CIRIACA, CEMETERY OF. — On the Via Tiburtina; it takes its name from the legend that attributes to a widow named C. the burial of the deacon and martyr St. Lawrence in a property of hers called the 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 on the lower level. Other martyrs venerated in the cemetery and recorded there by the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum* were the saints Abbondius, Irenaeus, Crescentia, Justin, and Concordia, to whom the itineraries of the 7th century add others.
Its vast extent was attested by A. Bosio, who explored various parts of it (*Roma sotterranea*, Rome 1632, pp. 397-411). Other sections were later seen by Boldetti, who read an inscription there mentioning the purchase of a tomb in a crypta nobilis behind the saints. Marangoni discovered a cubiculum decorated with music. 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 construction of the modern bell tower, the cemetery regions suffered damage and devastation, so that today of the great necropolis developed around the most venerated tomb of the martyr Lawrence, only a few very damaged sections remain, which can be accessed either from the basilica itself, or from the cloister of the Capuchin convent attached to the basilica, as well as from entrances located near the sepulchral monuments of the modern cemetery (Annivitti, De Romanis, and Odescalchi).
There are still to be seen some paintings representing the judgment of a deceased named Zosimianus; the falling
of the manna in the desert; the entry of a deceased woman into Paradise; the announcement of Peter’s denial; and the depiction of a Magus King with the star and the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Wilpert, *Pitture*, p. 513).
Epigraphs from the cemetery have been published by Bosio, Boldetti, Marangoni, Lupi, Marini, de Rossi, and Marucchi; a group of them is gathered in the cloister adjacent to the basilica, but most are now dispersed; some are in the lapidary gallery at the Vatican, in the Lateran Christian Museum, in the Capitoline collections, and outside Rome.