Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/379

Rh of olden days which have made Rome the marvel of the world, and the wonder of historians, antiquarians and tourists. There is one other monument however which I did visit and which I must not forget to mention even in this meagre account. It is a spot redolent of holy associations, and in some respects more interesting than the vast Colosseum or the gigantic baths of Caracalla. While tens of thousands of proud Roman citizens were daily crowding in these vast and noisy assemblages, delighting in cruel sports and spectacles, while emperors and generals were returning from the ends of the earth in triumphant processions along the Appian Way and under the Arch of Titus, a band of lowly, silent, persecuted men were worshipping their God after the teaching of Christ in dark subterranean vaults within a few miles of Rome. Who could have foresaid in the first and second centuries after Christ, that the ebbing tide was with the proud and haughty Romans, the conquerors of the world! that the rising tide was with these persecuted lowly vagrants, crouching themselves in the very bowels of the earth to escape observation and persecution! And yet this was what happened. Rome fell, and Christianity triumphed in Europe!

A little over a mile from the city gate, along the Appian Way are the catacombs of St. Callixtus. These catacombs were originally excavated by the early Christians as burial places and were subsequently used for meetings and religious worship. A monk with a candle in his hand led me through the dark winding and subterranean