ROME.—Discovery in the Catacombs

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 20, 14 May 1903, Page 27

ROME.— Discovery in the Catacombs

The discovery of a now catacomb (writes a Rome correspondent) has been followed by the finding of the tomb of Pope Damasus on the Via Appia. Mgr. Wilpert. guided by Ihe indications of the ' Liber Pontificahs ' undertook tho excavations to this intent, to the left of the cemetery of Cahxtus. A \ast crypt decorated with marble and painting came to light, and a room filled with broken sculptures and tho rubbish of other excavations Among the fragments of marble were two bits of an inscription, the entirety of which was preserved in its reproduction on lime, tt consists of foiir JLatin hexameters in tho Pamasian metre, beginning : ' Hie Damasi mater posuet Lavren (tia membra),' which stated that this mother, who must bo that of the Pontiff, lived to be 89, passed 60 years of her life consecrated to God that she had four children, and that she survived her husband While tho inscription gives for tho first timo the name of tho mother of thus interesting Pontiff it fixes the place of his tomb, for wo know that he and his sister wore buried with tho former The ancient itineraries say that Mcirk and Marcellinus reposed ' non longe ' ; may not the groat crypt rwu c been their niomonal shrine > In any case, they reposed in the vicinity. Professor Mftrucchi has very ingeniously confronted with those discoveries the inscription about his father which Damasus placed in the archives of the church near the Theatre of Pompey (which is now San Loren7O in Pamaso), and one, from the same pen, In honor of some otherwise unknown Loo in tho Agro Verano. I incline to belie\e he has succeeded in completing Mgr Wilpert's work of identifying this Leo as tho father of tho poetPontiff.