Saint Cecilia Revisited

Saint Cecilia - Stefano Maderno, 1599-1600

This blog has explored the story of Saint Cecilia before - following the tale told in the lovely frescoes of the Bentivoglio Chapel in Bologna. But to round out the story, I couldn't resist visiting a couple of the saint’s holy sites in Rome.

Frescoes in the Catacombs.
Early 9th century.

Deep underground in the Catacombs of Saint Callixtus is a space where Saint Cecilia’s body is said to have rested. The ancient man-made cave in which this space is located has been hollowed out and enlarged several times to accommodate all the pilgrims who wished to visit. The walls still have traces of ancient frescoes.

Saint Cecilia’s remains have long since been removed to her Basilica in Trastevere, but in the niche in the Catacombs is a replica of the sculpture of the saint by Stefano Maderno. The original was made in 1599-1600.

Copy of the Maderno sculpture in the catacombs of Saint Callixtus.

Wiki tells us that:

Stefano Maderno is best known for the seemingly unposed, naturalistic recumbent marble of Santa Cecilia in the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (1599–1600). The sculpture was a counter-statement to the current dry and hectic complications of Mannerism, to which it confronted a simple sweeping outline and a stark pose. This is not a sanitized hagiographical representation of a saint, but the graphic representation of an uncorrupted corpse, claimed to be positioned just as it had been found. The saint's tomb had been opened in 1599, and Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrato commissioned Maderno, aged 23 at the time, to recreate the martyr's body in marble. 

Basilica of Saint Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome.

Over in Trastevere, not only do Saint Cecilia’s remains (and some of her husband, St Valerian) rest in the crypt of the Basilica bearing her name, the church also has the original of the Maderno sculpture - a luminous white thing, remarkably modern in style. Cecilia lies forward on her face, her hair and face covered by a cloth, her white neck showing the axe wound that finally killed her, after several miraculous escapes from death. Her fingers form a ‘secret’ Christian symbol: 1, 2, 3 -- the Trinity. Here's Wiki again:

The pavement in front of the statue encloses a marble slab with Maderno's sworn statement that he has recorded the body as he saw it when the tomb was opened in 1599. The statue depicts the three axe strokes described in the 5th-century account of her martyrdom. It also is meant to underscore the incorruptibility of her cadaver (an attribute of some saints), which miraculously still had congealed blood after centuries. 

Hmmm....

"Behold the body of the most holy virgin, Cecilia, whom I myself saw lying uncorrupt in her tomb. I have in this marble expressed for thee the same saint in the very same posture and body."

The day that I visited Saint Cecilia’s Basilica in Trastevere, the Benedictine nuns were singing an afternoon service for Saint Martin’s Day (but he’s another story), their wavering and rather tuneless voices drifting up into the church rafters. Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music, so 'm sure she'll appreciate the effort. BTW, this site suggests that "the origin of this seems to be found in the antiphon taken from her Acts: “As the musical instruments (at her wedding feast) were playing, Cecilia sung (in her heart) to the Lord, saying: ‘May my heart remain unsullied, so that I be not confounded’.” 

The Basilica dates from the 5th century, rebuilt in 822. Tradition has it that it is built where Saint Cecilia lived, before her career took a nose-dive to martyrdom. She lived in Trastevere? Who would have thought?

St Martin's Day in the Basilica of Saint Cecilia, Trastevere.

Catacombs

Ready to go...down....?

Inside the Catacombs of San Callixtus.

Rome has a population of about 2.7 million people - living people, that is. Its ghosts number millions more. And nowhere are these ghosts more apparent than in Rome's catacombs -- kilometres of tunnels dug in the tufa rock under the ground in areas outside of Rome's walls, where the early Christians buried their dead. Along the old Appian Way the Christians of the first, second and third centuries AD - before Constantine converted all Romans to Christianity - dug deep into the soft tufa rock to form networks of tunnels lined with niches for their dead.

The Catacombs of San Callixtus stretch for a winding 17 kilometres over four deep levels. You can visit them with a guide, and see the regular niches for the poor, family vaults painted with Christian-themed frescoes, and larger chapels, some where early popes (bishops) were buried. Originally martyrs were buried in the Catacombs, resulting in everyone wishing to be interred nearby. The "important" bones have long since been removed. The Catacombs were seals many centuries ago, to guard against looting, with many only re-discovered in the q9th century. San Callixtus was excavated by Giovanni Battista de Rossi, who is sometimes called "the founder of modern Christian archaeology."

The "star" of the San Callixtus Catacombs is our old friend, Saint Cecilia. You can stand quietly before the spot where she's said to have been interred, which now houses a replica of the Stefano Maderno sculpture of the saint (made in 1599-1600), in the naturalistic and sombre pose in which her remains are said (or imagined) to have been found.

Saint Cecilia's resting place, Catacombs of San Callixtus.

Catacombs of San Callixtus.

Next along the Old Appian Way is the "Basilica of San Sebastian Outside the Walls" (San Sebastiano fuori le Mura), built above more Catacombs. These are nearly as extensive at Callixtus, but as your guide leads you down you may find the tunnels here narrower, the ceilings lower and the experience a little more claustrophobic. Everywhere are the symbols of Christianity, including a fish (a crude early acronym: the Ancient Greek word for "fish" apparently forms and acronym referring to Christ. Obscure now, perhaps, but presumably effective short-hand in an era of illiteracy and persecution.)

Pilgrims' graffiti, San Sebastiano.

Pagan tomb, San sebastiano.

San Sebastiano was, as you might expect, the site where the poor arrow-riddled saint was interred when he was martyred in 288 AD - though he recovered from the arrow-wounds, apparently, and was in fact beaten to death. His actual remains are up above now, in the Basilica. The first church here was a great basilica built in the early 4th century over several pagan tombs and parts of a Roman villa. Initially it was called Basilica Apostolorum, the Basilica of the Apostles, and was dedicated to SS Peter and Paul. This was because there was a tradition that the relics of these two apostles had been transferred here for safe-keeping during a persecution in the reign of the emperor Valerian, 238. Surviving graffiti in the catacombs bear out this tradition -- the Basilica is one of the seven great pilgrimage churches of Rome.

San Sebastiano. In his Basilica Outside the Walls.

On your tour of the Catacombs you can see the ancient pilgrims' graffiti on terracotta shards; and several pagan tombs, once in the open-air but now below ground. As to Saints Peter and Paul, St Peter is of course buried under the big Basilica of his name in Vatican City. St Paul is said to be buried somewhere out towards Ostia. It was difficult to keep track of everybody when they were members of an outlawed religion.

But at the Catacombs of the Old Appian Way, the ghosts still gather.

Fun in Ferrara

Castello Estense, Ferrara

Renaissance Italy threw up some dark and dangerous characters and stories. Lucrezia Borgia (1480 - 1519) for example - daughter of the horribly corrupt Pope Alexander IV and sister of the fierce Cesare; married off as a political pawn three times; accused of everything from poisoning and murder to bearing her father’s - or perhaps her brother’s - child. Or Girolamo Savonarola (1452 - 1498), the priest who saw visions, made prophecies, fought the popes and ruled the Renaissance city state of Florence with violent imposition of his rules and ‘bonfires of the vanities’ - until they hanged and burnt him.

Savonarola.

There’s a small city in Emilia Romagna, on the Po River delta, that is, curiously, both the birthplace of Savonarola and the death-place of Lucrezia -- Ferrara, seat of the Dukes of d'Este, back when being a duke mattered. Savonarola stands on a statue in the Piazza Savonarola in Ferrara, forever shrouded and fierce. Lucrezia was married to Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and was buried in the Convent of Corpus Domini in Ferrara when she died from complications after the birth of her eighth child. The great castle of the d’Este dukes - Castello Estense - still stands in the town centre, surrounded by its moat.

Courtyard of Castello Estense

Ferrara’s castle has been rebuilt so often that it’s difficult these days to imagine the atmosphere of the Renaissance, but it has very impressive walls and towers and a handsome and effective moat, still filled today, over which a drawbridge is lowered. The interior is mainly (good) museum displays about the life and times of the Dukes of d’Este, some lovely though crumbling frescoed rooms, and some very evocative dungeons. Yes, the d’Este have their own dark legends...

Extent of the Estense territory, 1598

The Este family were of ancient origin; the first mention of their ancestors goes back to the 9th century. Following internal upheavals in Ferrara at that time, Marquis Azzo VI put himself at the head of the city’s Guelph faction. (The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries, persisting until the 15th century.)

Niccolò III

He looks happy enough...

A successor, Obizzo II, was named a signore perpetuo (Lord in Perpetuity) while still a boy, in 1264. In the years that followed, he obtained the same title in Modena and Reggio. Then came years of ferocious fighting, but by the end of the 13th century, Estense power was consolidated and a long period began in which their power transformed Ferrara into one of the most important cultural and political centres in Europe.

The Este’s real prestige began with Niccolò III who was a skilled politician and diplomat who arbitrated numerous disputes between city states, and in 1483 hosted an Ecumenical Council. His successor Leonello was a refined intellectual, a friend of artists and men of letters. His successor Borso was the first to gain the title ‘Duke’, from both the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.

Ercole I was one of the most important patrons of the arts in all Europe. He supported music and musicians, and had at his court the principal musicians of the era. He encouraged theatre, loved architecture, and had created the whole north part of Ferrara, to the designs of Biagio Rossetti. His wife was Eleonora of Aragon.

His successor Alfonso I also supported the arts, though he was often away, busy with wars. His second wife was Lucrezia Borgia, who acquired a reputation (in Ferrara at least) as a shrewd and honest woman.

Ercole II, married to Renata of France, had to confront a period of religious reform. The era of Alfonso II signalled the decline of Estense power in Ferrara - he died without heirs and Pope Clement VIII refused to let his cousin Cesare take power in Ferrara, and demanded the ‘restitution’ of the city to the Papal States. Cesare decamped to Modena and set up court there.

But this story of centuries of power and ducal splendour is not without its dark legends. One, known as ‘The Plot of Don Giulio’, adds a special frisson when you tour the castle and its spooky dungeons. It goes like this...

Guilio and Cardinal Ippolito, brothers of Alfonso I, had held grudges and differences with each other from long ago. There came a time when they were in love with the same woman, probably Angela Borgia, cousin of the Duchess Lucrezia, but this maiden granted her preference to Guilio. The two brothers met by chance in the countryside. Guilio was alone and could do nothing when the Cardinal ordered his servants to seize Guilio and kill him. This cruel order wasn’t carried out, but Guilio was beaten until he bled, and lost the use of one eye.

In the dungeon

From that moment Guilio began to plot against Ippolito and against Alfonso I. To succeed, he joined forces with another brother, Ferrante. The conspiracy was soon discovered, and the two princes were condemned to life imprisonment. It was 1506 when the two were shut up in the castle prison. Ferrante died there, but Guilio survived long enough to see the light of freedom again in 1559, thanks to Alfonso II. He’d reached the age of 81 years, of which 53 had been spent under lock and key.

Like to hear another one, just to make sure the goosebumps rise when you’re underground in Castello Estense?

Parisina Malatesta was the second wife of Marquis Niccolò III, who was older than her. She ended up falling in love with her stepson Ugo, sone of the Marquis and Stella dei Tolomei, and he with her. The two young people were discovered, subjected to a rapid trial and finally beheaded. It was 1425; Parisina was 20 years old; Ugo still only 19.

In May 1385 the people of Ferrara were restless, being burdened with taxes and subject to flooding on the Po River plain. Niccolò tried to calm their riotous mood, but in the end he gave the crowd the man they were calling for, an official they held responsible for their situation. He was promptly torn to shreds. The incident convinced Niccolò that he needed an impregnable fortress, and he had the architect Bartolino da Novara design the castle, which adapted an existing tower, the Torre dei Leone, and added three others. As the defensive character of the castle became less important, architectural transformations were made, and the exterior of the castle looks today more or less as designed by Girolamo da Carpi in the reign of Ercole II. The interior has been remodelled numerous times. After the Unification of Italy in the mid 9th century, the Castle was acquired by the Province of Ferrara, which still holds it.

Mirrors for easy viewing of the ceiling frescoes, Castello Estense

The moat today. Castle Estense, Ferrara.

Note: Most of this information, and the stories, are from the small guidebook sold at the castle, "Castello Estense: A trip into history", produced by the City of Ferrara.

The "Minor" Ruins

A few bits and pieces...

Coliseum? The Forum? The Palantine Hill? Baths of Caracalla? Too much? It seems that wherever you go in central Rome - and certainly wherever you dig - there’ll be a Roman-era ruin of some sort. It must be a headache for the city - every time they try to lay a water main or build a subway, they have to deal with yet another precious archaeological site. And the ruins above ground need to be propped up, made safe, protected from the elements. Quite a responsibility.

Here’s a few of the “minor” ruins you may come across in the streets around the ancient Roman centre:

Largo Argentina

Now one of the major transport hubs in the old city and the place to find a taxi or a tram, Largo Argentina also has the ruins of four Roman temples (and a large colony of cats). It was also the area where Pompey’s Theatre was situated - the Senate met there in the 1st century AD, and it’s the place where Julius Caesar was assassinated.

Largo Argentina

Pompey's Theatre -- as it was.

Ludus Magnus

The Ludus Magnus lies to the east of the Coliseum, and was built by the Emperor Domitian in 81-96 AD, as Rome’s foremost training academy for gladiators. It was discovered “by chance” (roadworks?) in 1937. It had a colonnaded courtyard surrounded by gladiators’ quarters and was connected to the Coliseum via a tunnel. Today the scrappy ruins are enhanced by the casual placing of a wooden table or a leather-strap bed, as if the gladiators had just stepped outside to wrestle a lion.

Ludus Magnus -- no gladiators in residence...

Teatro di Marcello

Three levels remain (sort of) of the circular walls of this teatro, looking something like a mini Coliseum - which it pre-dates. One end of it, and its top level, has been subsumed into adjacent buildings and provides residential apartments. The other end is propped up with scaffolding until there’s time and money to do more. It was built in the closing years of the Roman Republic (1st century AD), and is named after an uncle of Augustus. It was the place to go for open-air performances of drama and song and could hold 11,000 spectators in its heyday.

Teatro di Marcello. It's changed a bit.

Portico d’Ottavia

The Portico of Octavia was built by the Emperor Augustus (born ‘Octavian’) between 27 and 23 BC, and was dedicated to his sister Octavia. It replaced an older portico of Metellus (146 BC). Most of the bits left date from after a fire in 203 AD. It is presently under restoration - it’s turn must have come in the budget, perhaps - and there are good interpretive signs. The structure was a four-sided portico with long sides closed off by thick brick walls. The front was lined in columns and there was a monumental entrance. In the middle ages the town crowded around the portico and a fish market was located here. The nearby church is called Sant’Angelo in Pescheria (“at the Fish Market”). The portico has slabs of marble engraved with fish measurements and rules about who could have the biggest fish head (municipal bigwigs - some things never change).

Portico d’Ottavia. Or the Fish Market

Fish Rules.

Tempio di Portunus

As you walk along Via Teatro di Marcello until it joins up with Via Aventino, you’ll pass a number of quite well restored sites, most in their present reasonable state due to the attention of Mussolini, who tided things up before Hitler visited town. 

One small building you’ll see, currently surrounded by the ubiquitous chain-wire fencing, is a small temple to the god Portunus. This area was the ancient Forum Boarium by the Tiber and during antiquity the temple overlooked the Port Tiberinus at a sharp bend in the river. From here, the god Portunus could watch over cattle-barges as they entered the city from Ostia.

Tempio di Portunus. Watching over the port.

Temple of Vesta or Temple of Hercules Victor

Not to be confused with the House of the Vestal Virgins, with its own round temple, in the Forum, this small round temple sits alone now in a piazza with a renaissance fountain. (It’s just across from Santa Maria in Cosmedin and La Bocca della Verità). This small 2nd century BC temple is one of the earliest surviving marble structures in Rome. It’s usually thought to be a temple to Vesta because it’s round, but others say it’s a Temple to Hercules the Victorious (Tempio di Ercole Vincitore). 

Vesta or Hercules? 

Omobono Sanctuary - working on it...

Omobono Sanctuary

Back along the road from the Forum Boarium there’s a prime example of what happens when you start digging in Rome. In the 1930s the area in front of S. Omobono was saved from development by an enthusiastic archaeologist, and they’ve been working on the site ever since. It seems to have been two major temples placed side by side, to the goddesses Fortuna and Mater Matuta, built and rebuilt through the 6th century BC (that’s old, even for Rome).

Arch of Janus

The Romans loved building triumphal arches, and they;re still littered today over the whole geographical spread of their Empire. (Wiki has a list - here.)

The rather spectacular Arch of Janus sits on a side street, behind chain-wire, and overlooked by crumbling apartment blocks. But it’s worth as close a look as you can get. The Arch of Janus is the only quadrifrons triumphal arch preserved in Rome. It was built in the early 4th century AD, using spolia, possibly in honour of Constantine I or Constantius II. The name Janus was applied later, and is derived from the structure's four-fronted, four-arched configuration - related to the four-faced version of Janus (Ianus Quadrifons), as well as to actual Janus-related structures mentioned in historic descriptions of ancient Rome.

The Arch of Janus. Beautiful. 4th century AD.

Roman Holiday

While on Holiday in Rome, I thought I should take some time to watch the 1953 move “Roman Holiday”, directed by William Wyler and starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. I found it a nice bit of fluff. And it was interesting to spot the various Roman locations used in the movie, which proudly proclaims in the opening credits: “Filmed on location in Rome, Italy!”

On the Spanish Steps.

These locations include, most famously, the Spanish steps; a cafe alongside the Pantheon (roughly where there is now a farmacia); the Colosseum; a boat on the Tiber; and a wild scooter ride through the streets. 

Wiki tells the somewhat vapid story. Hepburn won an Academy Award as Best Actress for the role, which was her first major role.

The next day I thought I’d take a walk to the old church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, which dates back to the 8th century (over Roman remains) and has a curious tall, square bell tower - more here. Inside, there’s a spooky crypt and a quiet, old atmosphere, and the relics of San Valentino. However, outside there’s a queue every day of about 50 or 60 people waiting patiently to...have their photo taken with their hands in the mouth of  large circular carving of a face hanging on the wall of the church’s portico. It’s known as “The Mouth of Truth” - La Bocca della Verità.

In the movie there’s a scene featuring this carving. Audrey Hepburn is afraid to put her hand in the mouth, but Gregory Peck puts his in and pretends it’s been bitten off (ha ha). (In the story line, both of them have been telling a few fibs). 

It dawned on me that just about every other tourist in Rome that day had been watching “Roman Holiday”, despite it being a sixty-year-old B&W film - it's a 'classic', of course. Good thing I got around to it, or that crowd would still be a puzzle.

I didn’t queue to put my hand in the Mouth of Truth - it was possible to take a quick snap of the thing in between posing tourists. I adopted an amused distain - like Lonely Planet, which dismisses the face as “a recycled man-hole cover.” Wiki agrees:

“La Bocca della Verità (English: the Mouth of Truth) is an image, carved from Pavonazzo marble, of a man-like face, located in theportico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, Italy. The sculpture is thought to be part of a first-century ancient Romanfountain, or perhaps a manhole cover, portraying one of several possible pagan gods,[1] probably Oceanus. Most Romans believe that the 'Bocca' represents the ancient god of the river Tiber. The most famous characteristic of the Mouth, however, is its role as a lie detector. Starting from the Middle Ages, it was believed that if one told a lie with one's hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off. The piece was placed in the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin in the 17th century.”

Plus more here. Some people take this seriously!

There was no queue for the interior of the church.

The 'must have' Roman holiday snap.

La Bocca della Verità.

The Four Worlds of Basilica San Clemente

Basilica San Clemente, Rome: what you see is not all you get.

About half a kilometre from the Roman Coliseum is an crumbling old basilica dedicated to Pope Clemente I. It was built in the twelfth century - the Basilica San Clemente. It has some curious features, but none more curious than the fact that it is built almost precisely on top of a previous church dedicated to San Clemente.

The older church was built in the fourth century AD, and only discovered by a very curious digging monk named Fr. Joseph Mullooly who found it during the nineteenth century. He is fittingly buried beneath the altar in the preserved fourth century church.

Today's church, from the monastic quadrangle.

But there’s more. Fr. Mullooly also found other buildings below the fourth century church - three levels down are buildings from the first century AD, including Roman houses and a curious Mithraic temple, used to practice an old pagan religion based around the sacrifice of a bull by the god Apollo. In the houses, a fine clear spring still bubbles up.

Even deeper underground are indications that still older houses stood on this site, houses which were burned down in the great conflagration of the time of the Emperor Nero, in 64 AD. The level of the valley in which San Clemente lies was about sixty feet lower in the first century than it is now. After the fire of 64 AD the gutted buildings were filled in and used as foundations for the third-level houses, at a level that is roughly that of the floor of the Colosseum today. There's an interesting video about the layers here.

The fourth century church, underground (held up with 19th century pillars).
Fr. Mullooly is buried under the altar.

San Clemente and his legends

The Legend of San Clemente.

Very little is known about the life of St Clement who lived from 92 to101 AD. According to the oldest the basilica website.

list of Roman bishops, he was the third successor to St Peter in Rome. Check

It would take quite a while to relate all of the legends around San Clemente. There’s a story of a possibly Jewish ex-slave named Clemente who wrote a stirring letter to the Corinthians around 96 AD. All kinds of apocryphal stories grew up, including one about Clemente being banished to the Crimea in the reign of Emperor Trajan (98 - 117 AD). There he got into strife for converting everybody, and the Romans tied him to an anchor and threw him into the Black Sea. Thus, there are lots of paintings of San Clemente being tied to the anchor, and an anchor is his symbol. A variety of colourful miracles followed this martyrdom. 

Sassoferrato's beautiful 'Madonna'

Whether or not any of this happened, it did inspire the two so-called “Apostles of the Slavs”, Saints Cyril and Methodius, to search for Clemente’s body in the Black Sea. Cyril reported that they were able to “miraculously recover” the body of San Clemente, piece by piece - AND the anchor - on a small island, in January 861. These bit and pieces were brought back to Rome, and rest today under the altar in the Basilica. 

In fact, the remains of St Cyril are also there, housed in a side chapel under a charming painting of the Madonna by Sassoferrato. It’s said that Cyril’s first resting place was down in the fourth-century church, and scholars think they might have located the spot - it’s marked today with a small altar. But presumably Cyril was brought upstairs when the new Basilica was built in 1110.

Reusing the old basilica

Re-used marble choir; inspired mosaics.

A few other bits and pieces were also re-used from the fourth century church when the new basilica was built, most spectacularly the large carved marble choir, or schola cantorum, where the chanting priests and acolytes would sit during service. A pair of beautiful ornate columns were also recycled from below for a marble cardinal’s tomb in the fifteenth century. Perhaps most interestingly, the gorgeous mosaics that cover the apse, the “crowning glory” of the Basilica, although executed in the twelfth century, are full of much earlier medieval imagery. My small guide book (written by one Leonard Boyle in the 1960s) says:

The motifs here are so clearly in the tradition of the fourth and fifth centuries that it has been suggested that the mosaic is simply a reproduction or, possibly, a remodelling on a smaller scale, of the mosaic that decorated the apse of the abandoned basilica below. Certainly there is the typically fourth and fifth century conception of the Cross as the new “Tree of Life” planted upon the hill of paradise restored by Christ, from which a river “divided into four heads” (Phison, Gehon, Tigris, Euphrates) flows to “water paradise” (Genesis 2, 10-14) and the whole world. Then there are the doves, symbols of souls, the hart drinking of the river, and the phoenix of immortality....

The old frescoes

The 12th century basilica has its share of frescoes. Many tell the legends of San Clemente, including the scene where he’s thrown into the sea with an anchor around his neck. There is also a lovely fifteenth century Saint Christopher on the wall, which has attracted pilgrims for centuries. Today it’s covered in protective perspex, but the pilgrims used to scratch their names on it. The oldest of these graffiti has the date 1459. There’s a side chapel covered with frescoes detailing the life, works and death of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (she of the wheel), done around 1428 to 1431 by a painter named Masolino, possibly assisted by his young contemporary Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone, known as' Masaccio' (which I mention because it translates to “Hulking Tom”, which conjures quite a visual image).

Down below in the fourth century church there are also, amazingly, some reasonably well-preserved frescoes and parts of frescoes. One of the very oldest is a Madonna, possibly converted from a portrait of Empress Theodora (who died in 548), the wife of Emperor Justinian. There’s faded fresco depicting the return of San Clemente's remains; a strange ‘Ascension’ (of Christ or His mother, it’s not clear); and a “Legend of St Alexis” (which appears to have been a quite exciting story. 

St Alexis -- it's a long story...

There’s even a faint fresco (of a male figure) at the lower level, in the Mithraic “school”, possibly as old as the third century. How these things survive flood, mud and burial in rock, to say nothing of the passing centuries, is miraculous. 

The Mithraic religion

And what went on in the Mithraeum? There’s no written records left of the Mithraic religion, only physical bits and pieces and some comments from others, so there’s a lot of guesswork involved. I’m indebted again to my little guide book for this information: 

Mithras was a god born from a rock, to be the bearer of salvation, as in life and fertility, for the world. Later, at the command of the god Apollo, conveyed by a raven, Mithras set out to trap and spill the blood of the being that possessed life to the full, a Bull from the region of the Moon. In a desperate fight he manages to slay the bull, while a scorpion (personification of evil), a hound and a snake join in. From the blood of this bull all plants and all animal life and all that is good came into being, but the scorpion’s sly spilling of some of the most vital blood brought evil also into the world. When the fight was over Mithras and Apollo quarrelled, but they soon made peace, celebrating the victory with a great banquet. Then Apollo, the God of the Sun, took Mithras off to the heavens in a chariot.

Mithraic dining room, with an altar from the Temple.

From all of this, it seems that the main way of celebrating in this religion was to have great banquets. In the lower level of the San Clemente diggings there’s a fine Mithraic dining room. The Bull in this myth was the symbol of fertility, and the religion was a cosmic, seasonal one. The banquets and ceremonies usually took place underground, in grottoes. Stars were often painted on the ceiling to represent the heavens. My guide book goes on:

The religion was, in fact, severely moral, loyalty and fidelity being extolled above all else. Consecration to Mithras guaranteed salvation, for Mithras had won life for the world and was himself in heaven as reward for his obedience to the message of Apollo.

I don’t know how this strikes you, but there are some pretty strong parallels with Christianity here. My guide notes these - he’s a fair man - but becomes quite shrill in pointing out the differences. It is curious, however, that the subsequent Christian traditions should include so many aspects of an earlier pagan rite...

Fr. Mullooly

And so, layer upon layer, Basilica San Clemente tells the stories of the people who lived, survived, chose to worship, made art, and generally managed to get by overt two millennia. How amazing that we have such records of their doings. And that we can see them - thanks,  Fr. Joseph Mullooly!

Roman houses from the second century:
there's a bright stream still running down here.

Note: Since visitors are not permitted to take photographs in Basilica San Clemente, the images come from various sources around the web, including the website of Basilica San Clemente.