My son, all of 12 years, insisted on visiting the Catacombs while we were vacationing in Rome. So one sunny afternoon, we boarded the bus No. 118 and headed towards the Appian way or Antica Appia as its called in Latin. What I saw still remains vivid in my mind. Content warning : No photographs included as it is not permitted.
Catacombs are labyrinths of underground tunnels lined with graves of early Christians and Jews. The narrow tunnels runs into 15 – 20 kms with thousands of burials within it. The tunnels were dug out by hand and rectangular niches created as shelves along the tunnels. Bodies wrapped in sheets were piled vertically in these shelves, some units housing multiple graves. Bodies of children, families and adults line the tunnels. Some are closed with a tombstone of stone or burnt clay , some are open. Its dark , humid, cold … and its eerie walking through these tunnels where not an inch has been spared. And to know that what I was seeing was only one of the many such catacombs that exist in the area, is spine- chilling. You realize how easy it is to lose your way in these labyrinths which has happened to many early discoverers who never made it out.
During the early Christianity , Romans didn’t accept the new religion and the believers. The believers were mainly those who were looked down, slaves, exiled citizens of Rome. Rome did not allow the Christians to bury their dead within Rome. During the time of 2nd Century AD, these catacombs started to be formed outside of the city of Rome. It was an area of a quarry and the believers dug the soft soil by hand to create the underground graves, lest they are found by the Romans. As more and more died, from illness or killed, these became tunnels filled with graves, thousands and thousands of them. On the surface it looked like the remains of the quarry. St Sebastian, St Paul and St Peter were also buried here. They were later exhumed and their tombs re-created within Rome. These continued till about 5th Century AD which is when the Rome fell.
These graves speaks of the struggles of the citizens of Rome, who were considered pariahs. Over the times of history, this has repeated itself. In name of religion, race, purity, traditions , we have waged wars, killed indiscriminately, chased the people away and drove them to leading difficult lives. Rome did to Christians, what Christians did to Muslims during the crusades. Traditions and rebellions lead to power struggles within the religions that continued , the Protestant war lasting about 30 years and the Shia- Sunni conflict starting from 6th century AD which still continues. 20th Century was witness to the Holocaust. Today we continue to inflict horrors in name of caste or regional difference in Hinduism and Buddhism.
These catacombs reminds us how far we still need to go to be a global society of caring and collaborative human beings. Struggle continues and one needs to think of which side you want to be on just as those interred in these catacombs must have thought. Leave your DSLRs and your ipads outside and ponder on the purpose of our existence while you walk the catacombs.
Note : if you do visit Rome, do take a half day off to visit the Catacombs.
Meandering Dialogues 