Catacombs of Priscilla

Today we visited the catacombs of Priscilla.  These catacombs date from the middle of the second century and are among the oldest of Christian catacombs with some incredible frescoes adorning the walls and the Greek chapel within.  Priscilla was a wealthy Christian woman, who likely hosted a house church in her home beneath which the catacombs were later built.  Early Christians were buried in these catacombs. This particular set "housed" 40,000 bodies on three levels going down as deep as 30 meters below the surface.  The frescoes in this particular catacombs are of particular note because in recent years, archeologists and scholars have noted that the depictions of women who are holding their arms in the orans position suggests that perhaps women in the early church were serving as priests or liturgical leaders and the frescoe in the Greek chapel, depicting a scene of the Eucharist is clearly all women, suggesting that women were leading the Eucharist. These frescoes are very early - mid second century - and include the first depiction ever of the Virgin Mary nursing Jesus.   For centuries the official church description of these frescoes simply said that one was a woman praying and the Eucharist scene showed a man as celebrant, but more modern archeological analysis of the drawing and the clothes the character is wearing suggest otherwise!  Given the church's investment in not having anything suggest that women ever had positions of leadership, these frescoes become an example of ancient drawings that give us evidence of women's leadership hiding in plain sight!  In recent years, these frescoes have garnered a lot of attention, particularly among those in the Roman Catholic Church who are pushing for the ordination of women.   Since these date so early in the Church's history, they support the belief that women did hold positions of leadership when the church was a minority sect in the pagan Roman Empire, but when the church later became the church of the empire under Constantine, patriarchy erased that history and put women back in their place of subservience.

Our trip to the catacombs and back home was a series of mishaps although all fun in the end.  We bought bus tickets and found the bus stop not far from our apartment where the bus that goes to the catacombs stops.  We waited nearly 30 minutes for the bus.  When it finally came it went exactly one stop and then everyone was ordered to get off!  We never did know why.  At that point, wanting to not waste any more time, we got a cab to the catacombs.  When we left we walked back to find a bus stop and when we did, the bus that came was  a different number but we decided to chance it.  We wound up riding all over parts of Rome we'd never seen for a couple of hours!  We finally got off the first bus and took a second and when that one seemed to be headed in the wrong direction we got out and walked back to Trastevere, via some of the Central Rome landmarks that I walked through yesterday.   Had my second dose (and Tracy's first!) of the best chocolate gelato in Italy!  

We were not allowed to take photographs in the catacombs, but I've included some stock photos of the frescoes below.  Tonight we're cooking at home and relaxing after all our wandering the streets of Rome in the heat!