E06472: Jerome mentions cult activities at Rome for the *Apostles (S00084) and *Martyrs (S00060) in his Letters 46, 107, and 127, written in Latin in Bethlehem (Palestine), in the years 386, 403, 412.

Jerome of Stridon, Letter 46.8

In a letter to Marcella, an aristocratic lady in Rome, Jerome questions those who revere the tombs of the martyrs, but not the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem:

Martyrum ubique sepulchra ueneramur et sanctam fauillam oculis adponentes, si liceat, etiam ore contingimus: et monumentum, in quo dominus conditus est, quidam aestimant neglegendum?

'Everywhere we venerate the tombs of the martyrs and put their holy ashes to our eyes; we even touch them, if we may, with our lips. And yet some think that we should neglect the tomb in which the Lord himself is buried?'

Text: Hilberg 1996 (1910). Translation: Fremantle, Lewis, and Martley 1893, adapted.


Jerome of Stridon, Letter 107.1, 9

(1.) Auratum squalet capitolium, fuligine et aranearum telis omnia Romae templa cooperta sunt, mouetur urbs sedibus suis et inundans populus ante delubra semiruta currit ad martyrum tumulos. ... (9.) numquam absque te procedat in publicum, basilicas martyrum et ecclesias sine matre non adeat.

'(1.) For all its gilding the Capitol is beginning to look dingy. Every temple in Rome is covered with soot and cobwebs. The city is stirred to its depths and the people pour past their half-ruined shrines to visit the tombs of the martyrs. ... (9.) Never shall she [Paula] appear in public unless accompanied by you. Let her never visit a church or a martyr's shrine without her mother.'

Text: Hilberg 1996 (1912). Translation: Fremantle, Lewis, and Martley 1893, adapted.


Jerome of Stridon, Letter 127,4

Raro procedebat ad publicum et maxime nobilium matronarum uitabat domus, ne cogeretur uidere, quod contempserat, apostolorum et martyrum basilicas secretis celebrans orationibus et quae populorum frequentiam declinarent.

'She [Marcella] seldom appeared in public and took care to avoid the houses of great ladies, that she might not be forced to look upon what she despised. She frequented the basilicas of apostles and martyrs that she might escape from the crowd and give herself to private prayer.'

Text: Hilberg 1996 (1918). Translation: Fremantle, Lewis, and Martley 1893, adapted.