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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 inscription possibly referring to the 'holy spirits'/spirita sancta, or to a female saint whose name is lost. Found in the Cemetery of Praetextatus, via Appia, Rome. Late antique.

Evidence ID

E05162

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

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

[- - - sa]ncta II[- - -]
[- - - vix]it ann[is - - -]
[- - -]PD[- - -]

1. [- - - sa]ncta +[- - -] Carletti in EDB || II = lower parts of one or two letters are visible in the drawing || 3. upper parts of two letters, probably D, P, or B are visible in the drawing, [- - -]++[- - -] Carletti in EDB

'[- - -] saint [- - -] lived [- - -] years [- - -].'

Text:
ICVR, n.s., V, no. 14927l = EDB8328.

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

Prayer/supplication/invocation
Burial ad sanctos

Source

Fragment of a marble plaque broken and lost on all sides. Preserved dimensions: H. 0.17 m; W. 0.19 m; Th. 0.045 m. Letter height 0.045 m.

Found in 1909 in the Cemetery of Praetextatus. First published by Antonio Ferrua in 1971, in a drawing with no transcription. When examined by Ferrua the stone was in area H3. A transcription was offered by Carlo Carletti in the Epigraphic Database Bari. Carletti uses crosses (+) to mark damaged letters. Here we give our own transcription based on the drawing published by Ferrua.


Discussion

The fragment certainly comes from an ordinary epitaph. It is very possible that line 1 contained a reference to 'holy spirits'/spirita sancta, of martyrs or simply other deceased, which often occurs in epitaphs in Roman catacombs. Another possibility is that line 1 mentions a female saint, or addressed the deceased for whom the epitaph was composed as 'saint' (that is 'redeemed', not 'saint' as an object of veneration).

Dating: The inscription, as others from the Cemetery of Praetextatus, dates from the late antique period.


Bibliography

Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB8328, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/8328

De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.)
Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 5: Coemeteria reliqua Viae Appiae (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1971), no. 14927l.


Record Created By

Paweł Nowakowski

Date of Entry

06/03/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00060Martyrs, unnamed or name lostUncertain
S00518Saints, unnamedUncertain
S01744Saints, name lost or very partially preservedUncertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E05162 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E05162