Suffering With Joy

Laser Technology Reveals Tomb Paintings

June 24, 2010

Oldest known image of St. Paul, represented as a philosopher, the Christian Plato

Last June, near the end of the year dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle, L’Osservatore Romano revealed that archeologists had uncovered the oldest known image of the Apostle to the Gentiles in a catacomb beneath a modern Italian office building. The tomb named after St. Thecla, a noblewoman, is not far from the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on the Via Ostiense and contains important historical evidence of Christian devotion to the Apostles.

It is through the application of modern laser technology that images of Sts. Peter, Paul, Andrew, and John have been liberated from a crust of calcium carbonate in the basement of an Italian insurance company.  Archeologists say that these paintings in St. Thecla’s tomb are the oldest known representations of the Apostles, dating from the late 300s.

Well into the fourth century Christians always tried to bury the dead near the tombs of martyrs.  If the deceased were wealthy, the walls of the tomb would be decorated with Christian symbols, biblical scenes, and references to the martyr.

St. Thecla is one of the most ancient of virgin-martyrs, having been converted by St. Paul at Iconium.  She was of a noble family who had espoused her to a wealthy young man but she was determined to remain a virgin in spite of their pleading.  At the first opportunity she fled her luxurious home and followed St. Paul.  This act earned the rage of her fiance, who captured her and turned her in to Roman authorities who set her amid lions at the colosseum at Antioch.  The beasts merely laid down and licked her feet while nothing the keepers did to incite them prevailed upon them to tear her to pieces. It is believed that at Rome the authorities attempted to burn her to death, but God protected her and she emerged from the flames unscathed.  She is said to have died a hermit in Seleucia.

St. Thecla attended St. Paul in several of his journeys, following his example of austerity and penance. She was well versed in philosophy, literature and science and is often portrayed wearing the dark brown or gray of the Greek philosophers and surrounded by lions and tigers. She is described by SS. Gregory Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Augustine, and others as a virgin and martyr because of the many persecutions she suffered, though St. Bede in his Martyrology writes that she died in peace.  The Roman Church celebrates her feast on September 23rd and the Greeks on September 24th.   Because of her fame as a holy woman in the earliest times of Christianity and the many wonders God worked on her behalf, she has been especially revered over the ages.  It is not surprising, then, that a catacomb in Rome would bear her name.

Christ the Good Shepherd on the ceiling of the burial chamber of the tomb named for St. Thecla

In the burial chamber medalions of the four Apostles mentioned above grace the four corners.  In the center of the ceiling is a painting of Christ as the Good Shepherd, a common theme found in many paintings in the early Christian catacombs. The arch over the vestibule features a fresco of a group of figures Vatican experts describe as “The College of the Apostles.” It’s hard to overestimate the importance of these discoveries because they show that devotion to the Apostles began much earlier in Christianity than historians formerly believed.

Before the advent of laser technology, archeologists would painstakingly scrape away at the white crust with scalpels and brushes, always resulting in the loss of some of the paint.  Now, however, lasers move pinpoint by pinpoint across the walls releasing the images without loss. In this modern age of unbelief and mocking of God, of the attempts by man to glorify himself in wealth and possessions, it seems that God turns the very science man uses to declare his intellectual superiority over previous ages into His own tool.  Again and again, as in the miraculous images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Holy Shroud, God demonstrates through science that being Christian is timeless, and that what we believe today is the same testimony the early Christians painted on the walls and ceilings of tombs and that testimony is true.

Tags: art, Catholic Church

2 Comments to Laser Technology Reveals Tomb Paintings

1. 

   Barb,
   Aren’t these amazing! I read about this online earlier this week and found the paintings beautiful.

   It was almost impossible to kill martyrs during the the early Church, wasn’t it? I wonder if the lions would lick our feet? Well, if I ever find myself in these circumstances I know what saint to ask for help!
Mary Nicewarner on June 27th, 2010
2. 

   I totally agree. St. Thecla is awesome!
barb on June 27th, 2010

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