MODICA. - It is the ancient Mutyka in Sicily, currently in the diocese of Noto. Christianity penetrated it very early, as attested by a hypogeum discovered in the district of Trepiedi beneath a plateau.
The hypogeum contained a canopied tomb and 38 large graves, one of which, still sealed, contained the corpse of a little girl. Among the inscriptions in limestone, mention is made of one by an Aitales, who had a church built in the district of the Hortensi, and his tomb at the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century. A second inscription recalls a Zosimus who died in the fifth consulship of Arcadius and Honorius, i.e., in 399. A third, with a monogram, belongs to a Christian Agatha who died 14 days after the kalends... A fourth epitaph is of a Chrysiphorus who died at the age of 60; a fifth, much mutilated, contains mention of a presbyter. A second hypogeum is now used as a storeroom.