Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/477

 CATACOMBS

421

CATACOMBS

repented of it and if I have served Thee [O Lord] I will give thanks to Thy Name." He "gave up his soul to God" ;it the age of thirty-three years and six months. The same expression, "he gave up his soul to God", is used for Petilius, the dale of whose death is given as before 1 September.

Catacomb of Domitilla, second century: —

c. IVLIA. AGHIPPINA SIMPLICI. DVLCIS IN jETERNVM

— "Sweet Simplicius, live in eternity" is the wish which Caia Julia Agrippina, whose aristocratic name indicates a very early imperial date, sends after the departed.

Catacomb of Domitilla, third century: —

. . . . SPIRITVS TVVS IN REFRIGEKIO

The beginning of the inscription, containing the name, has disappeared, ".May thy spirit be in re- freshment". The very ancient prayer in the Canon of the Mass entreats for the dead locum refrigerii, facts el pacis (a place of refreshment, light, and peace).

Catacomb of Pontianus, beginning of the fourth century: —

EVTYCHIANO FILTO DVLCISSIMO EVTYrHIVS PATER p V. A. I. M. II. D IIII DEI SERVS y? IX8Y2

i.e."Eutychius,thefather[has erected] the grave-

stone to his sweetest little son, Eutychianus. The child who lived one year, two months, and four days the servant. p of God." The Greek monogram of the name of Christ Nr (X=CH,P=R), and the IX9T2 scratched on the gravestone, shows that the child had, through baptism, died a Christian and had been reci ived into heaven by "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour''. (See Animals in Christian Art.) Catacomb of Priscilla, third century (in verse): — vos precor o fratres. orare. hvc

QVANDO VENITIS ET PRECIBVS. TipTIS. PATREM. NATVM-

QVE ROGATIS SIT. VESTIi.E. MENTIS. AGATES. CAR.5E.

MEMIXISSE VT DEVS. OMNIPOTENS. AGAPEN IN S.E-

CVLA. SERVET

i.e. " I beg you, brethren, whenever ye come hither [to the service of God] and call in united prayer on the Father and the Son, that ye remember to think on your loved Agape, that Almighty God may preserve Agape in eternity." A second, fragmentary, piece of the inscription recalls the sentence of death pro- nounced in Paradise, tie terra sumptus terrte traderis (thou wast taken from the earth and unto the earth shall thou return), Agape lived twenty-seven years; so had it been appointed to her by Christ. The mother, I ucharis, and the father, Pius, erected the grave- i me to her.

Catacomb of Commodilla. inscription of a. d. 377:—

CINNAMIVS OPAS LECTOR TITVl.l PA8CIOLE

AMICVS PAVPERVM yvi VIXIT ANN. XI.VI. MENS. VII. D. villi

DEP( isiT IN PACE KAI, MART GRATIANO nil ET MEROBAVDE COSS

i. e. Cinnamius (>p;is, lector of the title [church] of Fasciola. a friend of the poor, who lived forty-six years, seven months, and nine days, and was buried

in peace on I March, when Gratian w:.^ consul for the fourth time and with him Merobaudus. < latacomb of ( lommodilla, a. d. 39 I

DEI' III mvS MAIl I I8IMVS (JVI

VIXIT ANNVS xxvin QV1 FECIT

CVM CONPAR1 S\ \ ANNVS BEPTE

MENSIS Villi BENEMERENTI IN PACE. CON

SVLATV NICOMACI. FLABIANI. LOCV MAR MARARI QVADRISOMVM

i. e. Buried on 13 May, Osimus who lived twenty- eight years, who was united to his wife seven years and nine months. May the well-deserving rest in peace. He died during the consulate of Nicomachus Flavianus. Grave of the stone-mason for four bodies.

Catacomb of Callistus, third century: —

PETRONI.E AVXENTI.E. C. F. QV.E VIXIT ANN. XXX. LIBERTI FECERVNT. BENE- MERENTI. IN. PACE

The freedmen of Petronia Auxentia, the highly born lady (clarissimas femirue), who died at the age of thirty, made the grave where she rests in peace. She seems to have had neither children, brothers or sisters, nor, at the time of her death, parents. Catacomb of Callistus, fourth century: —

DASVMIA QVIRIACE HONE FEMINE PA-

LVMBA SENe FELle. . . QV.E VIXIT ANNUS I, XXI DEPOS1TA IIII

KAL MARTIAS IN PACE

Cyriaca, a member of the noble Dasumian family, who died at the age of sixty-six years, is called a "dove without bitterness", a eulogy that is found on other female graves.

ANTe'Ptoc^e'jfTT

From the Tomb of Pope Anterub, III Centur?

Catacomb of Callistus, about \. r>. 300: " With the permission of his Pope Marcellinus (296 -it'll Severus the Deacon made in the level of the cemetery of Callistus directly under that of the pope a family vault, consisting of a double burial chamber (cubl- culum duplex) with arched tombs [arcoaoUa) and a shaft for air and light, as a quiet resting-place for himself and his family, where his bones might be preserved in long sleep for his Maker and Judge. The first body to be laid in the new family vault was his sweet little daughter Severa, beloved by her parents and servants. At her birth Cod had en- dowed her for this earthly life with wonderful talents. Her body rests here in peace until if shall rise again in God, Who took away her soul, chaste, modest, and ever inviolate in His Holy Spirit; He, the Lord, will reclothe her at some time with spiritual glory. She lived a virgin nine years, eleven months and fifteen days. Thus was she translated out of this world".

Besides the text of I he epitaphs, on many of the tombstones the ideas are also conveyed by pictures; in this manner expression is given, above all, to the

hope of eternal life for the dead, first come sym- bolical pictures and signs: the anchor, the palm, the dove with the olive-branch, are allegorical symbols of hope, victory, and everlasting peace; from the third century on appears the fish, the symbol of Christ. The Good She] .herd carrying the lamb on His shoul- ders, and the Orante, both often depicted together, were well-known and favorite allusions to the joy of heaven. The carving on the tombstone also copied those paintings on the catacombs ili.it represent Biblical scenes, e. e. the awakening of Lazarus, the adoration of the Wise Men. Carvings of an entirely secular character are also found on the tumhsiom