THE MESSENGER

VOL. XXXVIII.

No. 2.

AUGUST, 1902.

PILGRIM-WALKS IN ROME.

V. To S. SISTO AND THE CATACOMBS OF St. CALLIXTUS ON THE APPIAN WAY.

(Continued.)

I. TO THE CATACOMBS.

OUR present pilgrimage is to the Catacombs, to those wonderful underground recesses, to which we were introduced by Cardinal Wiseman, when we first read his fascinating story "Fabiola." Under his guidance we groped our way through the dark labyrinthine passages, till we reached some wider space or crypt chapel, where we assisted at the assemblies of the faithful, or we watched Diogenes the excavator at work with his two sturdy sons, and listened to the old man's conversation with Pancratius about the martyrs he had known and whose tombs he had prepared. Long before actually visiting Rome, we had formed a fairly correct idea what the Catacombs are like.

What delightful impressions, what holy memories are recalled by the one word "Catacombs"! In these subterranean cemeteries the infant Church found shelter during the stormy centuries of persecution, when the tyrants, who swayed the destinies of Rome, resorted to every device of cruelty to stamp out the Christian name. In these rude, narrow hiding places a new Rome was being formed, a community of Christian heroes and saints trained in a novitiate of prayer, privation and the cross, while above ground the proud old city, godless, though filled with false gods, revelled in heathen licentiousness and was hastening to its doom. These dark caverns and dens of the earth were the homes of the martyrs and of their children, the homes of living martyrs and departed ones; of those preparing for the conflict and of those resting after the victory; of martyrs of the

Church militant and of the Church triumphant. They are the hallowed spots where St. Philip Neri, St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Charles Borromeo and other great Saints used to come and spend long hours in prayer. What multitudes of holy pilgrims, now rejoicing in the vision of God, have passed and repassed along the Appian Way from the Arch of Constantine to the cemeteries of St. Callixtus and St. Sebastian! The very stones on which we tread seem lustrous in the morning light from the touch of so many holy feet.

Leaving the Arch of Constantine, we follow the road in the direction of S. Gregorio, with the Palatine Hill and its ruined palaces of the Caesars on our right—pagan Rome once so glorious, now with all its glory lying in the dust.

In the acts of St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr, she suffered under Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 177, (1) we read that she disclosed to her young husband, Valerian, still a heathen, the secret of her virginity being specially consecrated to God, and being under the direct protection of an angel. Valerian expressed a wish to see this angel. Cecilia told him that he must first by Faith and the waters of Baptism be made a child of God, and that then his eyes would be unsealed and he would be permitted to behold her heavenly guardian. "There is an aged man," she said, "hiding in a certain place, who has power to cleanse men in the lustral water, and so make them worthy to see the angels."

Valerian inquired : "Where shall I find this old man?"

Cecilia replied, "Go as far as the third milestone on the Appian Way: there you will find some poor people, who beg alms of the passers by. I have always helped them, and they possess the secret. When you see them, salute them in my name, saying: "Cecilia has sent me to you, that you may lead me to the holy old man Urban, (2) for she has charged me with a secret mission to him. Relate to him what I have told you (about the angel), and when he has baptized you, he will clothe you with a new bright garment, arrayed in which, when you enter this room, you will see the holy angel." (See Acts in Surius, Nov. 22).

Valerian followed the Appian Way as directed, and at the third milestone, turning aside from the high road to an old sand pit, he

(1) Allard gives the above date. Alban Butler has A.D. 230.

(2) Not Pope St. Urban I, but another Bishop Urban, who was hiding in the Catacombs.

found some aged beggars and cripples lingering about: they were the Christian watchers, set there to guard the secret entrance of the Catacomb, and to give notice of any soldiers, spies, or suspicious persons coming that way. Valerian was richly dressed, and his haughty bearing betrayed the heathen, but on his giving the required salutation and password, they led him into the subterranean depths, where he was instructed and baptized by St. Urban.

The story of his martyrdom is reserved for our visit to the Church of S. Cecilia in Trastevere.

It is interesting to think that we are following in the footsteps of Valerian, and that our walk will take us to the very spot where he found St. Urban and the grace of Baptism.

II. THE ANCIENT PORTA CAPENA.

Leaving S. Gregorio on our left, we presently reach the site of the famous Porta Capena, where the Appian Way really began. This celebrated road, that runs from Rome south through Capua to Brundusium (Brindisi), was begun by the censor Appius Claudius, B. C. 312, and is about 350 miles in length, and from 14 to 18 feet in width. It is paved with hard stones in irregular blocks, closely fitted together, and resting on a firm substructure. It was so well made that a good part still exists after a lapse of 2214 years.

The site of the ancient city gate, Porta Capena, is determined by a fragment of the ancient walls visible in the wine-cellar of the Osteria della Porta Capena. Here is thought to have been the spot designated in the Acts of the Martyrs as the "Dripping Arch," (ad guttam jugiter manantem), so called from the water of an aqueduct that passed over the gate filtering through the masonry. (1)

By this very gate St. Paul entered Rome a prisoner under the charge of Julius, A. D. 61. The neighborhood was then populated chiefly by Jews, who lived in squalid tenements near the approaches to the Circus Maximus and along the classic stream of Egeria. Their number in Nero's reign is computed to have been twenty or thirty thousand. Then, as now, they attained considerable influence by usury, bribery, and other dark methods. But the poorer class among them were hucksters, petty tradesmen, marine store dealers, rag men, picking up bits of glass and old iron along the road and in the dust heaps of the city. (2)

(1) The Arch of Drusus is sometimes referred to as ad guttam aquæ for the

same reason.

(2) Allard, histoire des Persécutions I, p. 10.

At the Porta Capena Cicero was received in triumph by the senate and people of Rome upon his return from banishment, B. C. 57. Except the fragment above mentioned, no vestige of the gate remains.

III.-S. BALBINA, NEAR THE BATHS OF CARACALLA.-ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA'S LAST ILLNESS.

A side road near the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla leads to the ancient church of S. Balbina, of which mention is made in a Roman synod held by St. Gregory the Great in 594. The interior, destitute of ornament, has a cold, neglected look.

A beautiful urn under the high altar enshrines the remains of St. Balbina, virgin and martyr, and of her father St. Quirinus, martyr, who suffered in the persecution of Hadrian, A. D. 132. Quirinus held the distinguished office of Tribune. Part of St. Balbina's relics are at S. Maria in Dominica.

These martyrs will be again referred to when we speak of St. Peter's Chains.

The chief objects of interest are, (1) an ancient episcopal throne of marble inlaid with mosaics, that stands in the apse behind the high altar; (2) the tomb of Stefano Sordi, (de Surdis), papal chamberlain, by Giovanni Cosmati, A. D. 1300; (3) a bas-relief of the Crucifixion brought from old St. Peter's, and said to be the work of Mino da Fiesole.

Adjoining the church is an ugly modern building, used as a penitentiary.

Some time before his death St. Ignatius of Loyola bought a vineyard close to S. Balbina, for the purpose of giving country air to the novices, scholastics, and students of the Collegio Germanico. They came once a week on separate days, and sometimes oftener.

In July, 1556, Rome was in a state of panic at the approach of the Duke of Alba, the people fearing the city would be taken and sacked. The Saint, who was seriously ill at the time, retired from the din of arms to the peaceful solitude of S. Balbina. The summer heats were excessive that year, and he became worse. After two or three days of fever, feeling that his end was approaching, he caused himself to be carried back to his home at S. Maria della Strada, where he died on July 31st.

The door of the chapel of S. Balbina, where the Saint often prayed, is preserved near St. Stanislaus' room at S. Andrea in Quirinale