CATACOMB OF St. VALENTINE

CATACOMBA DI S. VALENTINO

Viale Maresciallo Pilsudski 2

It is made out of two floors

In the VESTIBULE seventh century paintings quite damaged and inscriptions on the walls from the adjacent burial area that the inscriptions themselves date from 318 to 523

In 1986 a landslide from the hill above partially destroyed it

BASILICA DI S. VALENTINO
Basilica of St. Valentine

Next to the catacomb

Built by Julius I (337/352) and transformed by Honorius I (625/638) on the tomb of the saint from Terni martyred at 97 years of age, according to tradition, under Aurelian (270/275) after having been persecuted by Claudius II Gothic (268/270)

The body was moved in the thirteenth century and the area was abandoned

Tradition has it that he joined in marriage the young Christian Serapia, seriously ill, and the Roman centurion Sabino. The marriage had been thwarted by her parents, but Valentine had been called by Sabino at the bedside of dying young girl and after having baptised Sabino he then joined him marriage to his beloved

His feast is linked to the ancient Roman celebrations that were held every February 15 in honor of the gods Pan, Faun and Lupercus: the LUPERCALIA were linked to the purification of the fields and fertility rites

The word purify, februar in Latin, caused the name of the month of February. These celebrations were extremely licentious, were prohibited by Augustus and were later suppressed by Gelasius in 494

The Church christianized the pagan rite of fertility anticipating a day on February 14 and giving the martyr the ability to protect lovers wanting to get married and have children

St. Valentine's reputation as a patron saint of lovers grew dramatically in early 1900s, when an image in the neighborhood of Little Italy in New York was considered able to help lovers

CATACOMB OF St. THECLA

CATACOMBA DI S. TECLA

Via Ostiense/Via Silvio D'Amico

Also known as the CEMETERY OF ST. PAUL'S LITTLE BRIDGE, 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Basilica of St. Paul, in a palace built in the 1950s

There is mystery about Thecla, a young follower of St. Paul hardly cited by the sources, not mentioned in the New Testament and known from the apocryphal Gospel Acts of Paul and Thecla of the second century

The catacomb is made up of three corridors in a delta shape, each one about 30 m (98 feet) long and about 2.5 m (8 feet) wide, with twenty-two square chapels in twelve of which unique and mysterious intensive burials have been found. They were covered with the "cappuccina" (capuchin) method, covering the graves with bricks in a triangle like the roof of a house

Three historical phases

1) Second half century of the first century AD, commercial purposes with pozzolana quarry and fullonica

2) Late third century. Christian and pagan funerary use

3) Fourth century. Development of the catacomb and construction of the UNDERGROUND SMALL BASILICA with two naves, one of the first underground basilicas in Rome. It became underground storage for barrels in the seventeenth century

The tomb of Thecla is in a big niche

Nearby two painted panels from another site on the Via Cristoforo Colombo: "Veiled praying woman suddenly taken away by a man" maybe scene of a martyrdom and "Two characters seen from the back: one pointing something and the other who looks with his hand on his forehead"

Other very damaged paintings in a simple, linear style, so simple and linear that Mariano Armellini in the nineteenth century described them as "The ugliest pictures in the underground of Rome"

CUBICULUM OF THE APOSTLES

In June 2009, archaeologists of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology using a special laser technique found on the ceiling of a cubiculum (cubicle) an extraordinary fresco of the late fourth century. It represents the circular icons of the "Sts. Paul, John, Andrew and Peter", in the center "Good Shepherd" and "Matron" maybe the owner of the cubicle and buried here

They are believed to be the oldest images existing in the world of Sts. Paul, Andrew and John

The painted faux coffered ceiling embedding the portraits is maybe an imitation of the original ceiling of the nearby Basilica of St. Paul

AREA OF THE PAGAN CEMETERY

Very interesting series of mausoleums and tombs both with burials and incineration used until the late third century

There are some inscriptions in mosaic a rare example of pagan funerary epigraphy

CATACOMB OF St. HERMES

CATACOMBA DI S. ERMETE

Via Antonio Bertoloni 13 - Parioli

Under the area of the Villa St. Hermes. Two underground floors

In the second floor BASILICA OF St. HERMES dug into the tufa rock in the second half of the fourth century

When in the ninth century the body of St. Hermes was transported in the Basilica of St. Mark, the church lost its importance and became an oratory

In the apse there is a fresco of the late eighth or early ninth century with "St. Benedict": it is considered his oldest known image existing 

CATACOMB OF St. DOMITILLA

CATACOMBA DI S. DOMITILLA

Via delle Sette Chiese 282 - Ardeatino

The second largest of Rome, about 15 km (9.32 miles) of tunnels

Four floors of which the third and fourth are only partially excavated and not passable

Developed from the third century until the fourth and fifth centuries from seven underground primitive cemeteries both pagan and Christian

There were originally tombs above ground tombs dating from the end of the Republican period

"The archaeological evidence, after the critical historical review of the last decades, agree with the sources in dating the birth of Christian cemeteries more or less in the last years of the second century. Before that time - always the archaeological record - shows how members of the new religion buried their dead in common pagan areas, in individual tombs, in family mausoleums, or in those of the funerary associations" (Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai)

The catacomb was located into the estate of Flavia Domitilla, niece of Emperor Vespasian (69/79), condemned, according to Dio Cassius, to exile on Ventotene island at the order of his uncle Diocletian for atheism and "for having diverted into the customs of the Jews"

According to the version of Eusebius of Caesarea, Flavia Domitilla had a namesake aunt married to the consul of 95 AD Flavius Clemens who was condemned to death by his cousin Domitian for atheism, while his wife was also exiled in Ventotene

Behind the apse of the Basilica of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus there is the so-called RETROSANCTOS consisting of three radial galleries with burial chambers including the one with the cubicle of the painting with "Matron Veneranda introduced in the heavenly garden by the martyr Petronilla" dating to the beginning of the fourth century

Petronilla was mistakenly believed to be the daughter of St. Peter, for a mistake in the translation of an inscription describing her, in fact, as daughter of one Petronius, not Peter

She became patron of the Franks in the second half of the eighth century when Paul I (757/767) transferred his relics in the Basilica of St. Peter

FLAVIAN HYPOGEUM

To the north of the Basilica. Small cemetery of the end of the second century first pagan and later Christian with its own private access. The family was just homonymous to the Flavian family of emperors of the first century

To the left of the entrance room with desks and well for the refrigerium, i.e. the funeral meal that was consumed by the family visitors to the graves attested by literary sources especially from the late Constantine period

On the right Cubicle of Love and Psyche for the burial of children with paintings of "Children picking flowers in a paradisal garden"

The Flavian Hypogeum itself is made up of a gallery with four large niches on the sides and terminal area, maybe for the burial of servants

The paintings date back to the years 220/230 including "Daniel among the Lions"

CUBICLE OF AMPLIATUS

Double cubicle of the early third century, maybe one for the family and the other for the servants with paintings of non-Christian subjects representing fake architecture and bucolic scenes

CUBICLE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

At the center of the vault "Good Shepherd"

REGION OF THE GRAND STAIRCASE

Discovered in 1897 with paintings of the end of the fourth century. Cubicle known as the Bakers' cubicle: in the apses "Apostolical Council" and "Good Shepherd"

REGION OF THE SAINTS

A scene maybe of the Judgment Day with "Christ who gives the crown to the three men and three women" and "Madonna with Child and Four Wise Men"

REGION OF THE STAIRCASE WITH MOSAIC

To the south of the basilica, an arched niche with mosaic discovered in 1742: "Christ the Teacher among Peter and Paul", "Three Jewish children in the furnace", "The resurrection of Lazarus" and inscription

BASILICA DEI Ss. NEREO E ACHILLEO

Basilica of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus

Late fourth century on the grave of the two soldiers and martyrs, victims of the persecution of Diocletian (285/305)

At the beginning of the IX century Leo III (795/816) moved the bodies of the two saints in the church of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus

To build the church three tunnels were cut:

The HYPOGEUM OF THE MARTYRS in the apse area, where the tombs of the two saints and of the martyr Petronilla were

The HYPOGEUM OF THE sarcophagi with "Three sarcophagi" still visible under the floor through a grating

The FLAVIAN-AURELIAN HYPOGEUM so called for the inscription mentioning these two families. It was demolished by the earthquake of 897 and rediscovered in 1874

CATACOMB OF St. CALLISTUS

CATACOMBA DI S. CALLISTO

Via Appia Antica 110

The largest of the about 60 catacombs in Rome. About 20 km (12.42 miles) of tunnels in a 15 hectares (37 acres) area with four levels and about 500,000 graves

The most ancient areas that don't have a definite Christian origin date back to the II century AD

Named after the banker and deacon St. Callistus (217/222) who administered it by order of Pope Zephyrinus (199/217)

When he became pope himself Callistus made it bigger and it became the official cemetery of the Roman Church for about 200 years

From 217 to 283 more than 50 martyrs and 16 popes were buried here, not Callistus though: for mysterious reasons, he is buried in the Catacomb of Calepodius

The Catacomb was abandoned in the fifth century and rediscovered in 1849 by the scholar G.B. De Rossi

"In the middle of 1800s the archeology of the catacombs was at last released from the darkness that had enveloped it after the death of Antonio Bosio in 1629. (...) In 1851 the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology was established by Pope Pius IX, who was responsible for the protection and scientific exploration of the catacombs. G.B. De Rossi (1822/94), the founder of the modern science of Christian archeology, took up in those years the research path traced by Bosio. (...) The critical rigor and novelty of his method of inquiry, the cut and the historical tension that substantiate it, are still fundamental legacy for anybody approaching the study of the catacombs" (Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai)

AREA I and CRYPT OF THE POPES

After the entrance building with three apses (Cella Trichora) maybe Basilica of Sts. Sixtus and Cecilia transformed into a museum

At the lowest level seventeen burials including nine popes:

Inaugurated by Fabiano (236/250) who buried his two predecessors Pontian (230/235) and Antero (235/236 pope for only 40 days)

There are also the popes Lucius, Stephen, Sixtus II, Dionysius, Felix and Eutychian

In an adjacent chapel ceiling painted with a rare image of "Orpheus"

"At the time of the first modern discoveries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it began to spread the curious belief that the catacombs had had function of dwelling places or refuge for the early Christians in the time of persecution. This legend was fueled, among other things from the distorted interpretation of some ancient sources, such as the phrases of the 'Liber Pontificalis' Roman alluding to the stay of some popes in the 'cemeteries' (meaning of course the widest sense of the term including the existing building above ground) or the killing, in the catacomb of S. Callisto, during the persecution of Valerian, on August 6, 258, of Pope Sixtus II with his deacons 'in the cemetery'. In fact, as it is well known, the catacombs were exclusively burial areas used for the burial and funerary cult of the members of the early Christian communities" (Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai)

The oldest area is the pre-Constantinian CRYPT OF LUCINA near the Appian Way consisting of two subareas linked to the death of Pope Cornelius (251/253)

CRYPT OF St. CECILIA

Annexed to the area of the popes. Tradition places here the tomb of St. Cecilia whose real historical existence is not certain

Copy of the statue by Stefano Maderno now in the Basilica of St. Cecilia in Trastevere

Stefano Maderno was here in the year 1600 when the tomb of St. Cecilia was believed to be opened. The body of a young girl was found, the position of which he faithfully replicated in marble, creating a milestone in the history of sculpture for the transition from Mannerist to Baroque sensibility

Next to the crypt of the popes CUBICLES OF THE SACRAMENTS made out of six chapels for wealthy families with paintings believed to be representations of the sacraments: 

"Moses who makes water flow from the rock"

"Sacrifice of Abraham"

"Story of Jonah"

"Moses and the fisherman"

"Samaritan"

"Baptism of Christ"

"Banquets"

"Laying of Hands"

"Miracles of Christ"

CUBICLE OF St. EUSEBIUS

Inscription dating back to no later than 304 where the bishop of Rome Marcellino (296/304) is referred to for the first time ever as "pope" and faith is professed in the final resurrection

CUBICLE OF St. GAIUS

In front of Eusebius' Cubicle. Pope Gaius (283/296) was buried in a privileged position, the first pope not to be buried in the crypt of the popes

Behind Gaius' Cubicle there is a room with decoration in opus sectile

REGION OF MILZIADE

REGION OF SOTERE with the cubicle so called Pantheon and the so called Architectonical Cubicle

Mid-fourth century

Small BASILICA TRICHORA

CUBICLE OF SHEEP

Paintings "Good Shepherd", "Moses making water spring from rocks" and "Multiplication of the loaves"

CUBICULUM K

"Judgment Day"

CUBICULUM Y

"Four Seasons"

CUBICULUM Z

LIBERIAN REGION

Along the area of St. Soteride is the most spectacular (although closed to the public) with monumental features and venerated tombs, maybe of the Roman clergy

CRYPT L

Tomb of Pope Cornelius (251/253), whose body was transferred in the ninth century in the Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere

Byzantine paintings with "Sixtus II, Cornelius and St. Cyprian"