The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-02-12
ROME's UNDERGROUND CITY
OF DEAD.
SIGHTS IN THE CATAC0MBs
Father Van Clarenbeck Talks
Entertainingly on Subject
Interesting to All.

At St. Joachim's Catholic church
Sunday night the Rev. Father Francis
Van Clarenbeck gave a talk on the
catacombs Of Rome. The reverend
gentleman spoke for an hour and a
half, and his description was most in
teresting.
He spoke Of visiting the city of
Assist, having 5000 population.
"One of the churches here contains
the tomb of st. Francis, the founder
Of the Franciscan order. Over the
tomb were quite a number of the most
beautiful paintings by Giotto, one of
the most famous of Italy's artists.
There we also admired the beautiful
marble pulpit from which st. Ber-
nardinus and st. Bonaventura have
preached to the people. We were also
shown the chalice used by St. Francis,
his habit, the cord with which the
saint was girded and the sandals worn
by him after he had received the
stigma. The house in which the
mother of st. Francis lived and the sta
BILE in which he was born are still ex-
tant today, but have been converted
into a chapel by Phillip III, king of
Spain. We also visited another church
now dedicated to the Blessed Virgin,
but which was used formerly by the
pagan Romans for the worship of the
Goddess Minerva.
"We left Assist September 10, ar
irving in Rome in the afternoon of the
same day. I longed to see the city of
Rome, the eternal city where st.
Peter and Paul had suffered martyr
dom, the city Of the popes, the city of
the illustrious prisoner Of the vatican,
which has seen many thousands of
Christians torn to pieces and devoured
by the wild beasts in the amphithea-
tire. Oh, how my heart did long to
see it. Rome is all of wonders. The
remains of pagan Rome, not to NEIL
ton the Christian antiquities of the
city require for a full acquaintance
with them the devotion of a life time.
But, perhaps, when all is said the
most wonderful thing in the Eternal
city is the gigantic labyrinth OF the
~catacombs, in whose dark recesses the
bodies Of the faithful are laid and
where in the long and cruel persecu-
lions popes, priests and their flocks
sought refuge from their prosecutors.
OF all the catacombs those of st.
Agnes and st. Sebastian are the most
solemn and interesting. The cata-
combs of st Sebastian are situated on
the 'Apian way via Apia, we'll
known to students of history. In the
church of St. Sebastian, through
which we entered the cataoombs of
st. Sebastian, is kert the original
footprint, said to have been left here
by our Savior when He met Peter
about to leave Rome. After the burn
ing of Rome Nero threw upon the
Christians the accusation of having
fred the city. This was the origin of
the first persecution in which so many
Christians suffered martyrdom. The
Christian converts besought Peter not
to expose his life. AS he fed along
the Apian way, about two miles from
the gates, he was met bya vision of
our Lord travelling towards the city.
Struck with amazement Peter ex-
claimed Lord. whittier goest thou
and Jesus looking at him with a mild
sadness answered, i go to the city to
protect thee.'
1.-THE early Christians called their
burial places cemeteries, ie., sleeping
places, indicative of their belief in the
resurrection. The Roman law forbade
burials within the city limits, so we
find that the ancient Christian burying
places at Rome are outside the walls.
The Roman law, moreover, looks upon
a tomb as a religious place, no matter
which religion the dead man pro-
fessed. Penalties were decreed against
those who violated tombs. From the
foundation of the Catholic church up
to the time IF Domitia, A. D., l to 90,
the faithful were buried in private
tombs, sometimes above, sometimes
below ground, and with no fear or
solicitude. But when persecution be-
gan then the faithful laid their dead
in secret places down in the bowels of
the earth. The catacombs are the
silent yet eloquent memorial of those
days when popes, priests and people
were sought and prosecuted and
martyred with a fury little less than
diabollcal. For fully 200 years to be
a Christian was enough. to be deserv-
ing of death and the most atrocious
persecution. The last of the 10 great
prosecutions was the longest and the
most terrible. For the space of 10
years not a day of mercy shone upon
the suffering church. We have seen
the Coliseum preserved through the
good care of the popes until this day,
where starved out and hungry tigers
were set loose upon the helpless Chris
tians while 100. 900 blood-thirsty
Romans, men, women and children,
enjoyed this horrible and awful spec
tacle. These mute yet eloquent walls
lnudly proclaim the divinity of the