MAGNIFICAT February cover: The Victory of Life over Death.
While the catacombs could on occasion serve as a refuge during persecutions, they were first and foremost communal cemeteries, the sole dedicated sites that, until the reign of Constantine, ensured the visibility of the Church. Located to the southeast of Rome, beyond the city walls, the catacomb of Marcellinus and Peter extends over seven acres and includes more than two and a half miles of subterranean galleries spread over three levels, with numerous chambers and chapels. Between the mid-3rd and the end of the 4th century, at least twenty thousand bodies were interred there. About sixty such catacombs have been identified around the city of Rome. However, this one is remarkable for its frescoes that have retained an astonishing freshness, as seen in the one reproduced here on the cover of your Magnificat.
Here then is Noah, represented at the moment the dove returns to him bearing an olive branch, confirmation that the earth …More