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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Early Christian Inscriptions</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08042a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Divided into three main classes: sepulchral inscriptions, epigraphic records, and inscriptions concerning private life"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="08042a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/i.htm">I</a> > Early Christian Inscriptions</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Early Christian Inscriptions</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>Inscriptions of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> origin form, as non-literary remains, a valuable source of information on the development of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> thought and life in the early Church. They may be divided into three main classes: sepulchral inscriptions, epigraphic records, and inscriptions concerning private life. The material on which they were written was the same as that used for <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">heathen</a> inscriptions. For the first two and most important classes the substance commonly employed was stone of different kinds, native or preferably imported. The use of metal was not so common. When the inscription is properly cut into the stone, it is called a <em>titulus</em> or marble; if merely scratched on the stone, the Italian word <em>graffito</em> is used; a <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painted</a> inscription is called <em>dipinto</em>, and a <a href="../cathen/10584a.htm">mosaic</a> inscription — such as are found largely in North Africa, <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>, and the East — bears the name of <em>opus musivum</em>. It was a common practice in Greek and Latin lands to make use of slabs already inscribed, i.e. to take the reverse of a slab containing a <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">heathen</a> inscription for the inscribing of a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> one; such a slab is called an opisthograph. The form of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> inscriptions does not differ from that of the contemporary <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> inscriptions, except when sepulchral in character, and then only in the case of the <em>tituli</em> of the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a>. The most common form in the East was the upright "stele" (Gk. <em>stele</em>, a block or slab of stone), frequently ornamented with a fillet or a projecting curved moulding; in the West a slab for the closing of the grave was often used. Thus the greater number of the graves (<em>loculi</em>) in the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a> were closed with thin, rectangular slabs of terra-cotta or marble; the graves called <em><a href="../cathen/01699a.htm">arcosolia</a></em> were covered with heavy, fiat slabs, while on the sarcophagi a panel (<em>tabula</em>) or a disk (<em>discus</em>) was frequently reserved on the front wall for an inscription.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The majority of the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> inscriptions, viewed from a technical and <a href="../cathen/11403a.htm">palæographical</a> standpoint, give evidence of artistic decay: this remark applies especially to the <em>tituli</em> of the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a>, which are, as a rule, less finely executed than the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">heathen</a> work of the same time. A striking exception is formed by the Damasine letters introduced in the fourth century by Furius Dionysius Filocalus, the calligraphist of <a href="../cathen/04613a.htm">Pope Damasus I</a>. The other forms of letters did not vary essentially from those employed by the ancients. The most important was the classical capital writing, customary from the time of <a href="../cathen/02107a.htm">Augustus</a>; from the fourth century on it was gradually replaced by the uncial writing, the cursive characters being more or less confined to the <em>graffito</em> inscriptions. As to the language, Latin inscriptions are the most numerous, in the East Greek was commonly employed, interesting dialects being occasionally found (e.g. in the recently deciphered <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> inscriptions from <a href="../cathen/11147a.htm">Nubia</a> in Southern <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a>). Special mention should also be made of the Coptic inscriptions. The text is very often shortened by means of signs and abbreviations. Specifically <a href="../cathen/01022a.htm">Christian abbreviations</a> were found side by side with the usual <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> contractions at an early <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a>. One of the most common of the latter, "D. M." (i.e. <em>Diis Manibus</em>, to the protecting Deities of the Lower World), was stripped of its <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> meaning, and adopted in a rather mechanical way among the formulæ of the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>. In many cases the dates of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> inscriptions must be judged from circumstances; when the date is given, it is the consular year. The method of chronological computation varied in different countries. Our present Dionysian <a href="../cathen/03738a.htm">chronology</a> (see <a href="../cathen/03738a.htm">CHRONOLOGY</a>; <a href="../cathen/05010b.htm">DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS</a>) does not appear in the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> inscriptions.</p> <h2>Sepulchral inscriptions</h2> <p>The earliest of these epitaphs are characterized by their brevity, only the name of the dead being given. Later a short acclamation was added (e.g. "in God", "in Peace"); from the end of the second century the formulæ were enlarged by the addition of <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> names and the <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of burial. In the third and fourth centuries the text of the epitaphs was made more complete by the statement of the age of the deceased, the date (reckoned according to the consuls in office), and laudatory epithets. For these particulars each of the lands comprising the Roman empire had its own distinct expressions, contractions, and acclamations. Large use was made of symbolism. Thus the open cross is found in the epitaphs of the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a> as early as the second century, and from the third to the sixth century the monogrammatic cross in its various forms appears as a regular part of the epitaphs. The cryptic emblems of primitive <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> are also used in the epitaphs, e.g. the fish (Christ), the anchor (hope), the palm (victory) and the representation of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> in the other world as a <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">female</a> figure (<em>orante</em>) with arms extended in <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>. Beginning with the fourth century, after the victory of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> over <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a>, the language of the epitaphs was more frank and open. Emphasis was laid upon a life according to the dictates of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, and <a href="../cathen/04653a.htm">prayers for the dead</a> were added to the inscription. The <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> inscribed thus early on the sepulchral slabs reproduce in large measure the primitive liturgy of the funeral service. They implore for the dead eternal peace (see <a href="../cathen/11594b.htm">PAX</a>) and a place of refreshment (<em>refrigerium</em>), invite to the heavenly love-feast (<em>Agape</em>), and wish the departed the speedy enjoyment of the light of <a href="../cathen/14519a.htm">Paradise</a>, and the fellowship of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> and the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>.</p> <p>A perfect example of this kind of epitaph is that of the <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> Schenute; it is taken verbally from e ancient Greek liturgy. It begins with the <a href="../cathen/05150a.htm">doxology</a>, "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen", and continues: "May the <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> of the spirit and of all flesh, Who has overcome death and trodden Hades under foot, and has graciously bestowed life on the world, permit this <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> of Father Schenute to attain to rest in the <a href="../cathen/01055a.htm">bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob</a>, in the place of light and of refreshment, where affliction, pain, and grief are no more. O gracious <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, the lover of men, forgive him all the <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">errors</a> which he has committed by word, act, or thought. There is indeed no earthly pilgrim who has not <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sinned</a>, for Thou alone, O <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, art free from every <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>." The epitaph repeats the <a href="../cathen/05150a.htm">doxology</a> at the close, and adds the petition of the scribe: "O Saviour, give peace also to the scribe." When the secure position of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> assured greater freedom of expression, the non-religious part of the sepulchral inscriptions was also enlarged. In Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> and in the East it was not unusual to note, both in the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a> and in the cemeteries above ground, the purchase or gift of the grave and its dimensions. Commonly admitted also into the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> inscriptions are the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> minatory formulæ against <a href="../cathen/04748c.htm">desecration</a> of the grave or its illegal use as a place of further burial.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2>Historical and theological inscriptions</h2> <p>To many of the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> sepulchral inscriptions we are indebted for much information concerning the original development of the <a href="../cathen/07322c.htm">ecclesiastical hierarchy</a>, besides which they are of great value as a confirmation of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a>. Thus, for example, from the earliest times we meet in them all the hierarchical grades from the door-keeper (<em>ostiarius</em>) and <a href="../cathen/09111a.htm">lector</a> up to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> (see <a href="../cathen/11279a.htm">HOLY ORDERS</a>). A number of epitaphs of the early <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> (Pontianus, <a href="../cathen/01553a.htm">Anterus</a>, Fabianus, <a href="../cathen/04375c.htm">Cornelius</a>, Lucius, <a href="../cathen/05638a.htm">Eutychianus</a>, Caius) were found in the so-called "Papal Crypt" in the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">Catacomb</a> of St. Callistus on the Via Appia, rediscovered by <a href="../cathen/04739c.htm">De Rossi</a> and well known to every pilgrim to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> (see <a href="../cathen/03510a.htm">EARLY ROMAN CHRISTIAN CEMETERIES</a>). Numbers of early epitaphs of <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> have been found from <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> to <a href="../cathen/11147a.htm">Nubia</a>. Priests are frequently mentioned, and reference is often made to <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacons</a>, <a href="../cathen/14320a.htm">subdeacons</a>, <a href="../cathen/05711a.htm">exorcists</a>, <a href="../cathen/09111a.htm">lectors</a>, <a href="../cathen/01106a.htm">acolytes</a>, <em>fossores</em> or grave-diggers, <em>alumni</em> or adopted children. The Greek inscriptions of Western <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> and the East yield especially interesting material; in them is found, in addition to other information, mention of <a href="../cathen/01693a.htm">archdeacons</a>, archpriests, <a href="../cathen/04651a.htm">deaconesses</a>, and <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>. Besides <a href="../cathen/03430b.htm">catechumens</a> and <a href="../cathen/10742a.htm">neophytes</a>, reference is also made to virgins <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>, abbesses, <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a> <a href="../cathen/15617c.htm">widows</a>, one of the last-named being the mother of Pope St. Damasus I, the celebrated restorer of the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a>. Epitaphs of <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> and <em>tituli</em> mentioning the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> are not found as frequently as one would expect, especially in the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">Roman catacombs</a>. This, however, is easily explained by recalling the circumstances of burial in the periods of <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a>, when <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> must have been contented to save and to give even secret burial to the remains of their <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>. Many a nameless grave among the five million estimated to exist in the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">Roman catacombs</a> held the remains of early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> who witnessed to the Faith with their blood. Another valuable repertory of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/14580a.htm">theology</a> is found in the dogmatic inscriptions in which all important <a href="../cathen/05089a.htm">dogmas</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> meet (incidentally) with monumental confirmation. The <a href="../cathen/10499a.htm">monotheism</a> of the worshippers of the Word — or <em>Cultores Verbi</em>, as the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">loved</a> to style themselves — and their <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> in Christ are well expressed even in the early inscriptions. Very ancient inscriptions emphasize, and with detail the most profound of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/05089a.htm">dogmas</a>, the <a href="../cathen/05573a.htm">Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist</a>. In this connexion we may mention the epitaph of Abercius (q.v.), <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Hieropolis in Phrygia (second century), and the somewhat later epitaph of Pectorius at <a href="../cathen/02144a.htm">Autun</a> in <a href="../cathen/06395b.htm">Gaul</a>. The inscription of Abercius speaks of the fish (Christ) caught by a holy virgin, which serves as food under the species of <a href="../cathen/01349d.htm">bread</a> and <a href="../cathen/01358a.htm">wine</a>; it speaks, further, of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, where Abercius visited the chosen people, the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> <em>par excellence</em>. This important inscription aroused at first no little controversy among scholars, and some non-Catholic archæologists sought to find in it a tendency to <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> <a href="../cathen/14383c.htm">syncretism</a>. Now, however, its purely <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> character is almost universally acknowledged. The original was presented by Sultan Abdul Hamid to <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a>, and is preserved in the Apostolic Museum at the Lateran. Early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> inscriptions confirm the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">Catholic doctrine</a> of the <a href="../cathen/12789a.htm">Resurrection</a>, the <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacraments</a>, the veneration of the Blessed Virgin, and the primacy of the <a href="../cathen/01640c.htm">Apostolic See</a>. It would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of these evidences, for they are always entirely incidental elements of the sepulchral inscriptions, all of which were pre-eminently <a href="../cathen/05528b.htm">eschatological</a> in their purpose.</p> <h2>Poetical and official inscriptions</h2> <p>While the copious material obtained from the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> epitaphs, especially the inscriptions of the Roman (Latin) and the Greek-Oriental groups, is equivalent to a book in stone on the <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> and life of our <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> forefathers, the purely literary side of these monuments is not insignificant. Many inscriptions have the character of public documents; others are in verse, either taken from well-known poets, or at times the work of the <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> erecting the memorial. Fragments of classical poetry, especially quotations from Virgil, are occasionally found. The most famous composer of poetical epitaphs in <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> antiquity was Pope Damasus I (366-384), mentioned above. He repaired the neglected <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tombs</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> and the graves of distinguished <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> who had lived before the Constantinian epoch, and adorned these burial places with metrical epitaphs in a peculiarly beautiful lettering. Nearly all the larger cemeteries of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> owe to this <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> large stone tablets of this character, several of which have been preserved in their original form or in fragments. Besides verses on his mother Laurentia and his sister Irene, he wrote an autobiographical poem in which the Saviour is addressed: "Thou Who stillest the waves of the deep, Whose power giveth life to the seed slumbering in the earth, who didst awaken <a href="../cathen/09096a.htm">Lazarus</a> from the dead and give back the brother on the third day to the sister Martha; Thou wilt, so I believe, awake Damasus from death."Eulogies in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> of the Roman <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> form the most important division of the Damasine inscriptions. They are written in hexameters, a few in pentameters. The best known celebrate the temporary burial of the two chief Apostles in the <em>Platonia</em> under the basilica of St. Sebastian on the Via Appia, the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> Protus and Hyacinth in the Via Salaria Antiqua, Pope Marcellus in the Via Salaria Nova, St. Agnes in the Via Nomentana, also Saints Laurence, <a href="../cathen/07360c.htm">Hippolytus</a>, Gorgonius, Peter and Marcellinus, Eusebius, Tarsicius, <a href="../cathen/04735b.htm">Cornelius</a>, <a href="../cathen/05638a.htm">Eutychius</a>, Nereus and Achilleus, Felix and Adauctus. Damasus also placed a metrical inscription in the <a href="../cathen/02276b.htm">baptistery</a> of the Vatican, and set up others in connexion with various restorations, e.g. an inscription on a stairway of the cemetery of <a href="../cathen/07276c.htm">St. Hermes</a>. Altogether there have been preserved as the work of Damasus more than one hundred <em>epigrammata</em>, some of them originals and others written copies. More than one half are probably correctly ascribed to him, even though it is <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> to remember that after his death Damasine inscriptions continued to be set up, i.e. inscriptions in the beautiful lettering invented by Damasus or rather by his calligrapher Furius Dionysius Filocalus. Some of the inscriptions, which imitate the lettering of Filocalus, make special and laudatory mention of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> who had done so much for the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a>. Among these are the inscriptions of <a href="../cathen/15427b.htm">Pope Vigilius</a> (537-55), a restorer animated by the spirit of Damasus. Some of his inscriptions are preserved in the Lateran Museum. The inscriptions just mentioned possess as a rule a public and official character. Other inscriptions served as official records of the erection of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> edifices (churches, <a href="../cathen/02276b.htm">baptisteries</a>, etc.). Ancient Roman examples of this kind are the inscribed tablet dedicated by <a href="../cathen/02658a.htm">Boniface I</a> at the beginning of the fifth century to <a href="../cathen/06028a.htm">St. Felicitas</a>, to whom the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> ascribed the settlement of the <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a> of Eulalius, and the inscription (still visible) of <a href="../cathen/14032a.htm">Pope Sixtus III</a> in the Lateran <a href="../cathen/02276b.htm">baptistery</a>, etc. The Roman custom was soon copied in all parts of the empire. At Thebessa in Northern Africa there were found fragments of a metrical inscription once set up over a door, and in almost exact verbal agreement with the text of an inscription in a Roman church. Both the basilica of <a href="../cathen/11089b.htm">Nola</a> and the church at Primuliacum in Gaul bore the same distich:</p> <blockquote><p>Pax tibi sit quicunque Dei penetralia Christi, <br>pectore pacifico candidus ingrederis. </p></blockquote> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>(Peace be to thee whoever enterest with pure and gentle heart into the sanctuary of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ God</a>.) In such inscriptions the church building is generally referred to as <em>domus Dei, domus orationis</em> (the house of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, the house of <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>). The present writer found an inscription with the customary Greek term <em>Kyriou</em> (House of the Lord) in the basilica of the Holy Baths, one of the <a href="../cathen/02325a.htm">basilicas</a> of the ancient <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> town of Menas. In Northern Africa, especially, passages from the psalms frequently occur in <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> inscriptions. The preference in the East was for inscriptions executed in <a href="../cathen/10584a.htm">mosaic</a>; such inscriptions were also frequent in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, where, it is well known, the art of <a href="../cathen/10584a.htm">mosaic</a> reached very high perfection in <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> edifices. An excellent and well-known example is the still extant original inscription of the fifth century on the wall of the interior of the Roman basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine over the entrance to the <a href="../cathen/10724a.htm">nave</a>. This monumental record in <a href="../cathen/10584a.htm">mosaic</a> contains seven lines in hexameters. On each side of the inscription is a <a href="../cathen/10584a.htm">mosaic</a> figure: one is the <em>Ecclesia ex gentibus</em> (Church of the <a href="../cathen/06422a.htm">Gentiles</a>), the other the <em>Ecclesia ex circumcisione</em> (Church of the Circumcision). The text refers to the pontificate of <a href="../cathen/03477c.htm">Celestine I</a>, during which period an Illyrian <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> named Peter founded the church.</p> <p>Other parts of the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> churches were also occasionally decorated with inscriptions, e.g. the titles of roofs and walls. It was also customary to decorate with inscriptions the lengthy cycles of frescoes depicted on the walls of churches. Fine examples of such inscriptions have reached us in the "Dittochæon" of Prudentius, in the Ambrosian <em>tituli</em>, and in the writings of <a href="../cathen/11585b.htm">Paulinus of Nola</a>.</p> <p>It should be added that many dedicatory inscriptions belong to the eighth and ninth centuries, especially in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, where in the eighth century numerous bodies of <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> were transferred from the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a> to the churches of the city (see <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">CATACOMBS</a>).</p> <h2>Graffiti</h2> <p>Although apparently of little value and devoid of all monumental character, the <em>graffiti</em> (i.e. writings scratched on walls or other surfaces) are of great importance historically and otherwise. Many such are preserved in the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a> and on various early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> monuments. Of special importance in this respect are the ruins of the fine edifices of the town of Menas in the <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egyptian</a> Mareotis (cf. "Proceedings of Society for Bibl. Archæology", 1907, pp. 25, 51, 112). The <em>graffiti</em> help in turn to illustrate the literary sources of the life of the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>. (See also OSTRAKA.)</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">DE ROSSI, <em>Inscriptiones christian urbis Rom septimo s culo antiquiores</em> (Rome, 1861); LE BLANT, <em>Manuel d'épigraphie chrétienne</em> (Paris, 1869); RITTER, <em>De compositione titulorum christianorum sepulcralium</em> (Berlin, 1877); M'CAUL, <em>Christian Epitaphs of the First Six Centuries</em> (London, 1869); NORTHCOTE AND BROWNLOW, <em>Epitaphs of the Catacombs</em> (London, 1879); KAUFMANN, <em>Handbuch der christlichen Archäologie,</em> pt. III, <em>Epigraphische Denkmäler</em> (Paderborn, 1905); SYSTUS, <em>Notiones archæologiæ christian,</em> vol. III, pt. I, <em>Epigraphia</em> (Rome, 1909).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Kaufmann, C.M.</span> <span id="apayear">(1910).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Early Christian Inscriptions.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08042a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Kaufmann, Carl Maria.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Early Christian Inscriptions."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 8.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1910.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08042a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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