Ss Primus and Felician, and the Emptying of the Catacombs

Today is the feast day of Ss Primus and Felician, who were martyred around the year 297. The traditional account of their passion is not regarded as historically reliable, but there is no doubt of the fact of their martyrdom, or of the antiquity of devotion to them. They are said to have been brothers of the Roman patrician class who devoted themselves to works of charity; Primus was quite elderly when they were arrested for the practice of the Christian Faith. The judge who tried them separated them from each other, and tried to convince each one to sacrifice to the pagan gods by saying that the other had already done so. Neither of them was deceived, and so they were taken to a place about 12 miles from Rome near the town of Nomentum, and there beheaded. After the end of the persecutions, a church was built over the site of their burial, but this no longer exists.

The martyrdom of Ss Primus and Felician, depicted in a collection of Saints’ lives known as the Weissenau Passionary, 1170-1200. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) Felician, looking much like Jesus, is the one in the middle being nailed to a tree trunk, while Primus is lying down with his hands tied, and having molten lead poured into his mouth.

What makes these two Saints particularly noteworthy for us today is that they were the very first whose relics were removed from the site of their original burial and brought into a Roman church. This took place around the year 645, in the reign of Pope Theodore I, and is important for two reasons. The first is that is shows that by the mid-7th century, Christianity had definitively broken many of the ancient Roman taboos about the treatment of the dead. The foremost of these would be the very ancient law which required that they be kept apart from the living in their own places, the “necropolises”, or cities of the dead, outside the walls of the cities of the living. Furthermore, the Romans had many prohibitions of both a legal and religious nature about moving bodies at all from their original burial places, which were now also evidently set aside.

Two Roman mausolea in the necropolis just outside the walls on the southeast side of Pompei. Image from Wikimedia Commons by Diego Delso, (delso.photo, CC BY-SA 4.0).

This in turn would make possible one of the most important shifts in the history of early Christian archeology, the gradual emptying of the catacombs. The Roman prohibition on burying the dead inside the city walls applied to the Christians as much as to anybody else, which is why they made their underground cemeteries, which we now call the catacombs, outside the city. For the first three centuries after the end of the persecution, these cemeteries continued to be used for burials, but also became pilgrimage sites for those who wanted to venerate the tombs of the martyrs buried within them. By the time of Pope Theodore, however, the political instability of Italy made such pilgrimages out into the countryside potentially very dangerous, and part of his motivation for moving the martyrs into Rome itself would certainly have been so that pilgrims could venerate their relics in the relative safety of the city.

Over the next few centuries, therefore, the catacombs would be completely emptied of Saints’ relics, such that by the 10th century, we have a graffito at the entrance of one of them which says, “Turn around, there’s nothing to see here”, meaning that all of the martyrs had been taken away to the churches. When the catacombs were excavated in modern times, only one grave which certainly belongs to a martyr was found still undisturbed, that of St Hyacinth (Sept. 11) in the catacomb of Bassilla on the via Salaria.

Empty graves in the catacomb of Domitilla in Rome. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Giovanni Battista, CC BY-SA 4.0.) 

Pope Theodore built a chapel for Saints Primus and Felician at the church of St Stephen on the Caelian hill, generally known as “Santo Stefano Rotondo – round St Stephen’s”, the only round church built in Rome in ancient times. Although the entire building has been extensively rebuilt and redecorated since its original construction, a fair portion of the apsidal mosaic of this chapel remains in good condition. At the bottom is a poetic inscription in Latin: Aspicis auratum caelesti culmine tectum, / Astriferumque micans praeclaro lumine vultum. (You look upon a gilded roof with its height in heaven, and a star-bearing face that shines with brilliant light. Photo by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.)

Pictures of the Tomb of St Dominic from Fr Lew

Our long-time friend and contributor, and photographer extraordinaire Fr Lawrence Lew, is currently with a group of pilgrims in Italy, and was able to say the Dominican Mass yesterday at the tomb of St Dominic in the Order’s church in Bologna. (This is an important liturgical week for the Dominicans: November 12th is the traditional date for the feast of All Dominican Saints, although in the post-Conciliar Rite, it has been moved to November 7th. Today is the feast which honors St Thomas Aquinas as the patronage of all Catholic schools, and on Saturday is the feast of St Albert the Great.) The arc of St Dominic was original commissioned from the sculptor Nicola Pisano in 1264, 30 years after Dominic’s canonization, and completed in 3 years, but new sculptures were added to on more than one occasion, including three by the young Michelangelo in the later 1490s. It has stood in its current location since 1411, but the decorations of the chapel have been reworked very considerably since then. The basilica is currently undergoing a major renovation, but worked halted long enough for Fr Lew and his group to have Mass and venerate the relic of St Dominic in the very beautiful Gothic reliquary, which is accessed from behind the altar, as seen below. It’s very nice to see the red drapes on the columns, a custom which was once very popular in Italy and is making something of a comeback.

The fresco in the apse of the chapel of St Dominic in the glory of heaven was painted by a native of Bologna, and one of the greats of the Italian Baroque, Guido Reni (1575-1642).

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“Through My Lens”: A New Series on British EWTN with Fr Lawrence Lew

Our long-time contributor Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P., has another interesting project going on, in addition to his new book, which Peter wrote about last week. This is a series on British EWTN called “Through My Lens”, in which Father Lew shares his traveling experiences, and shows many of the wonderful photographs he takes of the places he visits. The first episode is about the Italian town of Orvieto, a place which is especially important for Dominicans. From 1261-4, St Thomas Aquinas lived and lectured in the Dominican house there, while Pope Urban IV and his court were sojourning in the city. This was the period when Thomas completed the Summa contra gentiles, and wrote the Catena Aurea, the Office and Mass of Corpus Christi, and the Contra errores graecorum. 

In 1447, another famous Dominican, the painter Fra Angelico (1395 ca. - 1455), was commissioned to decorate a large chapel attached to the cathedral of Orvieto, along with his assistant Benozzo Gozzoli. This commission was interrupted when the artists were called away to Rome by Pope Nicholas V, and the project was not finished until about 50 years later, but Angelico and Gozzoli did leave behind two completed sections of the ceiling vault. Here is one of them, of Christ in Majesty at the Last Judgment, photographed by Fr Lew. Fra Angelico was beatified by Pope St John Paul II in 1982; today is the anniversary of his death in 1455, and his feast day.

Entering Heaven on Earth with the Photography of Fr Lawrence Lew OP

One of our best Catholic photographers, Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP, whose work has very often been shared at NLM over the years, has given us a new book that will be of great interest to all readers here:

Entering Heaven on Earth: The Signs, Symbols, and Saints of Catholic Churches 

It’s a stupendous coffee-table encyclopedia comprising just what the subtitle of the book tells us. Fr. Lew himself is responsible for all the gorgeous photos as well as the crystal-clear, just-the-right-length, theologically profound commentary, fully worthy of a member of the Order of Preachers.

In Part I, Fr. Lew takes us through sacred architecture, the form of the Church, color and ornamentation, altar and tabernacle.

In Part II, he looks at living creatures and nonliving creatures as symbols.

In Part III, the way the Bible is depicted in sacred art, with the rosary mysteries, the Old Testament scenes and typology, depictions of God, angels, the Last Judgment, and the sacraments.

In Part IV, he takes us through artistic depictions and symbols of the saints: Our Lady, apostles, evangelists, and all the other categories, with their halos, habits, flora, fauna, objects, body parts, and instruments.

As I paged through the book I could not believe how thorough it is — there’s probably not a single thing you’ll ever see in a Catholic church, no matter how lavish its use of signs and symbols, that is not explained here!

One thing I especially appreciate is that Fr. Lew’s commentary is deeply traditional but also quite delicate — there’s no hammering. He simply takes things for granted, such as the communion rail, or black as a proper color for Requiems. He’s a “gentle traditionalist,” to use Roger Buck’s phrase.

Some photos of the book:

The book is available from the publisher, from Amazon, and doubtless from other online shops too. This book is a good way to evangelize with beauty and tradition.

Pictures of Churches in Prague from Fr Lew (Part 2): the Cathedral of St Vitus

Earlier this month, we shared two posts of images by our long-time contributor, photographer extraordinaire Fr Lawrence Lew, the first set related to one of the city's patron Saints, John Nepomuk, and the second a selection of images from several different churches. Today we return to the cathedral of St Vitus, where St John's relics are kept. The church was begun in 1344, the third on the site, but was not actually completed and consecrated until 1929. It is, of course, full of artworks and side-chapels, and could easily merit a blog of its own, but Fr Lew captures some of its most salient features very beautifully, as always.  

The external view of the apse.

A mosaic of the Last Judgment on the outside.

The main façade

Stained glass windows of the first part of the 20th century, showing the conversion of the early Bohemians, those who bordered the Germans, and were thus baptized by Latin rite bishops, as opposed to those converted by the early missions of Ss Cyril and Methodius.

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More Pictures of Churches in Prague from Fr Lew (Part 1)

Following up on yesterday’s post, here are some pictures of a few other churches in Prague taken by Fr Lawrence Lew, Dominican friar and photographer extraordinaire. We start with the Carmelite church, where the famous statue known as the Infant of Prague is kept. There will be a few more posts of this sort over the next couple of weeks; once again, we thank Fr Lew for sharing his beautiful work with us.

Carmelite Church of the Victorious Virgin

The shrine of the Infant of Prague

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The Feast of St John Nepomuk in Prague: Photos by Fr Lew

Our long-time contributor Fr Lawrence Lew has just visited Prague, which today celebrates the feast of one of its patrons, a priest of the archdiocese who was martyred in the year 1393. We are grateful to Father for sharing these pictures us; Prague is one of the loveliest cities in all of Europe, and really deserves to be captured by such a talented photographer.

St John’s family name is variously written Wölflein or Welfin, but he is generally called “Nepomuk” or “Nepomucene” after the town where he was born ca. 1345, about 65 miles to the southwest of Prague. As vicar general of the archdiocese, he fell afoul of the Bohemian king, Wenceslaus IV (1361-1419; reigned from 1378), on several accounts. The best known of these (though not as well attested as historians might like) is that John was the confessor of the queen, Sophia of Bavaria, of whom Wenceslaus, although continually unfaithful himself, was intensely jealous. In the midst of his other conflicts with the Saint and his archbishop, the king demanded that John reveal to him the contents of his wife’s sacramental confessions; when John refused, he was tortured, and then killed by being trussed up and thrown off the famous Charles Bridge into the Vltava River. On the night of his death, five stars were said to be seen hovering over the place where his body lay under the water, until it later washed up on the shore. Although his feast was never added to the general Calendar, it was kept in a great many places; statues of him may be seen on bridges all over Europe, especially within the lands of the former German and Austrian Empires. The first canonized bishop of a see in the United States, St John Neumann of Philadelphia, was named for him, his middle name being “Nepomucký” in Czech.

The Charles Bridge is named for Weceslaus’ predecessor, Charles IV, who began its construction in 1357. It is famous in part because of its impressive size, but also because of the 30 Baroque statues or statue groups on the parapets. Here are two particularly nice shots by Fr Lew of the statue of St. John with his halo of stars; the cathedral of St Vitus is in the background of the first.

The spot on the bridge from which St. John was thrown; the image of the Saint is worn away from continual touching and kissing.

Fr Lew was able to say Mass at the altar of his magnificent tomb in the cathedral of St Vitus; several more pictures of the church, inside and out, are given below. 

A processions with a relic of the Saint...

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O Radix Jesse

O Root of Jesse, which standest as a sign to the peoples, at whom kings shall shut their mouths, whom the gentiles shall beseech, come to deliver us, delay thou not!

This particularly beautiful painting of the Tree of Jesse, which is referred to in today’s O antiphon, is attributed with some uncertainty to a Dutch painter named Gerrit Gerritsz, generally known as Geertgen tot Sint Jans, of whom very little is known for certain. His birth is placed by conflicting sources ca. 1455 or 1465, in either Harlaam, where he also died at the age of about 30, or Leiden. The nickname “tot Sint Jans” refers to his membership in the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. Like many Dutch and Flemish artists of the period, he revels in delicate colors and extremely very fine decoration. The subject, the line of kings from David to the Virgin Mary, offers an opportunity to dress his figures in refined clothing with many small details.

Jesse, King David’s father, is usually shown in this motif sleeping on the ground, with a tree coming out of his side, populated with Christ’s ancestors; the Virgin and Child may be at the top, as here, or in the middle. Since the inclusion of all 27 ancestors given in St Matthew’s Gospel between Jesse and Christ would make the composition far too crowded, a selection of them is given, twelve kings of Judah, from David to Manasseh. King David, the author of the Psalter, is depicted with a harp on the lowest branch; Solomon is shown half kneeling to the right. Further up, Abia lifts his father Roboam onto the next branch, next to whom are shown Abia’s son Asa, Ozias with a book, Josaphat with a hawk, a large necklace and a purse, Joram with a fur hat in his hands, and Joatham. Around the Virgin at the top are Achaz, a wicked and idolatrous king, Ezechias, one of the holy kings, and Manasses (to the right of the Virgin, with the crown and scepter), an idolatrous king who repented. (It is Achaz to whom the Prophet Isaiah speaks when he foretells that “a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”)

Abia (next to Solomon, shown from behind) wears both a crown and sash of roses, while Josaphat’s necklace is made of larger and smaller beads, both of which remind one of the rosary. (The Dutch word for “rosary – rozenkrans” literally means “crown of roses.”) In this regard, it should be remembered that the root of Jesse was long associated by the Fathers with the Virgin Mary. As St Jerome writes in his commentary on Isaiah 11, “We understand the rod (virga) from the root of Jesse to be the Holy Virgin (virgo) Mary.” This passage is read in the Breviary of St Pius V in the second nocturn of the Second Sunday of Advent, commenting on the reading of the first nocturn, Isaiah 11, 1-10, which begins “And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.” Jerome continues, “the flower we understand to be the Lord and Savior, who says in the Canticle of Canticles, ‘I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys.’ ” The garden refers to the words of Canticles 4, 12, “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up”, which are constantly used as an image of Mary’s virginity.

The kneeling nun in the lower left, who is holding a rosary, was at one time painted over with an extension of the brick wall next to her, perhaps even by Gerritsz himself; she was uncovered by a restoration in 1932. The man behind her may be the prophet Isaiah, who is of course the prophet of the Virgin Mary par excellence. The man on the lower left, richly dressed and holding a book, may be the rector of the convent or charitable institution to which the nun belonged. Finally, we should note to the left of the man a peacock, the symbol from very ancient times of the resurrection of the body and eternal life.

This painting has been in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam since 1956.

The video above is from the Dominican house at Oxford University, Blackfriars, where our long-time contributor Fr Lawrence Lew has recently taken up residence after several years at the Shrine of the Holy Rosary and St Dominic in London. As you know, Fr Lew is an extremely talented photographer, and very kindly shared with us this splendid image of the Tree of Jesse. This is a section of an altarpiece in one of the side chapels of the church of St Francis in Porto, Portugal, carved by Filipe da Silva and António Gomes, ca. 1718.

A Chapel Restored in London

Our long-time contributor, and photographer extraordinaire, Fr Lawrence Lew OP, has kindly shared with us pictures of some new statues added to one of the chapels of the Church of St Dominic and Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in London. (https://rosaryshrine.co.uk/) The shrine has 14 side-chapels, each one dedicated to a mystery of the Rosary. The Joyful Mysteries and the first two Sorrowful ones run down the church’s left side-aisle, from near the main sanctuary toward the back; the latter three Sorrowful and first four Glorious go from the back up the right side-aisle. The fifth Glorious Mystery, the Coronation of the Virgin, is commemorated in the main apse around the high altar, which has recently been restored and re-gilded. The church also has a separate Lady Chapel with a Rosary Altar in the right transept, at which the Virgin Mary is also honored with the title “Seat of Wisdom”, in reference to the Dominican vocation to scholarship and teaching.

Historical photo show that this chapel originally had two angels attached to the columns at its entrance, holding votive lamps, and four others on top of the reredos with musical instruments in their hands. All six of them disappeared at some point, and no one seems to know why or when exactly. They have now been replaced, and the votive lamps will now be kept perpetually lit for the friends and benefactors of the shrine.

The angels prepared for mounting on the columns.

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Pictures of Rosary Sunday in London

This past Sunday, the Dominican church in London, which is jointly dedicated to the Order’s founder and Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated the external solemnity of the feast of the Most Holy Rosary with His Eminence Vincent Cardinal Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster. (The Dominicans first established a presence in England in 1221, and so celebrate the eighth centenary of their English province this year.) Our long-time contributor and photographer extraordinaire, Fr Lawrence Lew OP, who is also the church’s rector and prior of the community that serves it, kindly shared with us these photos of the Mass, and some other recent goings-on. Many of these photos were sent in by members of the congregation at the Rosary Shrine.

The shrine has 14 side-chapels, each one dedicated to a mystery of the Rosary. The Joyful mysteries and the first two Sorrowful ones run down the church’s left side-aisle, from near the main sanctuary toward the back; the latter three Sorrowful and first four Glorious go from the back up the right side-aisle. The fifth Glorious Mystery, the Coronation of the Virgin, is commemorated in the main apse around the high altar, which has recently been restored and re-gilded. The church also has a separate Lady Chapel with a Rosary Altar in the right transept, at which the Virgin Mary is also honored with the title “Seat of Wisdom”, in reference to the Dominican vocation to scholarship and teaching.

Decorations of the main sanctuary. 

A nice tribute to the medieval heritage of the Dominican Order; lecterns decorated with eagles in this fashion were so common in the Middle Ages that the rubrics of medieval liturgical books often refer to them simply as an “aquila.”

This statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag, one of the main devotional statues of the Philippines, is carried in the procession after the Mass. It was a gift from the Basilica of Manaoag, and it is believed to be the only authorized replica statue outside the Philippines. The friars are also holding a candlelit procession through the church every Saturday evening at 7pm this month; pictures of the first procession are seen below.

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