Our Saint  -  St. Flavia Domitilla

The Consul, Flavius Clemens, was part of the Emperor's household. According to the historian Sventonius, their two young children had already been designated as successors to the throne of the Emperor, entrusting their education to a great teacher, Quintillianus. Flavius Clemens had married the daughter of Emperor Domitian's sister whose name also was Flavia Domitilla.

Both Flavius Clemens and his wife, Flavia Domitilla, were to suffer persecution for the sake of Christ when their faith became known to the Emperor who did not spare his own niece. The historian, Dion Cassius, relates that Emperor Domitian had Flavius Clemens put to death while he was consul, sending his niece, Flavia Domitilla inter exile on the Island of Pandataria (Hist. LXVII, 14). These two were accused of "atheism" (that is, not worshipping pagan gods) and practicing judiacal customs (that is, Christian practices) although this condemnation must also have been influenced by political motives. In fact, it was the cause of the conspiracy which later brought about the downfall of the tyrant Emperor Domitian, as the historian Sventonius tells us. (In Domit. XV, 1 and SVII, 2).

Both islands of Ponza and Pandataria were habitual places of exile for members of the Imperial family. Ponza is remembered as the place of exile for the daughters of Caligula as well as the son of Germanicus; Pandataria for Julia, the daughter of Augustus, Agrippina, wife of Germanicus and Octavia, wife of Nero. The Roman historian, Tacitus, notes that many noble women were exiled during the reign of Domitian (Vita Agricolae, 45, 1).

The people on the Isle of Ponza remembered Flavia Domitilla in a particular way. The tortures she endured must have made a profound impression on the early Church. As of as the end of the 4th century, religious pilgrims were still being shown the "cellulae" in which Flavia Domitilla endured her "longum martyrium". St. Jerome, writing about the journey his devoted friend and patron, Paula, undertook to Jerusalem, describes how inflamed Paula was with zeal and enthusiasm after visiting the shrine of Flavia Domitilla on Ponza. (EP. 108, 7).

St. Domitilla had been a martyr of Domitian's persecution. As in the case of all martyrs prior to the 3rd century, with the exception of the Apostles, her commemoration is missing from the calendar of the Roman Church, the "Deposit Martyrum," dating back to 354 A. D., nor is there any record of her in the liturgical books. A later listing, the Martyrology of Jerome, mentions Sts. Nereus and Achilles, Roman soldiers and martyrs, buried in what is now known as the Catacombs of Domitilla, noting their feast day as May 12, without mention of St. Domitilla. Her feast is joined to that of these two saints only in the 9th Century, and with the location of the burial site belonging to Flavia Domitilla. In the recent revision of the calendar of saints, the name of St. Domitilla is dropped because of its late and erroneous insertion into the Roman Liturgical Calendar.

One wonders, however, why the memory of the life and martyrdom of Flavia Domitilla was so strong among the faithful even though she was not commemorated in the liturgical books of martyrs venerated by the Roman Church. Pope St. Gregory I, mat the end of the 6th century, celebrated the feasts of these martyrs in Rome remembering the glorious Roman past, its martyrs and the noble Flavian family.

Religious writers wrote pious accounts, many of them exaggerations, of the martyrdom of Domitilla, Nereus, Achilles, Petronilla, and many others. At this time, the story of Domitilla was linked with the martyrdom of Nereus and Achilles. During the fifth and sixth centuries, Christian piety toward the early martyrs was fostered by these writings. These accounts, called Passiones, although having little historical value, are based somewhat in fact and in the case, must have been exact in indicating the tomb of Sts. Nereus and Achilles in praedio Domitillae in crypta arenaria, in Via Ardeatina (on the farmland or estate of Domitilla, in a sandstone crypt, along the Ardeatine Way). The basilica to honor these two soldier saints built at the end of the 4th century after the Peace of Constantine giving freedom to the Christians, is concrete proof of the same.

There is documentary evidence to testify to the existence of a praedium (estate) of Domitilla, the niece of Domitian, on the Ardeatine Way, more or less above, or in the vicinity of the Christian catacomb. Three pagan inscriptions on marble discovered there during excavations in 1817-23 speak of the concessions by Flavia Domitilla to various persons of land to serve as a burial place.

This land is certainly one of the more ancient units from which the network of Christian cemeteries or catacombs developed. One of the motive which contributed largely to the development of the Cemetery of Domitilla and to the subsequent enrichment of its chapels was the devotion to the martyrs buried there. Anyone who goes down today to visit the catacomb of St. Domitilla finds himself at the outset before an unexpected, large basilica above, indicating the depth at which the edifice was hollowed out. The visitor receives the impression that the martyrs honored here occupied an important place in the history of the early Church. The early Christians called their burial places Koimeteria, that is Greek for "dormitories", a vivid expression of their faith in the resurrection of the body.

With three Catholic cemeteries within our parish boundaries, it is altogether fitting that our parish be entitled St. Domitilla. Archbishop Mundelein named St. Domitilla patron of our Parish because of this link with the Cemetery of Domitilla in Rome. It is a privilege, indeed, to be associated with the first century of Christianity, especially its martyrs.