Catacombs of Rome - a network of ancient catacombs were used as burial sites, for the most part in early Christianity. Total in Rome include more than 60 different catacombs, most of which are located underground along the Appian Way. These catacombs represent a system of underground passages of tuff, often forming a maze. In their walls for burials antics rectangular niches of different sizes (mainly for one of the deceased, sometimes for two, and rarely - for several bodies). To date, almost all niches are open and empty.
In the catacombs were also gipogeumy - from the Latin (Latin hypogeum) - premises for religious purposes, but with an unspecified function, and often a small room for dining, meeting rooms and several mines for lighting (see all luminare). In the Apostolic Constitutions (c. V century) contains a direct reference to the meetings of early Christians in the catacombs: "... without a monitor and gather in the shrine, making the reading of sacred books, and singing psalms to pochivshim martyrs and all the saints of the century, and his brothers, pochivshim the Lord. And vmestoobraznuyu pleasant Eucharist king brought the body of Christ in their churches and shrines .... On the strong tradition of performing services in the catacombs shows one of the inscriptions found in the XVI century, Cesar Barone in the catacombs of St. Callistus: "What are bitter times, we can not commit to the safety of the sacraments and even pray in our cave!".
Image agape - "Meal of Love", which Christians staged in the catacombs of the memory of the Gospel the Last Supper and which performed the sacrament of the Eucharist, is a very common story of the catacomb paintings. For images agape historians restore liturgical tradition of worship of early Christian communities.
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