Mothers, wives &daughters:
Early Christian women
Christianity before Constantine AD 313
• Christians persecuted in Rome (fed to the lions
by Nero mid. 1st. Century (AD 50-69)
• Christians who came to Rome in 1st. C. AD,
mostly buried within the home (fewl if any
established churches in Rome
• 2nd c. AD, first churches and with them, places
of burial, only allowed outside the city walls.
• AD 313: Constantine baptised in the Christian
faith on his deathbed (AD 337).
Catacombs: San Sebastiano: founded,
outside the city
Map of Via Appia
Catacomb of San Callisto (Rome)
San Callisto catacombs:
Galleria Lapidaria at the Vatican
Museums
Roman Pagan Tombstone 2nd. C AD
D(is) M(anibus)
Cyparenia ornatrice
Benemerenti
Polydeuces fecit
To the Gods of the Departed
Cyparenia, hairdresser
well deserving
Polydeuces made (this)
Late 3rd century Christian Tombstone
(from the Catacombs at St. Sebastiano
DOM[INO] To our lord
To my wife most dear
Bassus, her husband, made this
Wife’s monument; Husbands’s words
Spelling mistakes
Fish Head
To my dear wife, well deserving, placed here.
She lived with me for 14 years, 10 months and 5 days
What do tombs tell us???
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Who is deceased
Who is honoring the deceased/ relationship
The age of the deceased
Their faith
Whose voice is being heard recorded?
What are they trying to show us?
Do we need to be literate to understand this
message?
Christian Mothers
Little dove= souls journey to heaven
Tezianus, who lived 9 months and 9 days.
May his his sweet soul rest in peace
What’s in a name? Christian humility
Chalcedonia: stone of 3rd foundation of Jerusalem: [Revelations 21.19]
Sister to Stercoriae [a different name entirely]
Christian virtues & symbols
Dove on Laurel branch: soul freed from the body, from tree of life upwards
Steadfast Virgin, well deserving, placed down in peace with a prayer
Christian Imagery: Fish and Anchors
Our Lord
The Living Fish?
Licinia Amiatia
Well deserving
Lived…..
Anchor: Hope for the faithful, an indirect cross
The Image of the Fish in Early Christian
Churches
To an old lady: The Symbolism of the
Ship
Lighthouse:
Heaven?
Sailing through the “wicked world:
A Voyage from one world to the other.
The journey of faith
Firmia Victoria who lived 65 years
The Imagery of Jonas on the
Sarcophagi (from the Lateran)
To a ‘jewel’ of a Sister: Love & threats
• THi
Here lies the place Fortunati and Lucieinovo (set up for) their sister Gemula
who saw 10 years (more or less). Let he who violates this place suffer the fate of Judas
Christian Imagery: Mary Orans
Mary Orans:
- faces forward
- arms extended/palms up
-head covered
To a daughter: from loving parents
Tree of Life
Good Shepherd
To Apuleia Chrysopolis, who lived 7 years and 2 months.
Her parent made this for their daughter most dear
The Good shepherd
To a Wife: Late 3rd c. AD Tomb Christ’s
handmaiden…
Here rests in peace Ancilla (Handmaiden)
Of the great Christ, who lived
(more or less) 25 years, 9 days.
She died in the month of July, when
Flavius Probus Junior was Consul.
She lived with her husband (who made
This) for 7 years and 6 months:
She was friendly, faithful and good skilled
in all things
To whom?? Defining life as Christian
Women
Loom
Severa Seleucinae lived with Aur. Sabutius for 17 years when Emperor Probus was Augustus
For the 3rd time (AD 279) and Nonius Paternus . How many years did she live in the wicked world?
32 years & 2 months ‘til her conversion during the consulship of Of Claudius Aug & Paternones
She dies at 42, 32yrs as a pagan, 10 years as a Christian.
Christianity: Constantine & Beyond
Iphone:
For Scale
Arch of Constantine ca. 312-315 AD
IMP · CAES · FL · CONSTANTINO · MAXIMO · P · F · AVGUSTO · S · P · Q · R ·
QVOD · INSTINCTV · DIVINITATIS · MENTIS · MAGNITVDINE · CVM ·
EXERCITV · SVO · TAM · DE · TYRANNO · QVAM · DE · OMNI · EIVS ·
FACTIONE · VNO · TEMPORE · IVSTIS · REM-PVBLICAM · VLTVS · EST ·
ARMIS · ARCVM · TRIVMPHIS · INSIGNEM · DICAVIT
To the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantinus, the greatest, pious, and blessed
Augustus: because he, inspired by the divine, and by the greatness of his
mind, has delivered the state from the tyrant and all of his followers at the
same time, with his army and just force of arms, the Senate and People of
Rome have dedicated this arch, decorated with triumphs.
4th Century Christian Inscriptions
Here lies an especially unlucky little chickpea by the name of Innocens, who lived.
May he rest always in peace, he lived with us from his birth filling four years with..
Modern
Symbols
of Faith