Catacombs of Saints
Marcellino and Pietro
Funeral settlement
The catacombs of Sts. Marcellino and Pietro, which were opened to the public in 2014 after extensive security and restoration work, now form, together with the Mausoleum of Helena, a unique monumental centre, the visit to which is an extraordinary experience of full immersion in late antique Rome.
As was the case with all the major Roman catacombs, ad duas lauros also saw the Christian community’s funerary use of the underground, starting with several autonomous hypogea, each served by an access staircase, which expanded over time, eventually merging together to form one of the largest underground cemeteries in the Roman suburbs.
The start of the process is set at the time of the so-called ‘Little Peace of the Church’, in the second half of the 3rd century, when, under the principality of Gallienus (260-268) and for almost fifty years, relations between the civil authorities and the Christian community improved. In this new climate, the Christian community was able to establish an underground burial ground near the surface necropolis of the equites singulares Augusti, a cavalry corps emblematic of imperial authority.
The Christian burial settlement developed according to the criteria already implemented in other suburban cemeteries, such as St. Callisto, Domitilla and Priscilla: long tunnels (cryptae) were dug, in the walls of which loculus tombs (loci, loculi) were carved, sometimes surmounted by an arch, therefore called arcosoli (arcosolia, arcisolia). The burial niches were closed with marble or brick slabs, fixed with mortar, on which the name of the deceased was engraved.
Ad duas lauros, along the galleries, frequently open cubicles (cubicula), reserved for families or associations, richly decorated with frescoes. The work of excavating the cemetery was carried out by the powerful category of fossori (fossores, laborantes), which had a remarkable specialised organisation within it. Sometimes existing cavities were reused, such as hydraulic tunnels and pozzolan quarries.
Constantine’s push
If the catacombs originated in the second part of the 3rd century, it is in the 4th century that they underwent their greatest development. In the Constantinian era, the upper ground was in fact affected by imposing building interventions undertaken by the emperor Constantine himself, which greatly altered the Roman landscape in this part of the suburbs, with the construction of the grandiose mausoleum destined for Augusta Helena and the great Circiform Basilica, one of the six testimonies so far known of an architectural typology exclusive to the Constantinian architects working in the capital of the empire.
Thousands of multi-storey tombs were neatly placed in the floor of these buildings to meet the enormous demand of the faithful for seppeliri ad sanctos, that is, to be buried at the tombs of the beloved martyrs. Completing the ad duas lauros complex were two vast enclosures, hugging the sides of the basilica, inside which were arranged surface tombs and private mausoleums.
Illustrious Memories
Another element that favoured the fourth-century development of the Christian settlement was the deposition of numerous martyrs, victims of the great persecutions of the emperors Valerian and Diocletian: in addition to Marcellinus and Peter, the eponyms of the complex, Gorgonius and Tiburtius were venerated, as well as several martyr groups, such as the Four Crowned, the Thirty and the Forty Martyrs.
The presence of these illustrious memories further increased the phenomenon of ad sanctos burials, which led to the enormous expansion of the catacomb network, where fresco decoration (88 painted rooms in the catacomb are counted) reached exceptional expressions, which today constitute the main attraction for visitors. Purely by way of example, one can mention the arcosolium of Orpheus, perhaps the most successful depiction of the mythical Thracian cantor, the Madonna con due Magi, a singular variant of the Epiphany, the cubiculum of the Eponymous Saints, with the series of the main martyrs of the cemetery, and, above all, the many scenes of funeral banquets (refrigerium) and depictions of fossors.
Destination of pilgrimages
The presence of numerous martyr burials also attracted the action of Pope Damaso (366-384), a great devotee of Roman martyrs. The greatest evidence of papal intervention ad duas lauros concerns the tombs of the martyrs Marcellino and Pietro, although large Damasian epigraphs, a characteristic sign of this pontiff’s action, certainly also adorned the tombs of Gorgonio and Tiburzio.
From the 5th century onwards, the Labicana cemetery was no longer a burial place, but exclusively a place of pilgrimage. It was then that the crypt of Marcellino and Pietro, probably under Pope Onorio I (625-638), was transformed into an apsidal underground basilica. The importance of the cemetery inter duas lauros in the age of pilgrimages is well testified not only by the many graffiti of pilgrims – some even in the Runic alphabet -, but also by the 7th-century Itineraries, veritable short guides at the service of devout visitors.
The 8th century saw the beginning of the season of the great translations of the holy bodies, which, for security reasons – here as in other suburban sanctuaries – were transferred to the urban churches of Rome or to the great monastic abbeys of central Europe, mainly on the initiative of the Carolingian sovereigns: it was then that the relics of the exorcist Pietro and the presbyter Marcellino were brought to Germany by Einhard, biographer of Charlemagne, to a village on the Main which took the significant name of Seligenstadt (‘the city of saints’) from then on.
Thanks to Dr Raffaella Giuliani for the original texts in Italian
The catacombs of Saints Marcellinus and Peter boast one of the richest expressions of early Christian painting that has come down to us.
Sguardi di storia
The video story dedicated to the stories of Saints Marcellino and Pietro.
Reservations
A guided tour of the catacombs and mausoleum museum can be booked.
Tours are independent, with access to the catacombs only under the close supervision of a guide.
Admission to St. Helena’s mausoleum museum is free.