameless saints S. Zeno is mentioned by
name. S. Zeno was evidently once highly venerated. His presence here is
accounted for by a notice in one of the Itineraries, which styles him
“frater Valentini,”--possibly only signifying “frater in Passione.”
S. Zeno was buried in the well-known Cemetery of Prætextatus on the
Appian Way. He is perhaps best known now from the famous Chapel of
S. Zeno in the Church of S. Prassedis, the work of Pope Paschal
I--usually called the “Orto del Paradiso.” A mosaic in that
beautiful chapel pictures the two martyrs S. Valentinus and S. Zeno
together.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I.--ON S. PETRONILLA
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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