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Enter into the underground... |
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written
by calaroni / 09.08.2004 |
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Patron |
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*Much of this topic was answered through the history covered in section one, and will be further discussed in section six.
As discussed in the section on the rise of Christianity and the history of the catacombs, the catacombs were built out of necessity for space, due to the Christian belief that bodies must be buried out of respect. Not only were the catacombs places to be entombed, they were places to worship freely, to express oneself through symbols and art, and to perform the Eucharist when persecutions were raging. Despite contradicting reports, the catacombs were not used as places of refuge for Christians during the persecutions, nor were they built because of the persecutions.
The Christians embraced the preexisting practice of underground excavation and “…developed it on an immense scale into a cast and multi-levelled network of galleries” as a solution to the challenge of the burial of an increasing community of Christians. Some catacombs were developed surprisingly quickly due to the cult of martyrs buried there and as many Christians insisted on having tombs as close to the tombs of martyrs as possible.
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