MEMORIA. - In the Christian language of the first centuries the term m. had many meanings.
In the first place m. was the equivalent of titulus, in which case: "Memoriam posuit" was synonymous with "titulum posuit." Little by little m. received a broader and more extended meaning, and came to be applied not only to the commemorative inscription, but also to the entire tomb. In this sense the Fathers and ancient writers make very frequent use of it (cf. St. Augustine, Epistolarum classis, II, ep. 78: PL 33, 269); St. Paulinus of Nola, Ep. 32 ad Severum (CSEL, XXIX, 288). The epigraphic examples, moreover, are innumerable (cf. CIL, III, 4186, 10237; VIII, 9716, 22855; G. B. De Rossi, Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae, I, Rome 1857, 448 etc.). Nor is the case excluded that m. may indicate the entire burial place, and not simply a single tomb (cf. L. Renier, Inscriptions romaines de l'Algérie, n. 2031). Furthermore, in literary and epigraphic language it also signified the church itself, which contained the tomb of a martyr (cf. St. Augustine, Sermo 323: PL 38, 1446; Contra Faustum Manicheum, 20, 21: PL 42, 385). Finally, and this especially in Africa, m. indicated the relics of the saints. This is the sense of m. when it occurs on African epigraphs, accompanied by: "deposita" or "depositae" (P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne d'Afrique, Paris 1907, n. 261).
From what has been said it appears clearly how difficult is the interpretation of the term m. in the writings of the ancients and in epigraphy. In these cases the key to the explanation lies in the verb that accompanies m. Thus m., placed before the inscription, instead of titulus, will simply mean the memory, that is to say the remembrance; it will instead mean the whole tomb, if m. is accompanied by a verb such as: comparavit, constructit, aedificavit. When, on the other hand, with m. there also runs the expression: "deposita est; depositae sunt; hic est" or "hic sunt"; or: "Hic memoria," e.g., "Sancti Juliani," it is a question of nothing other than relics, whether direct or of simple contact.
Bibliography2 works
Giuseppe Gagov