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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


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


Fragmentary Latin epitaph with a tentatively restored formula invoking the 'peace with (unnamed) saints' to the deceased. Found in a small cemetery 'ad Vibiam' on the via Appia, Rome. Late antique.

Evidence ID

E05163

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

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

- - -] C [- - -
Sterco[riu]s qui vi[xit - - -]
bene[me]renti
alumn[o su]o Nice

'[- - -] Stercorius who lived [- - -] to his well-deserved nurseling Nice[- - -].'

The missing line 1 was hypothetically restored by Antonio Ferrua as [p(ax) t(ibi)] c(um) [s(anctis)]/'peace be to you with saints!'

Text:
ICVR, n.s., V, no. 15307 = EDB1619.

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
Prayer/supplication/invocation

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Children
Other lay individuals/ people

Source

Four fragments of a marble plaque, forming two non-conjoining parts. Dimensions: H. 0.125 m; W. 0.235 m; Th. 0.015 m (left-hand part); H. 0.25 m; W. 0.17 m; Th. 0.015 m (right-hand part). Letter height c. 0.04 m.

First recorded by Antonio Ferrua in 1952 in area A5 of the burial complex called Cemeteries 'ad Vibiam', a common name for 'three or four' smaller cemeteries on the via Appia. Now probably still in its find-spot. First published by Ferrua in 1971.


Discussion

Ferrua's restoration of the text is entirely hypothetical, based on similar formulas used in Christian epitaphs of the city of Rome. Even it is correct, it would be difficult to say whether the author of the epitaph meant that the deceased was buried ad sanctos, in a way that he would profit from this fact in the afterlife, or simply expressed a wish that the deceased would join the saints in heaven.

Bibliography

Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB1619, see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/1619

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. 15307.


Record Created By

Paweł Nowakowski

Date of Entry

06/03/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00060Martyrs, unnamed or name lostUncertain
S00518Saints, unnamedUncertain
S00518Saints, unnamedUncertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E05163 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E05163