Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/97

Rh less than beautiful. This mausoleum, like the one we had just left, is spacious and beautifully proportioned. Smoke on the walls, as of a lamp, shows that people had there watched and prayed. The whole of this catacomb is lighted by circular openings, which admit light and air into the subterranean burial place.

After about an hour's wandering along innumerable passages, through many chapels, resembling the last mentioned, we arrived at the catacomb of the first century. Before we descended into it, De Rossi called our attention to an inscription, which is found often repeated, by the same hand, upon the walls all the way from the mausoleums in the catacomb of Saint Calixtus, to the entrance into this of the earliest Christians. A pilgrim had wandered through these chambers whilst he prayed for a friend, and he has inscribed his prayer on the walls, in these words:

“''Sophronia! Live thou in God!''”

He appears then to have paused at the door of the oldest catacomb, and the prayer now expresses itself in words which show that he knew his prayer was heard. Here, in red Roman letters, one can plainly decipher:

“''Sophronia dulcis, vive in Deo! Tu vivis in Deo!''”

(Sopronia, sweet one, live thou in God! Thou dost live in God!) The letters are dark red, as if written in blood. Who can avoid thinking here, Love is stronger than death.

We entered the catacomb of the first century. Here there is no splendor; no marble pillars or pictures; narrow streets and passages, in which are