Generosa Cemetery

GENEROSA CEMETERY. - It is located at the sixth mile of the Via Portuense, in the locality anciently called "ad sextum Philippi," near the grove of the Fratres Arvales. It originated, in the praesidium of a matron Generosa, from the burial of the martyrs Simplicius, Faustinus, and Viatrix, in a private hypogeum, which then developed into a cemetery for the rural Christian community of the area. The cemetery is mentioned only in the Liber de locis sanctis Martyrum: "Iuxta viam vero Portuensem, quae et ipsa in occidentali parte civitatis est... s. Simplicius, s. Faustinus, s. Beatrix dormiunt"; the Hieronymian Martyrology adds the detail of the distance from Rome, "miliario VI." According to the Acts, the martyrs Simplicius and Faustinus belong to the persecution of Diocletian. Their bodies remained in the cemetery until the time of Leo II (682-83), who transported them to S. Bibiana, in a rough sarcophagus, today preserved in the canonica of S. Maria Maggiore, which bears the following inscription: "Martyres, Simplicius, et Faustinus / Qui passi sunt in flumen Tibere et posi / ti sunt in cimiterium Generoses supra / Filippi."

The cemetery, forgotten for many centuries, came back to light when in the years 1858-64 the discoveries near the grove of the Fratres Arvales and the temple of Dea Dia were made; the same excavations also brought to knowledge the Basilica erected by Pope Damasus (366-84) near the tomb of the martyrs. The cemetery galleries dug into the hill are not very extensive: and because of their roughness they present the characteristics of a country cemetery. There are still several loculi, some with consular dates; one, graffiti, of the year 372. The Basilica built by Damasus is at the same level as the galleries; its length is 15 m., its central nave 6.30 m. wide, its right side aisle 2.75 m.; no traces remain of the left one, which has disappeared, as has the roof and a large part of the perimeter walls. The clearing of the building was carried out by the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology in 1868; the restoration work begun in 1901, resumed in 1936, has remained interrupted. Belonging to the Basilica is a fragment of an epistyle in Philocalian letters, with the words (Faustino) Viatrici. The historic crypt of the martyrs is reached through a passage opened to the right of the apse, in which, above the cathedra, a fenestrella allows a view of the interior of the sanctuary. In the 6th century, on the wall raised to reinforce the crypt itself, a fresco was executed which presents in the center the Savior with the crossed nimbus, in the act of speaking and supporting the book of the law; on the left side Sts. Viatrix and Simplicius, on the right Sts. Faustiniano (Faustinus) and Rufinianus, indicated by their names: the last figure seems added for symmetry and perhaps through the devotion of the patron. Almost leaning against the apse is an arcosolium, the only one in the cemetery, in masonry, later than the year 384, as may be inferred from the date of that year in the inscription placed above a forma, partly covered by the wall of the arcosolium. In the lunette of the arcosolium is an almost vanished figure of an orant; on the walls, on the right, the sacrifice of Abraham, the Good Shepherd, and, below, a sheep; on the left wall, a representation of the flock, which remained concealed by a wall added later. De Rossi wished to see in this arcosolium the tomb of the martyr Viatrix.

Carlo Carletti