Description: Our guided visit to the Catacombs of San Callisto (or of San Sebastiano in the days when the latter are closed) covers also the Basilica of San Clemente, the most surprising site of Christian Rome, as well as the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, wonderful center of the medieval city. We include these additional sites because we believe that in order to appreciate fully the richness and the spirituality of the underground cemeteries, you should also experience other important aspects of Early Christian ritual and history.

The term catacomb comes from "kata," Greek for "under" and "cumba," Latin for cavity. The ancient Romans, already before Christ, used this term for an area along the Appian Way, near the present basilica and catacombs of San Sebastiano, where these natural tufa cavities, multiplied by the systematic removal of blocks of tufa, remained open to the sky. From here began the idea and the evolution of vast labyrinths that unwind underground on many levels for hundreds and hundreds of meters in length, with narrow corridors along whose sides open small burial niches excavated from the rock. The dead, following the example of Jesus Christ, were wrapped in a sheet and deposited in the niche without any wooden casket. The niche, which could contain two or even three bodies, was covered on the surface with terracotta tiles and sealed with a plaster paste. A small inscription with the name of the deceased brother and an invocation for peace in the life in Christ accompanied the tomb even of the poorest, and often a small lantern and some perfumed oils sweetened the wait for resurrection.

Of course alongside the simplest forms of burial we also find beautiful marble sarcophagi with relief sculptures, burial niches surmounted by an arch and finely decorated, and the largest crypts are true underground chapels with splendid mosaics and frescoes with scenes traced from the old and new Testament.

The position of the catacombs is not accidental: Roman law prohibited the burial of the dead inside the walls of the city, favoring the concentration of pagan necropolises (literally, "cities of the dead" in Greek) along the great roads leading to Rome. For all of the first century AD and part of the second the Christians were buried by chance in the various necropolises of the city, but already by the middle of the II century we have evidence of a notable expansion of funerary areas of exclusive Christian use, probably thanks to the sharing of family burials. Because the Christians created actual communities, sharing values, prayers, and rituals tied to the word of Christ, the dead were those members of the community who were at rest in the hope of divine salvation (in fact the word cemetery in Greek means a place of rest). They were constantly visited and remembered by their fellow Christians in the liturgical celebrations.

Roman law forbade the practice of any religion other than that of the official Pagan religion until the emperor Constantine issued an edict of toleration in February of 313 AD. Even after that, however, the emperor Giuliano recommenced the persecution of Christians. Thus During II, III and part of the IV centuries AD the catacombs were enriched with the sacred relics of numerous Christian martyrs who died heroically in the affirmation of their faith. We will encounter their stories—often starting off in the remote regions of Egypt or of Asia Minor - along with so many other traces of Early Christian history such as the vicissitudes of the popes of the era, constrained to guide their communities in secret, and the theological debates of the new religion forming its creed and rituals on the new and old Testament. We will also see Christian symbolism—from the fish to the phoenix—at the moment of its earliest invention and elaboration when the symbols were often small signs written on the believers' walls, or moving inscriptions dedicated to the dead, sometimes the very young, by their loved-ones. There are also simple and intense frescoes where fundamental figurative themes like that of the Eurcharist, Jonah, the Resurrection, the Madonna and Child make their first appearances. The very earliest of these images is from the III century in the catacombs of Santa Priscilla. Such encounters with the early religion, its history and imagery will be among the high points of our visit.

The regular use of the catacombs as burial sites decreased already by the beginning of the V century and it kept pace with the decline of the city, the fall in the number of inhabitants, and the progressive changing of the town's institutions and the laws. The sites were frequented, however, until the beginning of the IX century when the popes, by now the only holders of temporal power in a medieval Rome of extremely reduced dimensions as compared to the past, moved the relics into the churches within the walls.

And we too will move into the heart of the city, to the third level underground of the Basilica of San Clemente, in order to gather another aspect of Christianity at its origins. In this space, Christians of the long-ago first century AD met privately to pray and to celebrate the Eurcharist precisely at the time when St. Paul sent them his "Letter to the Romans." But the complex and multicultural imperial Rome of the era saw the extensive flowering of other religions, and surprisingly, just on the other side of the ancient street, we find a large hall used by the followers of the cult of Mithras. This fascinating religion was tied to the celestial constellations, which in this regard as well as in others, shows its notable affinities with Christianity. Both these spaces, however, were covered over and utilized as the foundation, in the IV century, for the construction of the new basilica. This basilica is also extremely interesting and rich with delicate frescoes, but destined to same fate in the XII century when it was replaced by the new upper basilica, with its splendid mosaics. The entire architecture of the basilica, its location a few steps from the Colosseum, the three fully passable underground levels, and the diverse subjects represented on the walls will be sources of great attention and elaboration for us.

The last stop will be in the heart of Trastevere, in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, to get the full experience of medieval Rome, when an established and mature Christianity entirely permeated the life of the faithful and articulated the passage of time with the punctual chimes from the tall bell tower of the XII century. The portico is absolutely unique, the apse is finely decorated with beautiful mosaics, among which are those of the late XIII century by Cavallini. These rich mosaics display a new agility of line, color, and volume. Along with these treasures, the medieval funerary monuments of various cardinals, and the byzantine icon of the Virgin from the VII century will form a noteworthy conclusion to an experience of profound spirituality and inexhaustible beauty.