San Sebastiano. In which Kevin goes on a linguistic rant and muses theologically..

A.S. Yes, I know this post is super late. I'm sorry, dear readers.

 

Yesterday (at the time of publishing, considerably longer ago) afternoon we took a trip as a group outside the city, via a charter bus. We went along part of the ancient Via Appia to the Catacombs of San Sebastiano (so named because he used to be buried there), the oldest Christian catacombs in Rome. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures there, but they are fantastic. There are about a quarter of a million niches in the seven miles of tunnels, though almost all of them are empty- the Pope ordered the bodies moved because people kept going relic-hunting. Nevertheless, there are some really really interesting inscriptions, including one that was so cool I just had to get a bookmark of it. The inscription reads "CΙΡΙΚΕ ΙΝ ΠΑΚΕ", and though it's written with Greek letters, is in Latin! Transliterated, it reads "SIRICE IN PACE", which could be rendered as something along the lines of "For Sirica, [who rests] in peace". From a linguistic standpoint, it's interesting because it provides strong evidence that at this time (somewhere between the 2nd and 4th century) ⟨C⟩ followed by ⟨I⟩ or ⟨E⟩ was still pronounced as [k] in Latin, rather than [tʃ], as it is in modern Ecclesiastical Latin. (In layman's terms, the last word of the inscription was pronounced "PAH-kay" rather than "PAH-chay" at this time, though the latter is how it's pronounced in Ecclesiastical Latin nowadays.) On the other hand, it also suggests that some of the vowel changes in Ecclesiastical Latin had already occurred at this point (as does another inscription I saw), though I'd need to do quite a bit more research.

On a more spiritual note, the church above the catacombs has some interesting relics- one of the arrows St. Sebastian was shot with, a piece of the pillar he was bound to when shot, and a chunk of stone from the Via Appia, where (according to tradition) St. Peter saw Jesus walking into Rome "to be crucified again". Peter, who had been fleeing Rome at the time, then turned back and eventually was crucified in Rome. According to tradition, Peter's footprints were was miraculously marked on the stone.

I know a lot of people doubt that most relics actually are what they claim to be. I think many of them are, but even those that  aren't serve as an excellent reminder that these events actually happened to real people at specific points in history, rather than some mythical "in illo tempore" or fairytale "once upon a time". Even if the board inside St. John Lateran isn't actually the top of the table the Last Supper was celebrated on, there was actually a tabletop that exists or existed at some point on which it was celebrated. An actual physical object, that is, not just some spiritual abstraction or literary invention. It's very easy to think that it's all just a nice story with interesting philosophical and theological ideas, but when confronted with the reality that something incredible happened to some very ordinary people approximately 2000 years ago, the implications of the "story" become very very serious. It's very easy to go around with an abstract belief in these things- i.e. knowing what we say we believe as Catholics, and following that (generally, at least). But we say these things because they are what happened, because this is how the universe works. It's real stuff. And that's a scary thought. Seeing John the Baptist's desiccated head in a silver box makes for a pretty strong reality check.

On a less serious note, look at the cool souvenir I got! That's right: a magic lamp. With a Jesus fish on it.