COLLEGIUM CULTORUM MARTYRUM. - Founded on 6 January 1879 by Mariano Armellini (v.), Adolfo Hytrek, Orazio Marucchi (v.) and Enrico Stevenson (v.), all disciples of G. B. De Rossi (v.). Its purpose is to revive the cult of the martyrs, especially at their tombs in the ancient Christian cemeteries. On that day, after the celebration of Holy Mass in the crypt of St. Cecilia in Callistus and the visit to the image of the Epiphany in the same cemetery, the foundations of the institution were laid and its name was established. On the following 2 February, having been received by Monsignor A. De Waal (v.) in the hospice of St. Maria in Campo Santo, which became the Schola collegii, there were approved the lex collegii, formulated by E. Stevenson on the model of the ancient lex of the funerary college of Lanuvium, and the related regulations.
The collegiate calendar was established, whose year begins with the celebration of the Nativity of St. Cecilia in Callistus; the major solemnities were distinguished by a liturgical celebration in the morning, followed by an archaeological lecture, a fraternal agape, and a liturgical commemoration in the afternoon with an archaeological lecture and a procession through the cemetery ambulatories; whereas on other days the commemoration is limited either to the morning or to the afternoon; this calendar has undergone several modifications, always in agreement with the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology (v. COMMISSIONI PONTIFICIE), to which Pius XI, by his motu proprio of 11 December 1925, entrusted everything relating to the cult of the ancient Christian cemeteries. The c. is composed of an indeterminate number of sodales and of associates; women too are admitted to this latter category.
The sodales and the associates may also not reside in Rome. Only the sodales take part in the meetings with a deliberative vote. All those enrolled in the college pay a modest annual fee to cover the expenses of the liturgical celebrations and of administration. The college is governed by a directing council composed of five sodales, perpetual curatores, who must ensure observance of the lex; the presidency of the college is elected annually by the sodales and consists of a Magister (president), a Sacerdos (director of the liturgical celebrations), an ab epistolis (secretary), an arcarius (treasurer), and a trichiura (for the agapes).
The seat of the college is at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology (via Napoleone III, no. 1). A great increase in the liturgical celebrations was given to the college by its late Magister (1931-47), Monsignor Carlo Respighi, who desired that the college should become the promoter in Rome of the revival of the Holy Lenten Stations. The college has also promoted liturgical celebrations at the shrines of the martyrs outside Rome, so much so that, in imitation of and in connection with the c. C.M. of Rome, sections of the same college have been established at Chiusi and at Palestrina.
Enrico Josi