On page 146 of the Kip book,
there appears another inscription about which no other information is
provided:
Chi-Rho is P atop the X, the 1st century greek
monogram for Christ Crucified.
My translation for this one is:
Christian Cyriaca 'my' sweetest buried here; in peace
she lived. Years 35 at death.
The last line is beyond me, but may indicate that she was either
preceded or survived by her husband. The peace reference may
indicate that the death WAS NOT FROM PERSECUTION - the implication being
that dying in peace was an exception to the rule worthy of
notation.
Pages 156 & 157 of the Northcote
"Epitaphs of the Catacombs; ..." book has: 
Cyriace is feminine?! "Elpis and Cyriaca made this" (Huh! Elpis!? Was there
an Elvis sighting 2,000 years ago?!) The symbol below is a sly
representation of the Christian cross which could also be interpreted as
a shovel or anchor. Bill Thayer sent an email indicating that ELPIS means
HOPE in Greek - meaning that this inscription could have meant:
Hope and Dedication to the Lord built this.
The hope, of course, referring to the impending resurrection of the
bodies being buried. But, both Elpis and Cyriace were also
Christian names, so the mystery continues.
The discussion regarding age beginning on page 193 of the Marucchi book indicates that this is one of the most ancient inscriptions. To me, this indicates the possibility that the firm of "Elpis & Cyriaca, Ltd." was the prime contractor for this catacomb. Other, more abbreviated ?and ancient? inscriptions, appear to indicate the same type of 'Constructed by' acknowledgment. There should be at least one in each of the various catacombs. If the Cyriac portion, or an abbreviation thereof is common in many, then it reinforces my belief that the ancient Greek Cyriac family may have gained its wealth from underground and other construction activities - probably initiated to service very ancient Egyptian underground burial practices in the area of Alexandria before expanding also to Cappadocia, Rome and elsewhere - they built the newly created Christian underground burial AND HIDING places.
Page 92 of the Marucchi book references the inscription:
-
A Christian, Evelpius, "cultor Verbi," founded a place of burial,
"aream ad sepulcra," and constructed a "cella" on this funerary
dominion. The property was later left to the Church, and when the
inscription was destroyed, the community restored it.
In another discussion on page 101 of the Roma Sotteranea book, the exact same inscription (below) is referenced as: "Car Kuriaco Fil ..." Here, the 'Y' has been interpreted as a 'V', becoming a 'U' in the translation. Ain't that the story of our name? Just like the "Y" and "V" here, the high german "Y" was almost identical to the english "I" Another on pages 220~1, "A Greek inscription found at Syracuse informs us that the deceased woman was interred on the feast day of St. Lucy (December 13):
(There's no translations given for most of the inscriptions in the Marucchi book, so Latin and Greek are now on my list of priorities. The KYPIAC here should be Cyriac, though, which is neither male nor female. The feminine reference may be somewhere else in that inscription.)
Page 80 of the Northcote "Epitaphs of the Catacombs; ..." book shows this inscription:
Note that the missing upper right corner may have
contained a highly significant phrase regarding KYRIACo. Page 444 of Roma Sotteraneahas:
"Along the whole length of A [ 'A' refers to
one of the galleries (underground hallway) in the catacomb - see QVIRIACE, below ], numerous
inscriptions have been found in fragments which have fallen from the
loculi, and they are for the most part in the Greek
language."
Greek was used before 258, when most of the Greek inscribers,
?including an un/misidentified Cyriacus?, may have been
martyred along with the rest of the bishops and other leaders throughout the
Roman Empire. [ The VIBAS is another
significant inclusion for it being found here and in the CY
RIACEVIBAS inscription above the goat in the so-called "Goat Mosaic"
located in Aquileia, Italy at the
very top of the Adriatic - click the image to read more about it.
The CAR seems more likely to be an abbreviation for
carissimo instead of cartilio. It's noteworthy that its abbreviation
makes room for the missing term after KYRIACo, which
itself may or may not be significant - another mystery
in need of investigation. ]
The epitaph is translated on the page 81 of the same Northcote "Epitaphs of the Catacombs; ..." book as: "To dear Cyriacus, sweetest son. Mayest thou live in the Holy Spirit." So, the obvious question is:
-
Whose son? Who was the parent having this
inscription prepared?
The Orazio Marucchi book
(1935), page 217, as the first example under the heading, "3. Belief
in the Holy Ghost", shows a representation of this exact same inscription
with a full 'O' and the "NSPIRITOSAN" separated as, "N SPIRITO
SAN". While the latter may have been done to highlight that section
for the subject matter under discussion, it proves the need to find the
original or more accurate references describing the originals. The
caption under the representation reads:
Cemetery of Callistus.
The Galleries page of the OUTSTANDING English LANGUAGE version of the Italian, THE CHRISTIAN CATACOMBS OF SAINT CALLIXTUS web site also references this inscription. It's found in Gallery A, the oldest, main passageway running within 20 feet (underground) of and parallel to the Via Appio-Ardeatina, the road connecting the Via Appia to the Via Ardeatina:
- "A notre cher Ciriacus, notre enfant très doux. Puisses-tu vivre dans l'Esprit Saint."
- "Für Cartilius Cyriacus, den liebsten Sohn. Mögest du leben im Heiligen Geist"
- "To Cartilius Ciriacus, most sweet son, that you may live in the Holy Spirit".
- "A Cartilio Ciriaco figlio dolcissimo. Possa tu vivere nello Spirito Santo."
- "Do drogiego Cyriaka, wdzicznego syna. Abyo y3 w Duchu Owitym"
- "Ao querido Ciríaco filho dulcíssimo. Possas viver no Espírito Santo"
- "A Cartilio Ciríaco, hijo dulcísimo. ¡Puedas tú vivir en el Espíritu Santo!"
- "AOE _ _ ,r_UO. 3E _E- AI , oI3."
The new Chinese page is still unfound. ] Page 88 of the "Testini" book has:
MARTYRES SANCTI BONI
BENEDICTI BOS AIUTATE QUIRACU
Martyres
Holy
Good
Blessed
help
Quiracus
[ bos/bovis: cox, ox or bull. boo/boare: to cry out, sing, praise, narrate. ]
This remarkable inscription, "made of mosaic applied to the sealing tiles", is found in the Cemetery of Pamphilus on the Via Salaria Vetus and dates to the 3rd century. The martyr highly venerated therein is 'unknown'!! Needless to say, especially since no reason is given for leaving an interpretation for 'bos' out, the original of this one also needs inspection. One need remember that many, if not all, of these inscriptions, especially, apparently, before the Christian religion became legal in 313, contained abbreviations and had their lettering run together without spacing. That may have been intentionally designed to confuse pagan interlopers coming to take their anger out on the 'scapegoats' of the day.
That 'BOS AIUTATE' could also be 'BO SALUTA TE', which could possibly mean:
"The goodly blessed Saint-Martyrs cry out their reverence for Cyriacus" who, ?buried here in martyrdom?, has done so much to build these catacombs which have made us safe for the day of resurrection. There's a whole lot of presumption in all this, but based on what already exists, that's not an unusual circumstance - which is the point of it all:
a detailed analytical study of the 11,000 ORIGINAL inscriptions, categorized by age, lettering type, spacing, placement near the tomb and nationality needs to be studied. If not already created, then it should be - especially in this age of fast and efficient computers. Oh yes, the QUIRACUS could also be QUIRINUS, another martyr in contention. At first blush, it seems that a lot of the martyrs with Greek names are in contention.
| On page 207 of Marucchi, another inscription discusses consular dates and
highlights the existance of the family name at the end of the 4th century -
still in the suburbs of Rome.
Here positioned is soul sweet innocent wise & pretty named Quiriace who lived: years 3 mo 3 d 8 deposited in peace 3 ? ?1st? CONSS ? 2nd & ?name? ? 3rd The CONSS. (dominis nostris consulibus) apparently refers to the Emperor Theodosius I (378-95) and his ?co-horts? Magnus Maximus (383-88) and Flavius Victor (384-88) but I only see the TEVDOSIO connection. |
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France Germany Great Britain Italy the Netherlands Poland Portugal or Spain
- the other languages spoken there the last time I checked the home page in English.
In the area of SS. Gaius and Eusebius there's a cubicle of the mysterious deacon Severus who got permission from Pope St. Marcellinus (296-304) to allow him to add his own family crypt near where the most revered Saint-Martyrs were buried. But even closer to the Crypt of the Popes is:
- the area that's said to be the oldest in the St. Callixtus catacomb;
- the area where St. Cecilia was enshrined in a private crypt;
- the ancient areas where both the "CAR KYRIACO ..." inscription and the following DASVMIA QVIRIACE laudation were found: All these inscriptions directly associate our Cyriac name with the Christian catacombs of ancient Rome and are the earliest known "written" proof of the existence of the name we have. Almost all of them were inscribed before the beginning of the 4th century and the legalization of Christianity.
