Catacombs

Homes for the dead, houses for corpses, rotting flesh wrapped in cloths of white, side by side, each in their respectable nooks. It began with the monks, it was instituted for the convent around the year 1200, and was used even as late as the 1920s. Catacombs have been found around the world in places such as Italy, Peru, Scotland, Austria, Egypt, Malta, and many others. The first burial galleries to be referred to as catacombs lie beneath San Sebastiano fuori le mura in Rome. These were the ancient’s cemeteries.

In historic times these catacombs served as refuge for safety during wars or even as meeting places for cults. But as we travel further back to the time whence catacombs were looked upon as holy shelters for the dead we find that in times of wars or battles catacombs were used for more than just burial.

The ancient Celts built catacombs like the monks for their dead, but in wars or raid parties these dark and hidden catacombs became hideaways or even homes for lengthy periods of time. Some told stories of the suffocating stench from the dead, the dark that could be felt, and the fear that riveted their bodies and soul. They spoke of the harsh winter nights spent cramped in the far back corner of a used catacomb. The frozen and stiff body of the dead had more room in the small dug-out hole than the living man who hid from fear of death at the hands of the raiders. The cold of the night would etch its way into the far reaches of the catacombs and eat its way into the flesh of the man until his limbs grew stiff and his mind numb. If the raiding party took too long in hording away the treasures of the home or the war continued on for lengths of days and nights many in hiding would die from freeze, or in other seasons they would perish from lack of food or water.

Catacombs, the home of the dead, but in desperate times of need, the living would take shelter and rest alongside the corpse. The way of the dead quickly became the housing for the living.

Catacombs belonging to the monk’s monastery were rarely used as such, though on occasion when an outsider had close relation to a priest, or close friends came in need of shelter, some monks would secretly guide their friends back into the recesses of the catacombs and place them in one of the dark pits for safety. On even rarer occasion some outsiders would persuade a gatekeeper to allow them to place their collected treasure inside one of the catacombs for safe keeping until the war was over or those searching for them dead. The outsiders would wrap their treasures in the white linen that is used for wrapping bodies for burial. Placing wads of linen or patches of grass on the inside of the linen the wrapped treasure would closely resemble a corpse. By placing the wrapped treasure on the back of a camel and lowering ones head, at a slow walk most anyone would assume the traveler was carrying this corpse back to his homeland or to a monastery for proper burial. Those fresh out of battle or running from an enemy eager for goods such as gold and silver would wrap their treasure and borrow or steal a camel for their work. The traveler would either find a ship traveling back to their homeland and place their “corpse” below deck, or they would head to a monastery for a “proper burial.” Either by play-acting that their treasure was a corpse or by persuading a monk to allow them to keep their treasure in a far catacomb the traveler would keep his goods stored away for as long as he needed. Convincing a monk to allow a wrapped treasure to be hidden inside their catacombs was a great work indeed. Many times the convincing would come from the “wrapped body” itself.

Catacombs owned by Celts or common folk were also used mostly as burial but in great need for hiding away from wars or raiding parties. Many cursed the raiders and did nothing, some stood and fought for their lands and family, others realized their weakness and fled to their catacombs. Sadly, many were found and slaughtered where they were, others waited too long underground and were buried alive with their dead.

Ruthless raiders, slaughtering old and young alike, were once said to have known no other way of life. Though is this true?

Roman 1:19,21 says, “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

Man knows, man sees, man understands. Though blinded by ignorance and rebellion, conviction still reigns.