Cura pro mortuis' and 'Cultus Martyrum': Commemoration in Rome from the Second through the Sixth Century

The primary aim of this dissertation is to review the wealth of documentation related to the care of the dead and the cult of martyrs in early Christian Rome. The cura bestowed on the remains of martyrs is discussed first. The physical circumstances of saintly burials in catacombs and surface cemeteries are described, as particular attention is paid to the epigraphic and hagiographical sources that help to explain why martyr-groups so often form. At first, little distinguished the graves of martyrs from those of the ordinary dead, but as the Roman ecclesiastical community's interest in the commemoration of its most important deceased (mainly martyrs and bishops) grew, the saintly nature of many tombs received recognition in the form of architectural or epigraphic elaboration. In the fourth century, underground shrines are created in many of the city's catacombs. At the same time, imposing new funerary-martyrial monuments are developed sub divo in honor of Rome's greatest Christian heroes. In the second part of this thesis, the evidence for these covered cemeteries, a well-known category comprising inter alia the basilica Apostolorum, SS. Marcellino e Pietro and in a sense, the Vatican basilica, is examined in detail. The aims of the episcopal and imperial sponsors of the covered cemeteries bound to the memory of martyrs are analyzed, and there emerges a new assessment of the papal role in the introduction and later patronage of funerary basilicas. In the third section, the tradition of non-corporal commemoration in Rome's suburban territory and in certain urban churches is considered. The stimuli for the introduction of new, often imported martyrial cultus, and for the creation of multiple dedications, receive special emphasis. This study concludes with a survey of the origins and the early development of Christian funerary and martyr-cult practices in Rome. The archaeological, liturgical, epigraphic and other documentary evidence are gathered to produce a reconstruction of the complex of rites and customs that characterized the Roman approach to the ordinary and venerated dead. New light is shed on the link, observed in Rome at an early date, between the eucharistic altar and the martyr.