128
A Martyr's Grave.
Or that the lingering fragrant breath
That shrined the martyr's rest,
A memory was of those who die—
God's faithful and God's blest?[1]
That shrined the martyr's rest,
A memory was of those who die—
God's faithful and God's blest?[1]
Rome, 1861.
- ↑ In the year 1716, the body of a holy martyr, named Martiria, was discovered in the Catacombs of St. Calisto. The Ampulla which once contained her blood still remained, and the inscription to the Roman lady was well preserved. These bones retained for a long period the same wonderful fragrance as had been observed before by eminent savants, on opening fresh tombs in the Catacombs of Rome. Among many eminent archæologists who were witnesses of this extraordinary phenomenon, were Signori Canonica, Raimondo, Binetti, and Romani. The same odour was also perceived by many persons in a street near the same cemetery, as they were stopping to pray near some tombs of saints. But laying aside all that might be attributed to a miraculous and supernatural fragrance, it might in some cases be produced by aromatic anointments used in embalming the martyred dead, even as they anointed the body of the Redeemer: though more frequently the bodies of Martyrs were hurried into their last resting places before there was time for the expensive rite of embalming.—Translated from "Boldetti's Roma Sotteranea."—[S. M. E.]
