CATACOMBS
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CATACOMBS
An arcosolium was a space excavated in the wall native method of burial, and imitated the rock-graves
above which a semicircular recess was hewn out, in of Palestine by laying out cemeteries in the stone-like
which a sarcophagus was sometimes placed; in the stratum of tufa around Rome. In this manner Jew-
excavation below, the body was laid and covered with ish catacombs were laid out and developed before
a flat marble slab. It was not common to bury the Christianity appeared in Rome. Connected with the
dead beneath the floor of the passages or burial two chief Jewish colonies, one in the quarter of the
chambers. At the present day the majority of the city across the Tiber, and the other by the Porta
graves are found open, the slabs which once sealed Capena, were two large Jewish catacombs, one on the
them having vanished; often nothing remains of the Via Portuensis and one on the Via Appia, as well as
ashes and bones. The rock and broken material some smaller ones; all are recognizable by the seven-
loosened by the constant digging in the innumer- branched candlestick, which repeatedly appears on
able passages were piled up in the sand-pits near gravestones and lamps,
by, or brought to the surface in baskets, or were Until after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus
heaped up in the
passages which were
no longer visited
because the families
of the dead had
passed away. In
order to obtain light ,
and above all fresh
air, shafts called
luminaria, some-
what like chimneys,
were cut through
the soil to the sur-
face of the ground.
These luminaria,
however, are seldom
found before the
fourth century,
when the great
numbers of the faith-
ful who attended the
religious services in
the catacombs on
the feast days of the
martyrs rendered
such precautions for
health a necessity.
At this date also
wider and easier
stairways were
made, leading from
the surface of the
ground into the
depths below.
The early Chris- tian name for these places of burial was Koifi7iTTipioi>, ccemete- rium, place of rest. When, in the Middle Ages, the recollec- tion of the cata- combs passed away,
R^fl Tufa, or volcanic sto
the Catacombs wen
■B Early Christian maso
e. Id whkh
eicavated.
ary.
£33 -Modern masonry.
EZ2 Church above Catacomb,
on the: surface of the ground. /
(a. d. 70) the Chris-
tians were regarded
as a sect of the Jews ;
hence those Jews
who were converted
by the Apostles at
Rome were buried
in the catacombs of
their fellow-country-
men. The question
arises as to where
those converted
from heathenism by
the Apostles found
their last resting-
place. It is a fact
to which Tacitus,
Suetonius, Dio Cas-
sius.and other pagan
historians bear wit-
ness, that as early
as the days of the
Apostles members
of the higher and
even of the highest
ranks of the nobility
had become Chris-
tians. These con-
verts of rank from
h e at h e ni s m had
their own tombs,
and permitted their
brethren in thel'aith
to construct, in con-
nexion with these
family tombs, places
of burial modelled
on the Jewish cata-
combs. This is the
origin of the Chris-
tian catacombs. The
catacombs of the
Apostolic Era are:
the monks attached to the church of St. Sebastian on on the Via Ardeatina, the catacomb of Domitilla.
the Via Appia kept the ca-meterium ad catacumbas niece of the Emperor Domitian and a member of the
.in this road accessible for pilgrims. After the re- Flavian family; on the Via Salaria, that of PriseiUa,
discovery and opening of the other rnrmcteria, the who was probably the wife of the Consul Acilius
name belonging to this one ca-meterium was ap- Glabrio; on the Via Appia, that of Lucina, a member
plied to all. The catacombs awaken astonishment on of the Pomponian family; on the Via Ostiensis. that
account of the remarkable work of construction of Commodilla, connected with the grave of St. Paul,
which, in the course of three hundred years, the At a later date other catacombs were constructed,
piety of the early Christians and their love for the nearly all having their origin in a family vault;
dead produced. In estimating the enormous sum of among them an- those of Cecilia, Prffitextatas,
money required for the catacombs, it must also be Hermes, etc., which still bear the names of their
taken into consideration that the early Christians, by founders. Again, the grave of a venerated martyr
voluntary contributions, supported the clergy, aided would be another nucleus of a catacomb, e: g. that
the i r, widows, and orphans, assisted those sent of St. Laurence, St. Valentine, or St. Castulus;
to prison or the mines on account of their faith, and such a coemeterium would bear the name oi the
bought from the executioners at a large price the martyr. Catneteria occasionally owed their names to
if the martyrs. some external feature as the one ad duas lauros
II. History.— The Romans cremated their dead (the two laurel trees) ; this title is still added to the
and deposited the ashes in a family tomb (sepidcrum, names of the two martyrs, Peter and Mm-ellinus,
memorta), or in a vault or common sepulchre (colum- resting there. Thus in the course ot three hundred
barium : hut the Jews living in Home retained their years some fifty catacombs, large ami small, formed
