Catacomb of Saint Thecla, Rome

Image: Wikimedia; full range of images in Mazzei 2010

Clavis number: ECMA 107

Other descriptors: Cimitero al ponticello di san Paolo

Location: Rome, near the Via Ostiense and the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls (current address Via Silvio D’Amico 42)

Category: frescoes

Related literature: Acts of Paul and Thecla; Martyrdom of Blessed Peter the Apostle, by Pseudo-Linus; Passion of Processus and Martinianus 

Featured characters and locations: Abraham (patriarch), Andrew (apostle), Daniel (prophet), Eve (matriarch), Isaac (patriarch), Jesus Christ, John (son of Zebedee), Jonah (patriarch), Lazarus, Magi, Mary (Virgin), Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle), Thecla.

1. DESCRIPTION

Material: tempera on plaster

Size: various

Images: portraits of Peter, Paul, Andrew, and John around the image of the Good Shepherd (section now called the “cubiculum of the apostles”); Jesus and the Twelve apostles; Jesus raising Lazarus; fresco of woman (perhaps Thecla) flanked by Peter and Paul; Peter drawing water in the Mamertine prison; Mary and the Magi; Daniel praying in the lions’ den; images of Jonah; and Abraham sacrificing Isaac.

Date: constructed in the 4th cent. and abandoned in the 9th cent. Three seventh-century pilgrimage itineraries (the Notitia ecclesiarum urbis Romae, the De locis sanctis martyrum, and William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Regum Anglorum) mention a church of Saint Thecla near the basilica of Paul; the Notitia states that the church was on a hill and her body rested in a nearby cave. Kate Cooper (1995:17–20) casts doubt on the catacomb being the church of Thecla since it does not rest on a hill. Without this identification, there is little reason to believe the woman in the image is indeed Thecla.

Provenance: in situ

2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE

2.1 Thecla

Thecla appears prominently in the Acts of Paul and Thecla. One of several endings found in the Greek manuscripts tells how, at the end of her life, she journeyed to Rome, where she was buried near the tomb of Paul on the Ostian Road.

2.2 Images of the Apostles

The images of the four apostles are the earliest known portraits of these figures. Of the four, only Paul (pictured above) is described in apocryphal literature: “short, bald, bow-legged, healthy-looking, single-browed, a bit long-nosed, and bursting with beneficence. Sometimes he looked like a mortal; at other times he had a glowing countenance of an angel” (Acts Paul Thec. 3:3; trans. J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993], 350–89).

2.3 Peter’s water miracle

Peter’s water miracle is found in the Martyrdom of Blessed Peter the Apostle, attributed to Linus, and the Passion of Processus and Martinianus:

But the guards of the prison, Processus and Martinianus, together with the other magistrates and those associated by way of their office, appealed to him, saying, “Lord, go where you wish, because we believe that the emperor has now forgotten about you. But that most wicked Agrippa, enflamed by lust for his concubines and the intemperance of his passion is eager to destroy you. If an order from the king were accusing you, then we would have a command concerning your execution from Paulinus—a very prominent man to whom you were handed over and from whom we received the order to guard you. After we believers in this region of the Mamertine prison were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity in a spring brought forth from stone by prayers and the glorious sign of the cross, you went around as freely as you pleased. No one bothered you or would be doing so now, if the demonic fire that troubles the city had not taken over Agrippa so violently. For this reason we beg you, minister of our salvation, to do us this favor in return. Because you freed us from the  chains of sin and demons, now depart free from prison and being fettered with chains—a cruelty that we are charged to enforce—not just with our permission but our request, for the salvation of so great a multitude.” (Lin. Mart. Pet. 5; trans. David L. Eastman, The Ancient Martyrdom Accounts of Peter and Paul [WGRW 39; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015], 139–69).

2.4 Damaged Frescoes of Thecla (?)

Two damaged frescoes found in an adjacent catacomb in 1940 were placed temporarily in the Thecla catacomb before being taken to the Vatican Museums (Museo Sacro). Antonio Ferrua (1952) interprets them as scenes from the end of Thecla’s life (as found  in variant forms in the Acts of Paul and Thecla manuscripts as well as several related Byzantine texts). The first image shows a woman being dragged or harassed by a man. The second is two figures viewing a star.

Image source: David Macchi

Image source: Dassmann 1982, p. 43 fig. 14

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bisconti, Fabrizio. “Il cubicolo degli Apostoli in S. Tecla: un complesso iconografico tra arte funeraria e decorazione monumentale.” Pages 185–230 in Il cubicolo degli Apostoli nella catacombe romane di Santa Tecla. Edited by Barbara Mazzei. Vatican City: Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra, 2010.

Cooper, Kate. “A Saint in Exile: The Early Medieval Thecla at Rome and Meriamlik.” Hagiographica 2 (1995): 1–23.

Dassmann, Ernst. Paulus in frühchristlicher Frömmigkeit und Kunst. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1982 (p. 28 and p. 43 fig. 14).

Davis, Stephen J. The Cult of Saint Thecla: A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008 (pp. 46–47).

Fasola, Umberto. “La basilica sotteranea di Santa Tecla e le regioni cimiteriali vicine.” Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 46 (1970): 193–288.

__________. “Il complesso catacombale di S. Tecla: L’ipogee con la tomba di un martire sconosciuto.” Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 40 (1964): 19–50.

Ferrua, Antonio. “Recenti ritrovamenti di antichità paleocristiane in Roma e nei dintorni.” Pages 149–56 Atti del I Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Cristiana, Siracusa 19–24 Settembre 1950. Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider, 1952 (pp. 149–50, pls. 22 and 23).

Nuzzo, Donatella. Tipologia sepolcrale delle catacombe romane : i cimiteri ipogei delle vie Ostiense, Ardeatina e Appia. Oxford: Arcaheopress, 2000.

Santagata, Giuliana. “Su due discusse figurazioni conservate nel cimitero di S. Tecla.” Esercizi Arte Musica Spettacolo 3 (1980): 7–14.

__________. “Nota sulle pitture del cimitero di S. Tecla.” Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 56 (1980): 103–32.

Vella, Alessandro. “Il cimitero di S. Tecla sulla Via Ostiense.” Pages 17–32 in Il cubicolo degli Apostoli nella catacombe romane di Santa Tecla. Edited by Barbara Mazzei. Vatican City: Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra, 2010.