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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


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


Very fragmentary Latin inscription in Philocalian script, with probable remnants of a poem. Argued by de Rossi to have commemorated a refurbishment of the crypt of *Cornelius (bishop and martyr of Rome, S00172) by pope Siricus. Found in the 'crypt of Saint Cornelius' at the Cemetery of Callixtus, via Appia (Rome). Arguably 384/399.

Evidence ID

E04649

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)

Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)

Literary - Poems

The text, as presented by Antonio Ferrua:

S[---]
[---]
MA[---]
pia [membra re]tentat

'[- - -] holds the holy [limbs].'

Text:
ICVR, n.s., IV, no. 9369.

The text, as tentatively restored by Giovanni Battista de Rossi:

S[iricius perfecit opus]
conclusit et arcam
ma[rmore Corneli quoniam]
pia [membra re]tentat.

'S[iricius carried out this work and closed the crypt (
arca) of Cornelius with marble, as] it holds the holy [limbs].'

Text: de Rossi 1864, 293.

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

Non Liturgical Activity

Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildings

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops
Merchants and artisans
Ecclesiastics - Popes

Cult Related Objects

Inscription

Source

Fragments of a marble plaque preserving a handful of letters. High quality lettering, Philocalian script. Found by de Rossi in 1852 in the crypt of Cornelius.

Discussion

The fragments are believed to have once belonged to a commemorative plaque with a Damasan poem, or a work imitating Damasan poetry. Both the physical appearance of the letters, and the last verse, plausibly restored, which resembles classic Damasan phrases, support this identification.

Giovanni Battista de Rossi, the finder and first editor of the fragments, hesitated between several entirely hypothetical restorations. Eventually, he favoured the version which we present here. Although it is no more plausible that the others, some scholars do not entirely reject it (see Trout 2015, 120). According to this interpretation, the poem, composed in two
hexameter verses, may have commemorated a refurbishment of the crypt of Cornelius by pope Siricius (384-399), successor of pope Damasus credited with a major rebuilding of the crypt (see E04648). We find this extremely doubtful.

Bibliography

Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB20439, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/20439

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. 9369.

???Ferrua, A., Epigramata damasiana (Rome: Pontificio Istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1942), 136-137, no. 19.

Ihm, M.,
Damasi epigrammata (Anthologiae Latinae Supplementa 1, Leipzig: Teubner, 1895), comments to no. 19 (p. 27).

de Rossi, G.B.,
La Roma sotterranea cristiana, vol. 1 (Rome: Cromo-litografia pontificia, 1864), 293.

Further reading:
Reekmans, L.,
La tombe du pape Cornelie et sa région cémétériale (Roma sotterranea cristiana 4, Città del Vaticano: , 1964).

de Rossi, G.B.,
La Roma sotterranea cristiana, vol. 1 (Rome: Cromo-litografia pontificia, 1864), 291-293, Tav. II and IV.

Trout, D.,
Damasus of Rome: The Epigraphic Poetry. Introduction, Texts, Translations, and Commentary (Oxford: OUP, 2015), 120.


Record Created By

Paweł Nowakowski

Date of Entry

21/01/2018

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


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E04649 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04649