CEMETERY OF ST. CYRIACA. - On the Via Tiburtina; it takes its name from the legend that attributes to a widow named C. the deposition of the deacon and martyr St. Lawrence in a property of hers called Agro Verano.

The underground cemetery, consisting of two levels of galleries, evidently had its oldest part demolished by the construction of the two basilicas erected in honor of the martyr Lawrence, who had been buried in a gallery of the lower level. Other martyrs venerated in the cemetery and commemorated in it by the Jeronymian Martyrology were Sts. Abundius, Irenaeus, Crescention, Justin and Concordia, to whom the itineraries of the 7th century add others.

Its vastness is attested by A. Bosio, who explored various regions of it (Roma sotterranea, Rome 1632, pp. 397-411). Others were later seen by Boldetti, who read there an inscription mentioning the purchase of a tomb in crypta noba retro sanctos; Marangoni discovered there a cubiculum decorated with mosaics. Other monuments of the cemetery were published by Fr. G. Marchi (I monumenti delle arti cristiane primitive, Rome 1844, pp. 109-112, 225-26). But with the establishment of the modern cemetery the cemetery regions suffered damage and devastation, so much so that today of the great necropolis that developed around the most venerated tomb of the martyr Lawrence there remain a few heavily damaged regions, which can be reached either from the basilica itself or from the cloister of the convent of the Capuchins annexed to the basilica, as well as from entrances located near the burial monuments of the modern cemetery (Annivitti, De Romanis and Odescalchi).

There are still to be seen some paintings representing the judgment of a deceased man named Zosimianus; the fall of the manna in the desert; the entry of a deceased woman into Paradise; the announcement of Peter's denial; the depiction of a Magus King with the star and the parable of the wise virgins and the foolish virgins (Wilpert, Pitture, p. 513).

Epigraphs from the cemetery have been published by Bosio, Boldetti, Marangoni, Lupi, Marini, de Rossi, Marucchi; a group of them is gathered in the cloister adjacent to the basilica; but most are today dispersed; some are in the lapidary gallery at the Vatican, in the Christian Museum of the Lateran, in the Capitoline collections and outside Rome.

Bibliography11 works

BIBL.: G. B. de Rossi, Epitaffi con date consolari rinvenuti in S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, in Bull. di arch. crist., 1st series, 1863, p. 68 ff.; id., Altri monumenti di sacre vergini nell'Agro Verano, ibid., p. 73 ff.; id., Scoperte nella basilica di S. Lorenzo nell'Agro Verano, ibid., 1864, p. 63 ff.; id., Scoperte nell'Agro Verano e nel sotterraneo cimitero di C., ibid., 3rd series, 1 (1876), p. 16 ff.; id., Arcosolio dipinto del cimitero di C. nell'Agro Verano, ibid., pp. 145-49; 2 (1877), pp. 61-62; E. Stevenson, Cubicolo con graffiti storici nel cimitero di C., in Nuovo bull. di arch. crist., 1 (1895), p. 74 ff.; O. Marucchi, Miscellanea archeologica, in Römische Quartalschrift, 11 (1896), p. 85 ff.; id., Le catacombe romane, Rome 1933, pp. 338-54; H. Leclercq, Cyriaque (Catacombe de), in DACL, III, 2, coll. 3227-56; G. P. Kirsch, Catacombe romane, Rome 1933, p. 130 ff. For the sarcophagi: Wilpert, Sarcofagi, III, suppl., p. 67.

Sandro Carletti

@incollection{ec3_ciriaca_cimitero_di, author = {Carletti, Sandro}, title = {Ciriaca, cimitero di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1712--1713}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ciriaca-cimitero-di} }

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Cemetery of St. Cyriaca

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