Latin graffiti with an invocation of unnamed holy spirits, probably the souls of popes and martyrs buried in the cemetery of Callixtus, and perhaps an invocation of *Xystus/Sixtus II (bishop and martyr of Rome, S00201). Found in the lower part of that cemetery. Via Appia, Rome. Proably late 4th-early 5th c.
Evidence ID
E04682
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Graffiti
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)
Acileu[s] kui peto
(image of a male face)
him mente
abete Corn[---]
spirita vestra sancta
'Acilius, on whose behalf I ask ... your holy spirits, have in mind Corn[elius (?) - - -]!'
Antonio Ferrua notes that Giovanni Battista de Rossi recorded one more invocation written on the same wall, which, he thinks, could be restored as follows:
Floren[t]ius [et] sanct[e Xyste in mente] habe[- - -]
Text: ICVR, n.s., IV, no. 9532.
Cult PlacesPrayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Burial site of a saint - cemetery/catacomb
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Pilgrimage
Visiting graves and shrines
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOther lay individuals/ people
Source
Graffiti in slender, cursive script. Letter height 4-5 cm. Scratched in the plaster, on the eastern wall in Area A4 in the lower part of the cemetery of Callixtus.First published by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1867. Revisited, and published again by Antontio Ferrua in 1964.
Discussion
The inscriptions seem to invoke the souls of the popes and martyrs buried in the cemetery of Callixtus. The name Cornelius in line 3 probably refers to a supplicant rather than pope Cornelius, martyr of Rome, buried in the same cemetery.Dating: Antonio Felle (in EDB) dates the graffiti to the late 4th-early 5th c.
Bibliography
Edition:Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB17808, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/17808
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. 9532.
Diehl, E., Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, vol. 1 (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1925), no. 2326d-e.
de Rossi, G.B., La Roma sotterranea cristiana, vol. 2 (Rome: Cromo-litografia pontificia, 1867), 386, and Tav. XXXIII.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
25/01/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00201 | Xystus/Sixtus II, bishop and martyr of Rome | Uncertain | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | spirita sancta | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E04682 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04682