Portus had its own bishops early on. At the Council of Arles in 314 AD (a year after the Edict of Milan, in which Christianity became a legal religion) bishops from both Ostia and Portus were present. The bishop from Portus, Gregorius, was reigstered rather enigmatically as de loco qui est in Portu Romae, "from the place that is in the Harbour of Rome". The seat of the bishop was to the south of Trajan's hexagonal basin. It is the current Episcopium, part of the Suburbicarian Diocese of Porto-Santa Rufina. Some late Roman masonry is preserved in the facade. The bishop's church was most likely the fully excavated Christian Basilica situated a bit to the north-west.
Description of the Christian Basilica and Episcopium
Presumably not very far away, but not found yet, was a guest house for pilgrims, a xenodochium. In a letter written by Hieronymus (Saint Jerome) to the Roman senator Pammachius (a friend of Augustinus) in 397 AD we read:
Audio te xenodochium in portu fecisse Romano et virgam de arbore Abraham in Ausonio plantasse litore. Quasi Aeneas nova castra metaris et super undam Thybridis, ubi ille cogente quondam penuria crustis fatalibus et quadris patulis non pepercit, tu viculum nostrum, id est domum panis, aedificas et diuturnam famem repentina saturitate compensas. Euge, noster, initia transgrederis. I hear that you have erected a hospice for strangers at Portus and that you have planted a twig from the tree of Abraham upon the Ausonian shore. Like Aeneas you are tracing the outlines of a new encampment; only that, whereas he, when he reached the waters of the Tiber, under pressure of want had to eat the square flat cakes which formed the tables spoken of by the oracle, you are able to build a house of bread to rival this little village of Bethlehem wherein I am staying; and here after their long privations you propose to satisfy travellers with sudden plenty. Well done. You have surpassed my poor beginning. Epistulae 66, 11 (Letter to Pammachius). Translation: NewAdvent.Org. In another letter, from 399 AD, Hieronymus informs us that it was a joint effort of Pammachius and Saint Fabiola:
Certabant vir et femina, quis in portu Abrahae tabernaculum figeret, et haec erat inter utrumque contentio, quis humanitate superaret. Vicit uterque et uterque superatus est. Ambo se victos et victores fatentur, dum, quod alter cupiebat, uterque perfecit. Iungunt opes, sociant voluntates, ut, quod aemulatio dissipatura erat, concordia cresceret. Necdum dictum, iam factum: emitur hospitium et ad hospitium turba concurrit. Non est enim labor in Iacob nec dolor in Israhel. Adducunt maria, quos in gremio suo terra suscipiat. Mittit Roma properantes, quos navigaturos litus molle confoveat. Quod Publius semel fecit in insula Melita erga unum apostolum et - ne contradictioni locum tribuam - in una nave, hoc isti et frequenter faciunt et in plures, nec solum inopum necessitas sustentatur, sed prona in omnes munificentia aliquid et habentibus providet. Xenodochium in portu Romano situm totus pariter mundus audivit. He [Pammachius] and Fabiola contended for the privilege of setting up a tent like that of Abraham at Portus. The contest which arose between them was for the supremacy in shewing kindness. Each conquered and each was overcome. Both admitted themselves to be at once victors and vanquished, for what each had desired to effect alone both accomplished together. They united their resources and combined their plans, that harmony might forward what rivalry must have brought to nought. No sooner was the scheme broached than it was carried out. A house was purchased to serve as a shelter and a crowd flocked into it. "There was no more travail in Jacob nor distress in Israel". The seas carried voyagers to find a welcome here on landing. Travellers left Rome in haste to take advantage of the mild coast before setting sail. What Publius once did in the island of Malta for one apostle and - not to leave room for gainsaying - for a single ship's crew, Fabiola and Pammachius have done over and over again for large numbers; and not only have they supplied the wants of the destitute, but so universal has been their munificence, that they have provided additional means for those who have something already. The whole world knows that a home for strangers has been established at Portus. Epistulae 77, 10 (Letter to Oceanus). Translation: NewAdvent.Org.
Painting of Pammachius in the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Rome.
Photo: anastpaul.com.Statue of Fabiola on the colonnade of St. Peter's square.
Photo: Wikimedia, Alf van Beem.In 1018 AD the seat of the bishop was established near the Basilica of Saint Hippolytus on the Isola Sacra. That church had been built near the tomb of the martyr, who lived in the third century.
Description of the Basilica of Saint Hippolytus
At the end of the ninth century Formosus, bishop of Portus, transferred the remains of Hippolytus and those of two other martyrs, Taurinus and Herculanus, to the church San Giovanni Calibita on the Tiber Island in Rome.
The Triumph of Hippolytus, Taurinus and Herculanus, the Martyrs of Portus.
Painting by Corrado Giaquinto (1703-1766). Photo: kunstverwaltung.bund.de.Taurinus and Herculanus are also mentioned in a fragmentary inscription found during the excavation of the Basilica of Saint Hippolytus, possibly from the sixth century. A second inscription with their names is on the lid of a sarcophagus in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. It was found in the harbours, in agro Ostiensi. It has been assigned to the late fourth or early fifth century:
DEO PATRI OMNIPOTEN
TI ET XPO EIVS E[t] SANCTIS
MARTYRIBVS [t]AVRINO
ET HERCVLAN[o o]MNI
ORA GRATIA[s agi]MVS
NEVIUS ZARI[stus e]T
CONSTANT[ia mart?]V
RIA SIBI FEC[erunt]To God the Almighty Father
and to his Christ and to the holy
martyrs Taurinus
and Herculanus, every
hour we give thanks.
Nevius Zaristus and
Constantia made the
martyria for them.Inscription in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.
De Rossi 1866, 49; EDR128844. Photo: EDCS-05701959.Taurinus and Herculanus appear in the story of the martyrdom of Aurea, in a group of soldiers who were beheaded in front of the theatre of Ostia, near the Arch of Caracalla. They were buried in Portus however:
Eadem hora iussit eos duci ad arcum ante theatrum , et ibi eos capitalem fecit subire sententiam. Tunc omnes quasi ex uno ore dixerunt: Domine Deus omnipotens, receptor innocentium animarum, suscipe spiritum nostrum. Et decollati sunt in eodem loco, gratias agentes Deo. Romulus vero iussit beatum Cyriacum in custodia truncari. Tunc beatus Eusebius collegit noctu corpora sanctorum Cyriaci episcopi, Maximi presbyteri, et Archelai diaconi: et cum omni diligentia sepelivit. Corpora vero Sanctorum militum iussit Romulus in mare iactari: quos beatus presbyter sollicitus collegit ad litus maris, et in campo Hosteae abscondit, atque sepelivit iuxta Urbem in crypta Ostense, sexto Idus Augusti: Taurinum vero et Herculanum in portu Romano abscondit, beatum Theodorum tribunum posuit in mausoleo suo: et omnes alios collegit, et posuit iuxta corpora sanctorum Cyriaci et Maximi sub die decimo Kalendas Septembris. At that same hour, Romulus ordered that they be brought to the arch in front of the theatre and there he made them undergo their death sentence. Then everyone spoke as if with one voice: "All powerful lord God, receiver of our innocent spirits, accept our souls." And they were beheaded in that very spot, giving thanks to God. But Romulus ordered the blessed Cyriacus to be beheaded in jail. Then, blessed Eusebius at night gathered up all the bodies of the saints - bishop Cyriacus, presbyter Maximus and deacon Archelaus. And he buried them with every care. But Romulus ordered the bodies of the holy soldiers to be tossed into the sea - the bodies of whom the blessed presbyter, out of concern, gathered up at the seashore and hid in a field in Ostia and he buried them next to the city in an Ostian crypt, six days before the Ides of August [8 August]. But he hid Taurinus and Herculanus at the Roman harbor, placed the blessed Theodorus in his own mausoleum, and gathered up all the others and placed them next to the bodies of the holy Cyriacus and Maximus, doing this latter ten days before the Kalends of September [23 August]. Acta Sanctorum, Martyrdom of Aurea. Translation Douglas Boin. A list of martyrs from 336 AD, the Depositio Martyrum, has the entry non. Sep. [September 5]. Aconti in Porto et Nonni et Herculani et Taurini. Apparently then the relics of the two martyrs were buried in two buildings next to the Basilica of Saint Hippolytus. There is a little Church of Saint Herculanus to the south-east of Ostia. It is not clear whether it was dedicated to the same soldier or to a different man.
The Martyrology of Jerome, an ancient enumeration of martyrs and their feast days, lists several martyrs from Portus: Primitivus (or Primitiva) and Paulus on February 24, Victor (in portu Romae) on April 16, Martialis (Romae in portu) on May 15, Vincentius on May 24, Agnes (in Portus or Ostia) on October 18, Eutropius, Zosima, and Bonosa (in porto Romano, hoc est in hiscla [error for Hostia?]), and Ariston on December 13. Little is known about most of these martyrs. Vincentius and Agnes appear on a gold-glass vessel found in the catacomb of Callixtus in Rome. They are accompanied by Hippolytus, indicated as Poltus.
Vincentius, Agnes and (Hip)pol(y)tus on a gold-glass vessel.
Found in the catacomb of Saint Callixtus, Rome.
R. Garrucci, Vetri ornati di figure in oro, trovati nei cimiteri
dei cristiani primitivi di Roma, Roma 1858, 50-51, Tav. XXII.We know more about Eutropius, Zosima, and Bonosa. Their church has not yet been found, but it must have been near the junction of the Fossa Traiana and the Tiber (Capo Due Rami), witness the place of discovery of two relevant inscriptions.
Description of the Basilica of Eutropius, Bonosa and Zosima
To the east of the western runway of the airport is an isolated, rectangular chapel of Santa Ninfa built in 1700.[1] Nympha lived around 300 AD. She was not executed, but died peacufully near Portus. She was buried at the same spot where she had buried other saints: next to baths at a distance of one mile from a locality called Bucina (sepulta est in cripta iuxta corpora sanctorum martyrum praedictorum ... iuxta balneum quod situm est a Bucina miliario uno). The locality Bucina was near the sea (iuxta mare). Near the isolated chapel must have been a church of Nympha. Pope Leo IV (847-855) presented a gift to this ecclesia. In the 12th century the relics were dispersed to churches in Rome. In the 17th century cardinal Franceso Barberini restored the ruins, adding a round structure with a marble statue of the saint. All that remains today is the little rectangular chapel.
The chapel of Santa Ninfa. Photo: Pro Loco Fiumicino.Of course Christian funerary inscriptions were found in Portus, both in Latin and Greek. Sometimes the language points to distant roots, for example when a woman is said to have been bisents annos XXIII in pache for vivens annos XXIII in pace.[2] Christian symbols may accompany the text, such as crouching sheep, an anchor, and a dove with an olive branch in its beak flanking the inscription of Iulia Eunia for her husband Telesphorus:
IVLIA EVNIA TELESPHORO
MARITO DIGNISSIMO
FECIT IN PACEInscription found in the Isola Sacra necropolis, tomb 38.
Date: 300-330 AD. EDR101572. Photo: EDCS-13500074.A badly preserved Christian sarcophagus from the Isola Sacra necropolis has a praying figure at the left end and the good shepherd (pastor bonus) on the opposite side. A sarcophagus with shepherds found near the Isola Sacra necropolis is probably Christian as well.
Sarcophagus with a praying figure and the good shepherd (pastor bonus).
From the Isola Sacra necropolis (tomb 39). Late third century AD.
Museo Ostiense, inv. nr. 1329. Photo: ICCD E069987.
Sarcophagus with shepherds.
Found near the Isola Sacra necropolis. Late third or early fourth century AD.
Museo Ostiense, inv. nr. 1303. Photo: ICCD N012979.
[1] For the precise location see this image. For Ninfa: Acta Sanctorum, November, IV, 373-379 with E. Susi, "Fare diete reliquie nectare et pulire. La dispersione delle spoglie di san Mamiliano e santa Ninfa tra Porto e Pisa", Archivio della Societa Romana di Storia Patria 133 (2010), 53-159.
[2] The inscription has a consular date of 408 AD. EDR149795. C. Proskauer, Das auslautende -s auf den lateinischen Inschriften, Strassburg 1910, 153.
