The Roman Catacombsby Fr James Spencer Northcote, Sophia Institute Press, £12
This book, first published in 1877 by an early member of the Oratorians, has now been republished with minor revisions. It is well worth reading, as it throws light on “the history of the Christian city beneath pagan Rome”.
Apparently there are at least 40 or 50 catacombs in the hills around Rome. Some, like the catacomb of St Callixtus on the Via Appia, are well known. We learn that digging beneath the city for the burial of Christians, martyrs and others lasted 300 years, until the reign of Constantine, and that there was a designated group of diggers known as fossors, whose task it was to make the long, narrow galleries and small chambers comprising the catacombs.
