Catacombe di Priscilla, Rome

Catacombe di Priscilla opens onto a burial world cut into the tufa beside Via Salaria. “Its passages occupy a former Roman quarry and run for more than seven miles beneath the ground.” Through this entrance, “the site received thousands of Christian dead from the later second century into the fourth.”

The name recalls Priscilla: “a funerary inscription here identifies a Priscilla connected with the senatorial Acilii family.” The walls preserve early Christian painting. In the Greek Chapel, “a chamber divided by an arch, painted scenes bring together episodes from both biblical testaments.”

Among them are images of the Magi, Lazarus, Daniel, Susannah, Moses, and a Eucharistic meal. Nearby, “a third-century image shows Mary seated with the child Jesus, while Balaam points toward a star.” This underground cemetery became known in antiquity as the Queen of the Catacombs because of its many martyrs.

It also held the graves of popes, including Marcellinus. What begins here as a modest doorway leads into an immense memorial of Rome’s early Christian community.