Evidence ID
E07496Saint Name
Felicitas, martyr of Rome with her seven sons : S00525Saint Name in Source
FelicitasType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptionsEvidence not before
418Evidence not after
700Activity not before
418Activity not after
700Place of Evidence - Region
Rome and regionPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Suburban catacombs and cemeteriesPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Suburban catacombs and cemeteries
Rome
Rome
Roma
Ῥώμη
RhōmēCult activities - Places
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relicsCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
VowCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Women
Other lay individuals/ peopleCult Activities - Cult Related Objects
Ex-votosSource
The inscription is known only through a copy by Boldetti who reports that he had seen it in the cemetery of Cyriaca ad Sanctum Laurentium, on the via Tiburtina. However, Antonio Ferrua who considers this text as a dedication to the martyr Felicitas, doubts that it could be placed anywhere else than at the site of her tomb and basilica in the Cemetery of Maximus on the via Nomentana. He also produces an argument from other mistaken locations of known epigraphs in Boldetti's work. But except for this reasoning there are no other clues that the inscription indeed pertains to the Cemetery of Maximus.Discussion
De Rossi argued that the inscription commemorated the burial of an ordinary woman Martura/Martyria Felicitas in the Roman catacombs, not a vow made to the saint.
Dating: if this is a dedication to Saint Felicitas, it may postdate the restoration of her tomb and lavish donations by Pope Boniface I (418-422).Bibliography
Edition:
Epigraphic Database Bari, no. EDB19812.
see http://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/19812
De Rossi, G.B., Ferrua, A. (eds.) Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, n.s., vol. 8: Coemeteria viarum Nomentanae et Salariae (Vatican: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1983), no. 23398 (with further bibliography).
