AURELI HYPOGEUM. — Discovered in Rome in 1919 near Viale Manzoni, this subterranean complex consists of four rooms built at different levels and comprises an atrium and three chambers with a subsequent development of burial galleries. It is especially valuable for its paintings, whose age likely dates to the first decades of the 3rd century and whose content presents a blend of distinctly Christian subjects with elements entirely foreign to the usual Christian repertoire.
The first chamber, at ground level, has preserved on the back wall a double composition referring to the creation and fall of the Protoparents, while on the side walls appear four figures of doctors connected by architectural backgrounds. In the atrium, among others, a notable male figure points to a cross that has appeared above. In the second chamber, below the first, the central composition of the vault (a veiled woman between two old men, one of whom holds a miraculous staff over the woman’s head) all set within a reddish light, the numerous
Ad monachos and Ad virgines, which are an expanded reworking of the rules of St. Caesarius.
Noteworthy are certain prescriptions: it was forbidden to send or receive letters without the abbot’s permission (art. 6); no one could keep food or drink at the bedside, but everything had to be deposited in the common storeroom (art. 7); only free men were admitted as religious (art. 18); manual labor was recommended and was to be united with prayer (art. 24); all were to learn to read (art. 32); save rare exceptions, only the abbot could be ordained a priest (art. 6); the monks were vegetarians: meat was tolerated only in case of illness (art. 51) and it was forbidden to take food or drink outside of mealtime (art. 52).
There also survives a letter to King Theudebert, written in accordance with the usage of the Roman Chancery, in rhythmic prose.
A. is venerated as a saint, and his feast occurs on June 16.