REFRESHMENT. - In Greek ἀνάφυξις means refreshment, relief, banquet. Among the Romans it is found as such: refrigeratio aestate (Cicero, De senectute, 14, 46), refrigeratur (id., Pro Roscio, 6) and again: umbris aquisive refrigerari salubrius (De senect., 16, 57) and refrigerationem quaerentes (Pliny, Nat. hist., 21, 46). In the Christian sense it means relief from a place of punishment or eternal joy in paradise.
In this symbolic meaning it is already found used in the Old Testament (Ps. 65, 11; Wis. 4, 7; Jer. 6, 16); in the New Testament the rich glutton, parched, asks Lazarus ut refrigeret linguam (Lk. 16, 24). St. Paul writes: Det misericordiam Dominus Onesiphori domui; quia saepe me refrigeravit (II Tim. 1, 16); Tertullian: spe aeterni refrigerii (De monogamia, 10: PL 2, 942). Cicero indicates that among the Greeks, on the very day of the funeral, the relatives of the deceased gathered for a banquet. The Etruscans and the Romans continued this custom, as is attested by a numerous series of monuments. In an epitaph from Praeneste, for example, the deceased himself asks: peto ego Syncratus a bonis (vobis) universis sodalibus ut sine bile refrigeretis (CIL, XIV, 3323). In the inscription of a certain Hostilius Flaminius found at Feltre, dated 23 Aug. 323, a sum is left to two collegia which memoriam eius refrigerare debebunt. In the Passio SS. Perpetuae et Felicitatis we read: quid utique non permititis nobis refrigerare... et refrigerandi cum eis? (ed. P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, in Röm. Quartalsch., 10 [1896], p. 136). Tertullian uses the expression r. several times (Adversus Marcionem, 3, 24 and 4, 34; De anima, 33 and 58; De idolatria, 13; De resurr. carnis, 17 and 43; De testimonio animae, 4); but the most notable passage is the one in which he indicates that the Christian wife prays for her deceased husband: pro anima eius orat et refrigerium interim adpostulat ei, et in prima resurrectione consortium, et offert annuis diebus dormitionis eius (De monogamia, 10: PL 2, 992). The r. is found invoked in a series of Christian inscriptions. Among the dated inscriptions one may recall one of Praetextatus from 291 (E. Josi, Le iscrizioni datate del cimitero di Pretestato, in Riv. di arch. crist., 12 [1935], p. 23, n. 2); one, now in the Lateran Museum, from the year 363 (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. christ., I, Rome 1857, p. 88, n. 158); one from the year 506 in the cemetery "inter duas lauros" (N. Bull. arch. crist., 24-25 [1918-19], p. 106). There are also found the expressions in pace et in refrigerium (E. Diehl, Inscr. lat. chr. veteres, Berlin 1925-31, n. 2722); spiritus in refrigerium, in S. Agnese (ibid., n. 3407); refrigeret nos qui omnia potest, at Marseilles (ibid., n. 2020); Deus Christus omnipotens refrigeret spiritum tuum, in Praetextatus; huius anima refrigerat (ibid., n. 1102); bene refrigera (G. B. De Rossi, Roma sotterr., III, Rome 1877, p. 353, pl. 28, n. 22); mensum cum titulo refrigerationis, in Africa (CIL, VIII, 20780); spiritus tuus in bono refrigeret (G. B. De Rossi, Bull. arch. crist., 5 [1894], p. 145); τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ καλῶς ἀνάφυξις in Pamphilus (E. Josi, Descriz. del cimitero di Panfilo, in Riv. arch. crist., 3 [1926], p. 98, fig. 23), at Syracuse (P. Orsi, in Notizie Scavi, 1895, p. 514). And again: Domino suo Twefilo et dominae Pontianeti merentibus in refrigerio (E. Josi, Il cimitero di Panfilo, in Riv. arch. crist., 1 [1924], p. 98, fig. 52); Dom(inus) refr(igeret) spir(itum) tuum (ibid., p. 65, fig. 16). In the Museum of Palermo, on a cippus from Marsala, there is found the scene of a man reclining on the "cline" who holds a chalice in his hand (5th century B.C.). In the cemetery "inter duas lauros" there is painted a man on a chair extending his hand toward the cup offered by a woman (G. P. Kirsch, Pitture ined. di un arcosolio del cimit. dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino, in Riv. di arch. crist., 7 [1930], p. 38, fig. 4). It is the funerary banquet in which the deceased participates, not in the real sense, but in the symbolic one, that is, of participation in the heavenly banquet. In the same cemetery one also sees a deceased woman in the act of grasping the poculum; her name is written "Binkentia" and not "Quintia" (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 107, 1). The same subject is repeated on a marble slab from S. Lorenzo al Verano and on another now at Anagni (Th. Klauser, Die Kathedra im Totenhult der heidnisch. und christl. Antike, Münster 1927, pl. 22, 1 and 2). The chairs hollowed out of the tufa found in the Cimitero maggiore of the Via Nomentana, in Callistus, in Pamphilus and "inter duas lauros" were not intended for the living, but for the dead, who were imagined as present at the funerary banquet (Th. Klauser, loc. cit.). Among the people of Israel too such a custom must have been in force, since we read: Panem tuum et vinum tuum super sepulturam iusti constituit et noli ex eo manducare et bibere cum peccatoribus (Tob. 4, 18). In the syncretistic hypogeum of the Via Appia, where the priest Sabazius adorned the tomb of Vibia his wife, she is seen first in judgment before Pluto (Dispater) and Aeracura; then introduced (inductio Vibies) by the angelus bonus to take part in the banquet of the blessed bonorum iudicio iudicati (Wilpert, Pitture, pp. 362-63, pl.
132). Tertullian states that: inopes quousque refrigerio isto invamus (Apolog., 39), as does Paulinus of Nola: refrigerare inopem de copia sua (Epist., 25 in CSEL, 16, p. 232). Also in the Actus Petri cum Simone it is observed that after Paul's departure for Spain non fuisse neminem de fratribus ad quem refrigerare (ed. R. A. Lipsus, I, Leipzig 1891, pp. 51, 27) and mention is made of a widow quae ad Marcellum refrigerabat (ibid., pp. 52, 31). In the oratory "ad sanctorum coctum," perhaps earlier than 325, after the celebration of the Divine Sacrifice there is mention of a modest meal for the poor and the unfortunate (PG 20, 1272). St. Augustine denies that the agape meals are a continuation of pagan rites; because agapes enim nostrae pauperes pascunt, sive frugibus, sive carnibus (Contra Faustum, 20, 21: PL 42, 284). Tertullian explains the meaning of the term "agape": ἀγάπη, id quod dilectio penes Graecos est; quantiscumque sumptibus constet, inecrum est pietatis facere sumptum (Apolog., 39). The rite of the refrigerium is therefore a sepulchral rite, and as such it was performed for a death or for an anniversary; all the more was it celebrated to honor the martyrs at their tombs. Commodian invites: si refrigerare cupis animam, ad martyres i (Instructiones, II, Carm. 17, 19). Characteristic in this regard is the letter of Paulinus of Nola in which the bishop relates that at the banquet offered by Pammachius on the occasion of the death of his wife Paulina in St. Peter's, the basilica with its five naves was not sufficient to contain the guests, who spread outside the basilica. But the use is ancient, as attested by the graffiti found in St. Sebastian in the triclia, an open-air square with a pergola terrace, built in a sepulchral place from the age of Vespasian, in a place destined for public burial, above some family monuments, one of which had certainly passed into the ownership of Christians. The graffiti demonstrate that pilgrims, having come from afar, were accustomed to go to this triclia to perform the rite of the r. and fulfill a vow of theirs (votum is promisit refrigerium) in honor of Peter and Paul or of Paul and Peter, indeed near Peter and Paul (at).
The hundreds of invocations, all without distinction addressed in Greek or in Latin to the two Apostles, were written between the second half of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century and represent the most ancient company of pious Roman pilgrims. Among the most significant graffiti are remembered: Dalmatius votum is promisit refrigerium; At Paulo et Petro refrigeravimus; Petro et Paulo Tomius Coelius refrigerium feci; XIII Kal. apriles refrigeravi Parthenius in Deo et nos in Deo omnes (P. Styger, Il sepolcro apostol. dell'Appia, in Dissertaz. della Pont. accad. rom. di arch., 2nd series, 13 [1918], pp. 33-36). St. Augustine explains that the Church permitted the celebration of banquets in honor of the martyrs in order to draw the converted crowds away from the popular banquets that used to be held on pagan solemnities; vel non simili sacrilegio, quamvis simili luxu celebrarentur (Ep., 29, 11: PL 33, 118). Indeed St. Gregory Thaumaturgus established such banquets to prevent the Christians of Neocaesarea from frequenting pagan festivals (Gregory of Nyssa, De vita s. Gregorii Thaumaturgi: PG 46, 954). Paulinus of Nola speaks of the pilgrims who passed the night singing sacred hymns and drinking wine near the tomb of St. Felix (Carmen 27, Natale IX de S. Felice: PL 61, 661). St. Ambrose recalls illi qui calices ad sepulcrum martyrum deferunt atque illic ad vesperam bibunt et aliter exaudiri posse non credunt (De Elia et ieiunio, 17: PL 14, 754). And Zeno, bishop of Verona in the 4th century, speaks of banquets near the dead and near the tombs of the martyrs (Tractat., XV, 1: PL 11, 366). Florentinus, Fortunatus and Felix in Priscilla wrote in 375 ad calicem benimus (G. B. De Rossi, in Bull. arch. crist., 5th series, 1 [1890], p. 79). An inscription from Dougga (Tunisia) recalls the symposium held by Mammarius, Granius and Elpidephorus at Thugga near the tomb of sancti ac beatissimi martyres
(M. Monceaux, L'inscription des martyrs de Dougga et les bouquets des martyrs en Afrique, in Bull. arch. du comité des travaux histor., 1908, pp. 87-104). The banquets for the deceased and to honor the martyrs degenerated so much that St. Ambrose had prohibited them quia illa quasi parentalia superstitioni gentilium esseum similima (St. Augustine, Confess., VI, 2) and St. Augustine warns that in honorem beatissimorum martyrum non solum per dies solemnes... sed etiam quotidie celebrentur (Ep., 12, 3; Pl. 33, 91). St. Gregory the Great also sought to adapt for the converted Angles (Ep. 76 ad Melitum; Pl. 77, 1215). In the opuscule De duplici martyrio written in the 4th century one reads: an non videmus ad martyrum memorias christianum a christiano cogi ad ebritatem? (Pl. 4, 895). St. Augustine in his letter 22 speaks of in cymiteris ebratates et luxuriosa convivia, non solum honores martyrum a carnali et imperire plebe credi soleni, sed etiam solatia mortuorum (Pl. 33, 92). In the letter written in 392 by Augustine, still a simple presbyter, to Aurelius bishop of Tagaste one reads that quoniam de basilica beati apostoli Petri, quotidianae vinolentiae proferebantur exempla, dixi Aymno audisse non saepe esse prohibitum (Ep., 20, 10; Pl. 33, 119).