top of page

Day 4

Monday, April 8

Today, we had a bus drive us outside of the city to St. Paul's Outside the Walls, and the Catacombs. Whenever we visit the catacombs, we eat a packed lunch in the gardens outside of the Catacombs of Domitilla. This is one of the favorite stops of the students. After we visited the Catacombs of Domitilla, the bus drove us back into the city to the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem where it dropped us off for the day. 

​

Once we were back in the city we continued on foot to the rest of the destinations listed on the map below.

1. Basilica of Saint Paul Outside The Walls

Alleluia sung by the Immaculate Conception Academy High School boys choir.

In erecting the basilica, the Apostle's tomb was left undisturbed, and the new building was so constructed that the tomb should be in the center of the apse. The edifice was much smaller than St. Peter's, for the reason that it faced the east, and the Ostian Way, which ran close by, prevented its extension in that direction; but it rivaled St. Peter's in richness and splendor.


The chancel arch and the vault of the apse glowed with rich mosaics; and in ornaments of gold, silver, and bronze the Emperor Constantine wished it to be not inferior to St. Peter's. The Liber Pontificalis says that he enclosed the body of the Apostle in a bronze sarcophagus, and over it he placed a cross of solid gold, weighing 150 pounds, like the one he had laid on St. Peter's tomb.

​

The interior, as seen from the western door, is magnificent, more impressive, in some ways, than St. Peter's. We seem to be gazing at a very forest of gigantic granite columns, each formed out of a single block. The wonder is how they were quarried and how conveyed to their present site. The roof is of carved woodwork, coffered and richly gilt. The two colossal statues of the Princes of the Apostles are by Giacometti and Revelli. (Pilgrim Walks in Rome)

2. Catacombs of Saint Sebastian

St. Sebastian's is full of interest and has been a place of pilgrimage since the third century. It was venerated long before the Saint's martyrdom (A.D. 288), because of its having been the temporary resting place of the bodies of SS. Peter and Paul, which were hidden in a dry well where now is the chapel known as Platonia, behind the apse of the present church.

​

A few facts about the Catacombs:

  • The underground catacombs were commenced in times of persecution after the first century. They were called after the names of the persons in whose properties they existed, the catacombs of Domitilla, Cyriaca, Priscilla, Prætextatus, &c.

  • Catacombs could not be excavated in every soil; the presence of veins or beds of soft volcanic stone or granular tufa was a necessary condition of their existence.

  • The aggregate length of the galleries of the catacombs hitherto discovered is said to be 866 kilometers, i.e., 587 geographical miles. These galleries occupy different levels, reach down to three, four, and even five rows, and are ventilated by air shafts.

  • They resemble the narrow shafts of a mine shooting out horizontally, so narrow and low, that you can easily touch the ceiling and the walls on either side with your hands as you walk along. To the right and left are loculi or berth-like recesses, wherein the bodies of the dead were placed, each occupying its own cavity, shut in by marble slabs or jointed tiles.

  • In the case of a martyr, a cup or glass vial, containing some of the blood he had shed for the faith, was frequently placed near his head, and on the slab enclosing the remains was sculptured either the outline of a palm branch, or the word MARTYR, in full or in its abbreviated form M. Sometimes sponges, or sediment tinged with their blood are found in the graves of martyrs, as also the very instruments of their torture. (Pilgrim Walks in Rome)

3. Catacombs of Domitilla

Domitilla Catacomb, one among the largest catacombs in Rome, is spread out into about 17 kilometers with galleries laid out on four levels, with a total of  around 15,0000 bodies buried underground.

 

The Catacomb extends largely along the ancient  Via Ardeatina, part of the properties of Noble Flavia Domitilla who was the niece of Noble Flavio Clement. As part of the ancient history, Flavio Clement had a great sympathy for the Christians of that time which forced Emperor Domitian to condemn him to death in exile for religious antagonism along with his wife and niece Domitilla. Nevertheless, before they were forced into exile, Domitilla generously donated her properties in Via Adreatina to the Christians for burying their dead, which eventually became the largest underground cemetery in Rome. (Source: catacombedomitilla.it)

​