THE AREA CALLED ST. MILTIADES
Through an opening in the back wall of Cubicle A1 we arrive at the Region of Saint Miltiades. It was excavated in the second half of the 2nd C. and contains many crypts and arcosolia.
Gallery P1 is rather wide. It was constantly used for the visits to the martyrs'
tombs, because it was the route that the ancient pilgrims had to take from the
Crypts of the Popes and of St.Cecilia in order to get to the tomb of the martyred
pope St.Cornelius, in the area of the Crypts of Lucina. On the left wall, at
the beginning of the gallery, we can see some symbols: the dove, two
monograms, the fish, the anchor, the little bird that refreshes itself at a
vessel.
In the corner of the gallery which begins on the left, are two inscriptions
concerning priests: "Julianus · Presbyter (Julian, priest)
and "Presbyter · In pace"(Priest, in the peace of the
Lord).
Immediately after a crossing with a wide light-shaft, high up on the right is
an impressive carving: a phoenix with rays and an aureole surrounding
its head. As explained before, in the section of symbols, the phoenix represented
for the early Christians the resurrection of the flesh and the birth to the
new Christian life.
Let us have a look at the first arcosolium. Above it there is
the beautiful little marble-slab of Irene, a dead girl represented as
"orante", in the peace of heaven. Beside her is the symbol par excellence
of peace, the dove.
A little farther on, on the left, there is the Crypt of the Refrigerium.Originally
it was used for liturgical assemblies and for the rites of refrigerium
( the usual family annual commemoration). Inside the crypt is kept the lid of
a huge sarcophagus. Due to its cuspidate shape, similar to an enormous roofing-tile,
this room, at the time of de Rossi, was called the "Cripta del coppo".
The little room opposite St. Miltiades' Crypt is called the "Crypt of the Four Seasons",which are a symbol of the continuity of life.
At the end of the Gallery P1, just before a gate, there are two cubicles: on the left, the Cubicle of Aquilina, with the inscription "Aquilina dormit in pace (Aquilina sleeps in peace). On the right there is the cubicle of Sofronia, so called because the name of that woman appears in some graffiti: two of them on the left of the back wall in the cubicle, and two more in a wall close to the Crypt of the Popes. Probably this is the story: a Christian, deeply saddened by the loss of a dear person, perhaps his wife, went down one day into the catacombs in search of comfort. At the bottom of the stairs, he wrote a prayer on the wall: "O Sophronia, may you live with your dear ones". Then he repeated the name, sure that the dead woman continued to live in God: " Sophronia (lives) in the Lord".
Reaching this cubicle he felt the need to write: "O sweet Sophonia, you will live forever in God" and underneath: "Yes, Sophronia, you will always live...". A beautiful testimony of marriage love and of faith in the resurrection.
Leaving Gallery P1 and turning to the left through a short gallery, Gallery W2 is reached. Almost at the beginning of it, on the right, the "Crypt of Oceanus" is to be seen. It is so called after the mythical personification of the sea painted on the vault. It is modest in size, decorated with strongly marked red bands.
Going a little way along this gallery, Gallery Q1 is met. It is a decumanus, or main gallery 160 metres long, from which the side-galleries, called cardines, branch out. A few metres from the exit stairway, we find the "Cubicles of the Sarcophagi" with two sarcophagi, which on the upper side are closed by a glass and which contain few mortal remains.
At this point, the normal tourist route to the Catacombs of St. Callixtus comes to an end.
