The Via Flaminia. (This ancient road leads out of the modern Porta del Popolo, is a direct continuation of the modern Corso. It is the great road communicating with North Italy.) There is only one Cemetery or Catacomb on this road, that of S. Valentinus. The "Guide" relates how the martyr S. Valentinus rests there together "with other martyrs unnamed."—Itinerary of Salzburg.
Another "Guide" says: "Many saints are buried here."—De Locis SS. Martyrum.
II
Of somewhat less weight than the testimony of the "Itineraries" or "Pilgrim Guide" books, but still of great importance as throwing a strong sidelight upon the evidence we have massed together on the subject of the large numbers of the martyrs and confessors of Rome interred in the Catacombs, are the Monza "Catalogue" and "Labels" once attached to the little phials of oil brought to Theodelinda from the sacred shrines of Rome.
We have elsewhere briefly described this curious and absolutely authentic relic.[1] Theodelinda asked for relics from the shrines of the Cemeteries (Catacombs) of Rome; Pope Gregory the Great in the last years of the sixth century sent to her a little of the oil from the lamps which in his days were ever kept burning before each of the shrines in question.
The original "Catalogue" (Notitia) of these oils, and the "Labels" (Pittacia) once attached to the phials which held the oils, are preserved in the Cathedral of Monza.
The "Catalogue" (or Notitia) is preceded by the following words:
"Nōt. de olea scōrum (sanctorum) martyrum qui Romæ in corpore requiescunt—id est," etc. Here follows the List of Martyrs from whose shrines a little of the oil (contained in the lamps always burning before them) was taken.
In several instances, notably after such names as S. Agnes, S. Cecilia, SS. Felix and Philippus and S. Cornelius, occur the following expressions:—
- ↑ See pp. 227-8.
