The Christian Catacombs of Rome - The Pope's Speeches concerning the Catacombs

THE POPE'S SPEECHES CONCERNING THE CATACOMBS

Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology
Catacombs are school of faith and love

POPE JOHN PAUL II TO THE PONTIFICAL COMMISSION FOR SACRED ARCHAEOLOGY

On Friday, 7 June 1996, the Holy Father received in audience the members of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, with the directors of the five catacombs open in Rome and delivered the following speech, which was given in Italian.He stressed the historical and spiritual significance of the Catacombs, as "a favourite place of prayer and pilgrimage, as a necessary destination for Holy Year pilgrims".

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

1. I address my cordial greetings to you all, directors, members and experts of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, who with the directors of the five catacombs open in Rome, have wished to pay me this visit today.

I thank the Archbishop Francesco Marchisano, President of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, for his words just now spoken to me on your behalf. I express to you all for the work you carry out with dedication, conscious of the important historical and spiritual significance of the monuments in your care.

I congratulate you on the work undertaken by the Pontifical Commission to which you belong, to safeguard, restore and study the Christian catacombs of the Mediterranean basin. Its most conspicuous efforts concern Italy and especially Rome and its vicinity. To realise how deserving your activities are, one needs only think of the five Roman catacombs of St. Callixtus, St. Sebastian, St. Domitilla, St. Priscilla and St. Agnes, which are currently open to the public and are the significant destination of so may pilgrims who come to the Eternal City.

2. By visiting these monuments, one comes into contact with the evocative traces of the early Christianity and one can, so to speak, tangibly sense the faith that motivated those ancient Christian communities. Walking through the underground passages of the catacombs, one frequently glimpses many signs of the iconography of faith: the fish, a symbol of Christ; the anchor, an image of hope; the dove, which represents the believing soul and, next to the names on the tombs, often one sees the greeting: "In Christo".

They are also testimonies of the spiritual zeal that motivated the first Christian generations. By entering that world, today's Christians can draw beneficial encouragement for their life and for a more effective commitment to the new evangelization.

How can we fail to be moved by the humble but eloquent traces of these first witnesses to the faith? How can we fail to be edified, for example, before the tomb of the young on the via Nomentana or that of the deacon Lawrence in the catacombs of Verano?

From the very beginning of Christianity, my predecessors have cared for the catacombs. Pope St Zephyrinus was the first to create one on the Appian Way for the Roman community, entrusting it to the care of the deacon Callixtus, who, when he became Pope, linked his name to what became the largest network of the catacombs in Rome.

During his pontificate, Pope St. Damasus sought out the tombs of the martyrs in order to embellish them, and he composed splendid metrical epigraphs for them, praising the deeds of those ardent Gospel witnesses.

Even when, following the barbarian invasions, the catacombs had to be left in a state of neglect, some of them continued to be places of pilgrimage. During the early Middle Ages, the areas where the martyrs' tombs were preserved became places of devotion for pilgrims from Italy, Europe and the Mediterranean basin.

3. The catacombs were rediscovered as a subject for study and spiritual reflection towards the end of the 16th century, when a group of scholars formed an active cultural circle around the great personality of St. Philip Neri. The "Christopher Columbus of the Roman catacombs", as he was called, was the Maltese archaeologist Antonio Bosio, who identified at least 30 of the 6o Christians burial places in the city.

Since then, interest in the catacombs has never been lacking and reached the apex towards the middle of the 19th century, when due to the fortunate meeting of two great personalities, Pope Pius IX and the Roman Archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi, Christian Archaeology came into being as a historical and scientific discipline, as did the Commission for Sacred Archaeology, established on 6 January 1852 for the more effective safeguarding and protection of the Christian cemeteries and ancient buildings of Rome and its suburbs, and for their more systematic excavation and exploration.

The results brought encouragement to the generous efforts. Pope Pius IX, impressed by the important discoveries made by the Rossi at the time in the Callixtus complex - where the cubicle which houses the tombs of many of the third-century Popes was found - personally desired to visit the excavations and, pausing to pray before the sacred tombs, was moved to tears.

It was Pope Pius XI who with a Motu Proprio in 1925 defined the responsibilities of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology. Its activity concerning the catacombs was later spelled out in norms suitably agreed upon with the Italian authorities ( cf. AAS, Inter Sanctam Sedem et Italian Conventiones, 18 Feb., 15 Nov. 1984, Vatican City 1985, art.12, 2).

4. Today attention is focused on the historic event of the Great Jubilee, when the Roman Catacombs will again become a favourite place of prayer and pilgrimage. As they pass through the corridors of these sacred places, visitors will be able to feel the atmosphere of the first conversions to the Gospel: they will be able to recollect before the tombs of the first witnesses to Christ and his message of salvation.

So that this may be fully achieved, you have already begun the work in collaboration with other institutions, such as the Municipality of Rome and the Archaeological Inspectorate, in complete harmony with the projects and activity of the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.

Together with the great Roman basilicas, the catacombs should be a necessary destination for Holy Year pilgrims. I am grateful to your Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, which is briskly working to achieve this. In particular, it is doing all it can to make new catacombs and other monuments accessible. I willingly take the opportunity to express my keen appreciation to those in charge and to the members of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, as well as to the directors of Rome's catacombs, with a special thought for the experts, the "excavators", who are carrying out their delicate work with skill and dedication.

I express my gratitude to all. Thank you for your efforts and for the professional contribution you are making to evangelization with your activities.

I entrust you and your work to the maternal protection of Mary, Queen of Martyrs, as I cordially impart a special Apostolic Blessing to each of you and your families.

From: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO, weekly edition in English, 19 June 1996, p.7 (our boldface).

CATACOMBS ARE SCHOOL OF FAITH AND LOVE

On Friday, 16 January 1998, the Holy Father met the members, officials and staff of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, who were holding their plenary assembly. The Pope commended them on their work of restoring many Christian catacombs in Rome and on their efforts to make these sites more accessible to pilgrims during the Holy Year. Here is a translation of his address, which was given in Italian.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. I am pleased to meet you on the occasion of the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology. I cordially greet each one of you and, in particular, I thank Archbishop Francesco Marchisano for conveying your sentiments and presenting the important object of your work: the Christian catacombs and the Holy Year.
I wish first of all to express my appreciation and gratitude for the important service you are performing, which has become even more intense in view of the Jubilee. I am referring both to archaeological discoveries and restorations, as well as to the projects directly planned for the Holy Year. The catacombs, as has frequently been emphasized, assume great importance in connection with the Jubilee of the Year 2000.

2. You have been involved for many years in restoring and preparing many Christian catacombs scattered throughout Italy. Your work specifically involves the Roman catacombs which are open to the public, those of St Callistus, St Sebastian, Domitilla, Priscilla and St Agnes, where work has been or is about to be carried out in order to facilitate the flow of pilgrims. Furthermore, in order to increase the number of cemeteries open to visitors, steps are being taken to open a sixth catacomb, that of Sts Peter and Marcellinus on Via Casilina.
Your attention is appropriately focused on the pastoral benefits of these famous monuments of Christian antiquity. To this end, pilgrims' guidebooks are being suitably prepared. Indeed, when visits are accompanied by detailed and up-to-date explanations of an educational, scientific and spiritual nature, they become a very effective form of catechesis which can inspire deep reflection on the Gospel message. This return to our origins through the most ancient cemeteries conceived by the first Christians fits in perfectly with the project of the "new evangelization", which involves the whole Church in her journey towards the third millennium.

3. While the catacombs depict the eloquent features of Christian life in the first centuries, they are also a perennial school of faith, hope and charity.
Walking through their tunnels, we breathe an evocative and moving atmosphere. Our gaze pauses on the innumerable series of tombs and on the simplicity they have in common. On the tombs we read the baptismal names of the deceased. As we run through those names, we seem to hear as many voices answering an eschatological call, and we remember the words of Lactantius: "There are neither servants nor masters among us; there is no reason for us to call ourselves brothers, except that we consider ourselves all equals" (Divinae Instit., 5: 15).
The catacombs express the solidarity that united brothers and sisters in the faith: the offerings of each one permitted the burial of all the deceased, even the poorest who could not afford the expense of purchasing and preparing a tomb. This collective charity was one of the strong points of the early Christian communities and shielded them from the temptation to return to the ancient forms of religion.

4. Therefore, the catacombs suggest to the pilgrim this feeling of solidarity, which is indissolubly linked to faith and hope. The very definition of coemeteria, "dormitories", explains how the catacombs were regarded as proper places of rest for the community, where all Christian brethren, regardless of their rank or profession, reposed in a broad embrace of solidarity, awaiting the final resurrection. Consequently, these were not sad places, but were adorned with frescoes, mosaics and sculptures, as if to brighten the dark and winding passages and, with images of flowers, birds and trees, to anticipate the vision of paradise expected at the end of time. The significant formula "in peace", which recurs on Christian tombs, summarizes their hope as well.
The symbols on the slabs covering the tombs are as simple as they are rich in meaning. The anchor, the ship, the fish express the steadfastness of faith in Christ. The Christian's life is seen as a voyage across a stormy sea to the longed-for haven of eternity. The fish is identified with Christ and alludes to the sacrament of Baptism, according to Tertullian, who compares the faithful to pisciculi, who gain salvation by being born in water and remaining there (De baptismo, 1:3).

5. The catacombs also preserve the tombs of the first martyrs, witnesses of a clear and most steadfast faith, which led them as "athletes of God" to triumph over the supreme trial. Many tombs of the martyrs are still preserved within the catacombs and generations of the faithful have paused in prayer before them. Pilgrims coming for the Jubilee of the Year 2000 will also visit the tombs of the martyrs and, raising their prayers to these ancient champions of the faith, they will turn their thoughts to the "new martyrs", to the Christians who in the recent past and even in our time are subjected to violence, abuse and misunderstanding, because they wish to remain faithful to Christ and to his Gospel.
In the silence of the catacombs, the pilgrim of the Year 2000 can rediscover or revive his religious identity on a sort of spiritual journey that, by starting from the first testimonies of the faith, brings him to the reasons for the new evangelization and to its demands.
Dear friends, may the awareness of these values which I have just mentioned, but which are well-known to you, sustain you in your particular ecclesial and cultural service. To this end, as I invoke on you the loving assistance of Mary most holy, I impart to all a special Apostolic Blessing, which I also extend to your loved ones.

From: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO