Valeria, the Martyr of the Catacombs: A Tale of Early Christian Life in Rome

by W. H. Withrow

  CHAPTER XXVII.

  THE MARTYRS BURIED.

  Darker and darker grew the shadows of night over the great empty anddesolate amphitheatre, but a few hours before clamorous with the shoutsand din of the tumultuous mob. The silence seemed preternatural, and asolemn awfulness seemed to invest the shrouded forms which lay upon thesand. By a merciful provision of the Roman law, it made not war upon thedead, and the bodies even of criminals were given up to their friends,if they had any, that they might not be deprived of funeral rites.Having wreaked his cruel rage upon the living body, the paganmagistrate at least did not deny the privilege of burial to themartyrs' mutilated remains. It was esteemed by the primitive believersas much an honour as a duty, to ensepulchre with Christian rites theremains of the sacred dead.[52]

  Faustus, the faithful freedman of Adauctus, Hilarus, the fossor, and theservants of the Christian matron, Marcella, came at the fall of night tobear away the bodies of the martyrs to their final resting-place in thesilent Catacomb. The service was not devoid of danger, for vileinformers prowled around seeking to discover and betray whomsoever wouldpay the rites of sepulture to the remains of the Christian martyrs. Butthere are golden keys which will unlock any doors and seal any lips, andMarcella spared not her wealth in this sacred service.

  On the present occasion, too, special facility was given for carryingout this pious purpose. Through the influence of the Empress Valeria,Hilarus, the fossor, was enabled to show to the chief custodian of theamphitheatre an authorization under the hand of Galerius for removingthe bodies of the "criminals who had paid the penalty of the law"--soran the rescript.

  Beneath the cliff-like shadow of the Coliseum gathered this littleChristian company. The iron gates opened their ponderous jaws. By thefitful flare of a torch weirdly lighting up the vaulted arches, withgentle and reverent hands, as though the cold clay could still feeltheir lightest touch, the bodies of the dead were laid upon the biers.Through the silent streets, devout men in silence bore the martyrs totheir burial. Through the Porta Capena, which opened to the magic spellof the Emperor's order; through the silent "Street of Tombs," stilllined with the monuments of Rome's mighty dead, wended slowly the solemnprocession. There was no wailing of the pagan _n[ae]nia_ or funeral dirge,neither was there the chanting of the Christian hymn. But in silence, orwith only whispered utterance, they reached the door of the privategrounds of the Villa Marcella.

  First the bodies were borne to the villa, where, by loving hands, thestains of dust and blood were washed away. Then, robed in white andbestrewn with flowers, they were placed on the biers in the marbleatriun. Again the good presbyter Primitius read the words of life as atthe burial of Lucius, the martyr,[53] and vows and prayers were offeredup to God.

  While this solemn service was in progress, a lady, deeply-veiled, wasseen to be agitated by violent grief. Convulsive sobs shook her frame,and her tears fell fast. When the forms of the martyrs were uncovered,that their friends might take their last farewell, the Empress Valeria,for it was she, flung herself on her knees beside the body of the lateslave maiden, and rained tears of deep emotion on her face. More lovelyin death than in life, the fine-cut features seemed like the mostexquisite work of the sculptor carved in translucent alabaster. A crownof asphodel blossoms the emblems of immortality--encircled her brow, anda palm branch--the symbol of the martyr's victory--was placed upon herbreast.

  "Give her an honoured place among the holy dead," said the Empress, amidher sobs, to the venerable Primitius.

  "I have given orders," said the Lady Marcella, "that she, with herfather and brother, shall sleep side by side in the chamber prepared asthe last resting-place for my own family. We shall count it a preciousprivilege, in God's own good time, to be laid to rest near the dust ofHis holy confessors and martyrs."

  "Aurelius shall share the tomb," said Hilarus, the fossor, "which hemade for himself while yet alive, beside his noble wife, AureliaTheudosia."

  "Be it mine to honour with a memorial tablet the remains of my goodmaster Adauctus," said Faustus, the freedman, with deep emotion.[54]

  "It shall be my privilege," said the Empress, "to provide for my belovedhandmaiden, as a mark of the great love I bore her, a memorial of hersaintly virtues; and let her bear my name in death as in life, so thatthose who read her epitaph may know she was the freedwoman and friend ofan unhappy Empress."

  The Empress Valeria now retired, and with her trusty escort, returnedto the city.

  With psalms and hymns, and the solemn chanting of such versicles as:_"Convertere anima mea, in requiem tuam"_--"Return unto thy rest, O mysoul;" and _"Si ambulavero in medio umbr[ae] mortis, non timebomala"_--"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Ishall fear no evil," the funeral procession wound its way, by gleamingtorchlight, through the cypress glades of the garden to the entrance ofthe Catacomb of Callixtus. Here additional torches and tapers werelighted, and carefully the sacred burdens were carried down the long andnarrow stair, and through the intricate passages to the family vault ofthe Lady Marcella.

  SUBTERRANEAN ORATORY, CATACOMB OF CALLIXTUS.]

  This vault was one of unusual size and loftiness, and had beenespecially prepared for holding religious service during the outbreak ofpersecution. Marcella held the office of deaconess in the ChristianChurch, and when even the privacy of her own house was not a sufficientsafeguard against the prying of pagan spies, she was wont to retire tothe deeper seclusion of this subterranean place of prayer. On each sideof the door were seats hewn in the solid rock, one for the deaconess,the other for the female catechist who shared her pious labours. Aroundthe wall was a low stone seat for the female catechumens, for the mostpart members of her own household, who here received religiousinstruction. The accompanying engraving indicates the appearance of thisancient oratory or class-room, its main features unchanged, although thelapse of centuries has somewhat marred its structure and defaced itsbeauty.

  With solemn rites and prayers the remains of the martyrs were consignedto their last long resting-place. Amid the sobs and tears of themourners, the good presbyter Primitius paid a loving tribute to theirholy lives and heroic death--all the more thrilling because theythemselves stood in jeopardy every hour. In the presence of the martyreddead the venerable pastor then broke the bread and poured the wine ofthe Last Supper of the Lord, and the little company of worshippersseemed united in still closer fellowship with those who now kept thesacred feast in the kingdom of their common Father and God.

  Before they left the chamber, Hilarus, after he had hermetically sealedthe tombs of Demetrius and Ezra, his son, cemented with plaster a marbleslab against the opening of that on which was laid--rude couch for formso fair--the body of the chief subject of our "ower true tale." As itwas designed to be but a temporary memorial of the virgin martyr, untilthe costly epitaph which the Empress was to provide should be ready, hetook the little pot of pigment which he had brought for the purpose, andwith his brush in, scribed the brief sentence:--

  VALERIA DORMIT IN PACE.ANIMA DULCIS, INNOCVA, SAPIENS ET PVLCHP IN XRO.QVI VIXIT ANNOS XVIII. EN. V. DIES X.

  "Valeria sleeps in peace. A sweet spirit guileless, wise, beautiful inChrist. She lived eighteen years, five months, ten days."

  "VALERIA SLEEPS IN PEACE."]

  Alas! the time never came when that costly memorial should be reared.The violence of persecution soon drove the Empress herself an exile fromher home, and when the storm rolled away there was none left to carryout her pious wish. Through the long centuries that humble epitaph wasall the memorial of one of the noblest, sweetest, bravest souls thatever lived. And even that rude slab was not destined always to cover herremains. After the re-discovery of the Catacombs in the sixteenthcentury, many of their tombs were pillaged for relics, or in the vainsearch for treasure. By some ruthless rifler of the grave this veryslab was shivered, and the lower part of the epitaph destroyed; andthere upon its rocky bed, on which it had reposed for well-nigh fifteenhundred years, lay in mouldering dust the remains of the m
aiden martyr,Valeria Callirho[e:]. Verily _Pulvis et umbra sumus_!

  Primitius and Hilarus, with the little company of devout men who borethe martyrs to their burial, now proceeded to the entombment, in aneighbouring crypt, of the bodies of Adauctus and Aurelius. As theyadvanced through the dark corridors, but dimly lighted by their tapers'feeble rays, the silence of that under-world seemed almost appalling.Black shadows crouched around, and their footsteps echoed strangely downthe distant passages, dying gradually away in this vast valley of theshadow of death. Almost in silence their sacred task was completed, andthey softly sang a funeral hymn before they turned to leave theirmartyred brethren to their last long sleep.

  Suddenly there was heard the tumultuous "tramp, tramp," as of armed men.Then the clang of iron mail and bronze cuirass resounded through thevaulted corridors. The glare of torches was seen at the end of a longarched passage, and the sharp, swift word of military command rang outstern and clear.

  "Forward! Seize the caitiffs! Let not one escape! Slay if they resist!"and a rush was made to the chamber where the notes of the Christianpsalm had but now died away.

  "Out with your lights!" exclaimed, in a muffled tone, Hilarus, thefossor. "Follow me as closely and as quietly as you can. Good FatherPrimitius, your arm. By God's help we will disappoint those hunters ofmen of their anticipated prey."

  "Or join our brethren in martyrdom, as is His will," devoutly addedPrimitius. "He doeth all things well."

  But we must go back a little to learn the cause and means of this armedinvasion of the Catacombs.

  FOOTNOTES:

  [52] See Eusebius, Hist. Eccl, vii., 16 and 22. Eutychianus, a RomanChristian, is recorded to have buried three hundred and forty-twomartyrs with his own hands.

  [53] See Chapter VI.

  [54] Through the long lapse of ages this memorial has been preserved,and may still be read in Grater's great collection of ancientinscriptions. It is also referred to in Gibbon. In the epitaph occur thefollowing fine lines:

  INTEMERATA FIDE CONTEMPTO PRINCIPE MVNDI CONFESSVS XRM CAELESTIA REGNAPETISTI.

  "With unfaltering faith, despising the lord of the world, havingconfessed Christ, thou dost seek the celestial realms."