FANCIULLI, I TRE. – Ancient Christian art often represented the two episodes narrated by the prophet Daniel concerning the three young Hebrews Anania, Azaria, and Missel (Dan. 3:13–50). The two moments are also distinguished in the Commendatio animae: «Libera Domine... sicut liberasti tres pueros de camino ignis et de manu impli regis». But even before art, Pope Clement, recalling the three youths, admonished that persecutors are unaware that the Most High is the protector and defender of those who, in purity of conscience, serve his most powerful name (I Cor. 45: PG 1, 301).
Origen identifies in Nabuchodonosor the precursor of the persecutors of Christ’s faithful; it was not only then that Nabuchodonosor had the golden statue erected; it was not only then that he threatened Anania, Azaria, and Missel with throwing them into the furnace if they refused to worship the statue. Even today Nabuchodonosor speaks the same language to us, who are the true Hebrews (Exhortatio ad martyr., 33: PG 11, 604). The three youths thus symbolize the victims of persecutions; this is why the scene was painted in the cubiculum of the cemetery of Priscilla, where the martyr Crescenzione, martyred in 304, was buried (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 123, 1). Bosio saw the same scene on the vault of an arcosolium in the cemetery now called that of Marco, Marcellino, and Damaso, to the right of the Via Appia, rediscovered at the beginning of 1948 (A. Bosio, Roma sotterranea, Rome 1634, p. 279).
The representation is found more frequently on sarcophagi, generally carved on the lids (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pp. 261 ff.). In some examples Nabuchodonosor brandishes a lance (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pls. 199, 3; 200, 2 and 3); in others he is escorted by a soldier and a centurion (id., op. cit., pls. 176, 1 and 6; 199, 2 and 5); sometimes, instead of being seated, he is standing (id., op. cit., pl. 195, 4). The representation of the three youths unharmed in the furnace was made as early as the middle of the 2nd century in the so-called Greek Chapel at Priscilla (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 13). They are shown in an attitude of prayer, with their hands raised aloft, laudantes Deum, et benedictentes Domino (Dan. 3:24). They generally wear a Phrygian cap or tiara on their heads and are always clothed, sometimes in green (at Priscilla: Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 78, 1; at Bassilla: ibid., pl. 114;
in the Giordani: E. Josi, Le pitture rinvenute nel cimitero dei Giordani, in Riv. di archeol. crist., 5 [1928], pp. 202–203, fig. 27). On Christian sarcophagi the representation is sometimes accompanied by other persons; either an attendant is shown tending the fire (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pls. 170, 4; 170, 2), or there is a figure in a pallium with columns, whom Wilpert explains in some cases as one of the Chaldean accusers (Dan. 3:8), or as the angel of the Lord, or God himself, assisting the three youths. One sarcophagus lid bears, on its upper level, the date A.D. 334 (Wilpert, op. cit., p. 22
and pl. 181, 2). Two Byzantine-period bas-reliefs depicting the three youths amid the flames are in the Museum of Constantinople (A. Muñoz, Sculture bizantine, in N. Bull. di arch. crist., 12 [1906], pp. 111–113, fig. 1 and pl. 4, 1, where the angel is also shown). The scene is also found scratched into an inscription in the cemetery of Pretestato (E. Josi, Note sul cimitero di Pretestato, III, in Riv. di arch. crist., 12 [1935], p. 15 and fig. 8). At Carthage, in the basilica of Damoux-et-Karita, a mosaic inscription reads: trei orantes pueri, and beneath it, also in mosaic, are the busts of the three (P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne de l'Afrique, Paris 1907, p. 63, no. 261). Some lamps from Rome and Africa depict the refusal to worship the statue (R. Garrucci, Storia dell'arte cristiana, VI, Prato 1886, pls. 473, 3; 476, 6 and 8; A. Toulotte, Le roi Nabochodunogar sur des monuments africains, in N. Bull. arch. crist., 6 [1900], pp. 113–119); others show the three youths amid the flames, with the angel among them; the same is found on a lamp from Sulmona (R. Garrucci, loc. cit., pl. 475, 7; B. Manna, Di un'antica lucerna cristiana di Sulmona rappresentante i t. f. di Babilonia, in N. Bull. di arch. crist., 27 [1921], pp. 101–105 and pl. 16).
The three young Hebrews amid the flames appear on the glass bowl of Podgoritza (G. B. De Rossi, Podgoritza in Albania, Insique tazza vitrea, in Bull. arch. crist., 2e serie, 5 [1874], pp. 133–135). They are also found on certain ivories, such as the capsella of Brescia, the Gospel-book cover at Ravenna (R. Garrucci, Storia, VI, pl. 421), and the capsella of Brivio, now in the Louvre (Ph. Lauer, La capsella de Brivio, in Fondation E. Piot, XIII, 1906, pp. 220–240). The three youths were also venerated in Egypt, where a church was erected in their honor at Alexandria; in Africa, at Guelma, the memoriae (s) (a) (c) (or) (m) tris(m) Puerom(m) were placed on an altar (P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne d'Afrique, Paris 1907, p. 63, no. 261).