CHAPTER VI.

The Witness of the Monuments to the Communion of Saints.

As we wander through the halls of the Museum of Christian Antiquities, which now occupies the ancient Palace of the Lateran, and see the walls covered with inscriptions which have been brought thither from the various catacombs by which Rome is surrounded, or, still more, if we obtain the services of a guide and descend ourselves to those long and dreary passages excavated by the earliest Christians in the tufa rock, we can hardly fail to be struck with the wealth of evidence around us. These stones were never meant to play their parts in any controversy of doctrine; they were not intended to be brought into any kind of prominence, or even to be read by any eyes other than those of the immediate friends and acquaintances of the deceased person who is commemorated, and precisely for this reason they afford the most vivid and satisfying evidence that is possible to imagine as to the beliefs and practice in those early ages on the subject of the Communion of Saints. These men who cut these touching epitaphs on the stones that closed in the mortal remains of their dear ones, were not men who sorrowed without hope. They knew that those whom they thus laid to rest in peace-the word itself has additional pathos when we realize the

state of persecution and fear in which the survivors were still living-were not lost to them, but had only gone before to that place of rest where all in turn hoped to be permitted to follow them. They made no picture of a state of mere sleep and unconsciousness, uninterrupted until the day of judgment, such as some later Christians have taught is the fate of those who die in the Lord, but thought of their dead as living more truly than before, and praying for those whom they had left behind, but still held in loving remembrance.

Prayer for the Dead.

We should hardly expect to find in a cemetery such as are the catacombs any clear statement of belief in the pains of purgatory. There can be no doubt as to the belief of modern Catholics on that subject, and yet a visit to a Catholic cemetery of the present time, and a study of the epitaphs inscribed on the graves will hardly supply us even with an allusion to the subject. The thoughts of the living with regard to the dead express themselves in two ways. They realize that the dead have need of their prayers, and so they arrange for Masses to be said and prayers to be offered on their behalf. But they remember also that although for a time suffering may be needed by the souls of the dead in order that they may thus attain to greater happiness, yet those souls are already "in peace," that the trial is over and the goal attained, and that, therefore, words of joy and of hope are most appropriate upon their last resting-places.

Bearing this in mind and remembering always that we should apply to these memorials of the dead just the same canons of interpretation that we should to similar inscriptions in a modern graveyard, we go on to examine what the catacombs have to teach us.

We find, first, a formula which, especially in the later graves, has become almost universal. It is the formula IN PACE, which meets us everywhere, so that it is no exaggeration to say that we can appeal to instances which can be counted by the thousand. Like the corresponding formula which has taken its place in more modern times, the three letters R.I.P., it is essentially a prayer, although the actual petition is not formally expressed. It is an aspiration, an ex

(From Marucchi's "I Monumenti del Museo Cristiano Pio-Lateran ense" (Hoepli,

Milan).)

pression of desire that it may be so with the departed soul, as well as an expression of conviction that this really is the case. The words are really of Jewish origin, and have been taken over from the Jews by Christians to express the condition of those who die in Christ. Here are a few examples, from the earliest cemeteries:

ΦΙΛΟΥΜΕΝΗ ΕΝ ΕΙΡΕΝΗ ΣΟΥ ΤΟ ΠΝΕΥΜΑ

Philumena, may thy soul be in peace.

MAXIMIANVS SATVRNINA DORMIT IN PACA

Maximianus Saturnina, sleeps in peace.

BENEMERENTI IN PACE LIBERA QVE BIXIT A. XI.

NEOFITA.

To Libera well-deserving in peace, who lived 11 years. A Neophyte.

POPTOYNATOYC EYMEN ... KOIOTEI IN PAKE Fortunatus Eumenes lies here in peace.

ARCESSITVS AB ANGELIS QVI VIXIT

ANN. XXII. MESIS VIII. DIEB. VIII. IN PACE.

Fetched by the angels, who

lived 22 years 8 months

8 days.

In peace.

Thus we

Very often the formula is abbreviated.

meet sometimes with such forms as these: IN P.-IN PC,—I P,—Ε Ι (ἐν εἰρήνῃ)—ΕΝ ΕΙΡ.

The instances already quoted are for the most part mere statements, into which the prayer, if it exists at all, has to be read. Here are some of a more definite kind:

ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΣΟΥ ΤΗ ΨΥΧΗ ΖΩΣΙΜΗ

Peace be to thy soul, Zosima,

ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΤΕ ΦΟΡΤΥΝΑΤΕ ΘΥΓΑΤΡΙ ΓΛΥΚΤΑΤΗ and peace be to Fortunata, my sweetest daughter.

HILARIS VIVAS CVM TVIS FELICITER SEMPER REFRIGERIS IN PACE DEI

Hilaris, may you live for ever happy with your friends, may you be refreshed in the peace of God.

The formula IN PACE, general as it is, is yet by no means universal. Sometimes the prayer is rather for

refreshment:

BOLOSA DEVS TIBI REFRIGERET

Bolosa, may God refresh you.

REFRIGERA DEVS ANIMA

O God, refresh the soul of....

The following narration, drawn from the authentic Acts of St. Perpetua, which date from the very beginning of the third century, may help us to understand the meaning which this word refrigerium conveyed to those who originally placed it on these tombs. Perpetua, when in prison waiting for her martyrdom, had

EPITAPH OF A VIRGIN NAMED BELUCIA.

(From Marucchi's “I Monumenti del Museo Cristiano Pio-Lateran ense (Hoepli,

Milan).)

a vision in which she saw her young brother, Dinocrates, who had died a short time before at the age of seven years from cancer in the face. She saw him coming out of a dark place, very pale, and disfigured by a terrible wound in his face. He was sad and de