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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


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


Fragmentary Greek epitaph recording a burial ‘with the saints’. Found in the lower part of the Cemetery of Callixtus, via Appia, Rome. Probably late 3rd c.

Evidence ID

E04737

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

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

[- - - Ἀ]λέξανδρος ὃς κὲ Ἐρύθρις
[μετὰ] τῶν ἁγίων

'[- - -] Alexandros, also called Erythrios, [with] the saints.'

Text:
ICVR, n.s., IV, no. 10552 = EDB3724.

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

Burial ad sanctos

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Other lay individuals/ people

Source

Right-hand fragment of a large marble plaque. Broken into three conjoining fragments. Preserved dimensions: H. 0.37 m; W. 0.96 m; Th. 0.055 m. Letter height 0.04 m.

First recorded by Joseph Wilpert in cubiculum Ci in the lower part of the cemetery of Callixtus. Published by Wilpert in 1910. Revisited by Antonio Ferrua and republished by him in 1964.


Discussion

The inscription is an epitaph which says that the deceased was buried 'with the saints.' These saints may be the general community of all the redeemed Christian. On the other hand, the inscription may refer to the closeness of martyrs' burials.

Dating: Antonio Felle (in EDB) dates the inscriptions to the last quarter of the 3rd c.


Bibliography

Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB3724, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/3724

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. 10552 and Tab. XIIIb 4.

Wilpert, J.,
La Cripta dei Papi e la cappella di Sainta Cecilia ne cimetero di Callisto (Rome: Desclée & C., 1910), 63, fig. 40.


Record Created By

Paweł Nowakowski

Date of Entry

27/01/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00060Martyrs, unnamed or name lostἅγιοιCertain
S00518Saints, unnamedἅγιοιCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E04737 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04737