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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Latin inscription recording the purchase of a tomb (locus) in a burial complex called after *Cornelius (bishop and martyr of Rome, S00172). Found probably in the 'crypt of Saint Cornelius,' at the Cemetery of Callixtus, via Appia (Rome). Probably 5th c.

Evidence ID

E04646

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

Serepntiu-
s emit loc-
m a Quinto
fossore ad
santum Cor-
nelium

1-2. read Serpentium || 2-3 read locum

'Serpentius bought this burial place (
locus) from Quintus, gravedigger. (In the crypt called) "near Saint Cornelius".'

Text:
ICVR, n.s., IV, no. 9441.

Cult Places

Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - cemetery/catacomb

Places Named after Saint

Other

Non Liturgical Activity

Burial ad sanctos

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Merchants and artisans
Other lay individuals/ people

Source

Marble plaque. H. 0.25 m; W. 0.20 m. Letter height 0,02-0.025 m.

First recorded by Carlo Fea in the late 18th or early 19th c., who offered a transcription in one of his manuscripts (Vat. lat. 10591 f. 115). Published by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1864 from Fea's copy, and by Orazio Marucchi, and Ernst Diehl, after de Rossi's edition. In 1964 republished by Antonio Ferrua.

Fea did not describe the findspot. De Rossi ascribed the stone to the crypt of Cornelius. Now in the church of San Rocco in the village of Cesinali in the province of Avellino (Campania).


Discussion

The inscription marks the tomb as the property of one Serpentius, legally purchased from a licensed gravedigger. The property, and therefore inviolability, of burial places concerned both Christians and pagans. It was often proclaimed by means of inscriptions to prevent the seizure of tombs by other people.

The present tomb is named as 'at saint Cornelius /
ad sanctum Cornelium’. This is a reference to the tomb of Cornelius, a 3rd c. bishop of Rome (pope), and probably a martyr. He was buried in the Catacombs of Callixtus, and became the eponym for an entire burial sector.

The editors considered the inscription testimony to a burial
ad sanctos, but the formula can also be interpreted as containing a mere name of the place rather than a statement that the tomb’s owner wanted to be buried near Cornelius

Dating: Antonio Felle in the EDB dates the inscription to the 5th c.


Bibliography

Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB19777, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/19777

De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.)
Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 4: Coemeteria inter Vias Appiam et Ardeatinam (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1964), no. 9441.

Diehl, E.,
Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1925-1927), vol. 1, no. 2131, and vol. 2, comments on no. 3756B.

Marucchi, O.,
Epigrafia cristiana. Trattato elementare con una silloge di antiche iscrizioni cristiane principalmente di Roma (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1910), 169, no. 153.

de Rossi, G.B.,
La Roma sotterranea cristiana, vol. 1 (Rome: Cromo-litografia pontificia, 1864), 304, 327 and Tav. XXVIII 2.

Further reading:
Bond, S.E., "Mortuary workers, the Church, and the funeral trade in Late Antiquity", Journal of Late Antiquity 6 (2013), 143.

Images



From: EDB19777.
























Record Created By

Paweł Nowakowski

Date of Entry

19/01/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00172Cornelius, bishop and martyr of Rome, and companion martyrsCorneliusCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E04646 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04646