Greek graffito invoking the intercession, on behalf of two monks, of *Helena (empress and mother of Constantine, ob. 328, S00185), and of unnamed martyrs, almost certainly those buried in the cemetery Ad Sanctos Marcellinum et Petrum /inter duas lauros, via Labicana, Rome, where the graffito was found. Probably late 7th - early 8th c.
Evidence ID
E05252
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Graffiti
Archaeological and architectural - Internal cult fixtures (crypts, ciboria, etc.)
ὁ θεὼς τῇ πρεσβήᾳ
τῶν ἁγ<ί>ον μαρτύρον καὶ τῆς
ἁγήας Ἑλένης σόσων
τούς σου δούλους
᾿Ιωάννη (καὶ) Θ(ω)μᾶ
μον(αχοὺς) τῆς ἁγ<ί>ας
[- - -]
[5. S = (καὶ), omitted Marucchi || 6. ΜΟΝS ΤΗC ΑΓΑC = μον(αχοὺς) τῆς ἁγ<ί>ας or μον(αχοὺς) <καὶ> τῆς ἁγ<ί>ας Ferrua, ΜΟΝΤΗΟΠΑC Marucchi]
'O God, through the intercession of the holy martyrs, and of Saint Helena, save your servants, Ioannes and Thomas, monks of Saint [- - -]!'
Text: ICVR, n.s., VI, no. 15965 = EDB5452.
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Places Named after SaintPrayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - cemetery/catacomb
Cult building - monastic
Places Named after SaintMonastery
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Pilgrimage
Visiting graves and shrines
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Source
The graffito was executed with a stylus on the plaster of the wall of an apsed crypt in region X of the cemetery Ad Marcellinum et Petrum /inter duas lauros. Letter height 3-4 cm.Only the first five lines, as the rest of the text is scarcely legible, were published by Pietro Crostarosa in 1897 from a transcription by Orazio Marucchi. Published in extenso, and with a photograph, by Orazio Marucchi in 1898. An improved reading of the last lines was offered by Antonio Ferrua in 1975.
Discussion
Greek graffiti, although not scarce, form a minor part of the texts executed by visitors on the walls of this sector of the cemetery of Marcellinus and Peter. The present graffito is one of the most complex invocations we find among them. It also adopts a much more elaborate form than the Latin texts.The two supplicants, the monks Ioannes and Thomas, probably from a convent named after a female saint, invoked unnamed martyrs, and Saint Helena. The unnamed martyrs are almost certainly Marcellinus and Petrus who were probably venerated in this apsed crypt/chapel, and who were invoked by name by other visitors (see E05251). It is, however, possible, as already rightly observed by Orazio Marucchi, that all the martyrs buried in the cemetery may be invoked here. A description of saintly burials in this cemetery is given, for example, by the 7th c. Notitia ecclesiarum Urbis Romae (E00680), which enumerates the martyr Tiburtius (S01404), the martyr Gorgonius (S00576), the Four Crowned Martyrs (S00685), and the puzzling *Thirty Martyrs of Rome (S00586), and *Forty Martyrs of Rome (S00540). Gorgonius and Tiburtius also appear in a painting in one of the cubicula of the same cemetery (E05246), whilst at least one of the Four Crowned Martyrs, Clemens, was also invoked by visitors (E05236).
The most interesting element of the invocation is, however, the invocation of Helena, certainly the mother of the emperor Constantine, addressed as a saint (hagia). Her impressive mausoleum was built by Constantine at ground-level, over the cemetery, and she is mentioned as a saint together with the martyrs, for example by the Notitia ecclesiarum (E00680), and other early medieval itineraries.
Dating: Carlo Carletti (in EDB) dates the graffito to the late 7th or early 8th c.
Bibliography
Edition:Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB5452. See http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/5452
De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.), Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 6: Coemeteria viis Latina, Labicana et Praenestina (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1975), no. 15965.
Marucchi, O., Le catacombe romane (Rome: Desclée, Lefebvre E.C., 1905, 2nd ed.), 266.
Marucchi, O., Epigrafia cristiana. Trattato elementare con una silloge di antiche iscrizioni cristiane principalmente di Roma (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1910), 434, no. 463.
Marucchi, O., "La cripta storica dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino recentemente scoperta sulla via labicana", Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana 4 (1898), 163, Tav. XIV.
Marucchi, O., in: P. Crostarosa, "Catacombe romane: Scavi dell' ultimo triennio", Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana 3 (1897), 124.
Images
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From: Marucchi 1898, Tav. XIV.
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Plan of this sector of the catacombs with the location of our graffito marked by number 2. From: Marucchi 1905, 268.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
24/03/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | οἱ ἅγιοι μάρτυρες | Certain | S00103 | Forty Martyrs of Sebaste | οἱ ἅγιοι μάρτυρες | Uncertain | S00185 | Helena, empress and mother of Constantine, ob. 328 | ἡ ἁγία Ἑλένη | Certain | S00540 | Forty soldiers and martyrs of Rome, buried on the via Labicana | οἱ ἅγιοι μάρτυρες | Uncertain | S00576 | Gorgonius, martyr of Rome, buried on the via Labicana | οἱ ἅγιοι μάρτυρες | Uncertain | S00577 | Marcellinus and Petrus, priest and exorcist, martyrs of Rome, buried on the via Labicana | οἱ ἅγιοι μάρτυρες | Uncertain | S00586 | Thirty Martyrs of Rome, buried on the via Labicana | οἱ ἅγιοι μάρτυρες | Uncertain | S01404 | Tiburtius, son of the prefect Chromatius, martyr of Rome, buried on the via Labicana | οἱ ἅγιοι μάρτυρες | Uncertain | S01744 | Saints, name lost or very partially preserved | 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, E05252 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E05252