Rome | WCIV102 Project | Joseph Maher

Defining Characteristics

At this point, Rome is not Christian (that doesn't happen until 380 AD)¹, so the few Christians in Rome must contend with pagan beliefs and pushback.
Therefore, the Christians had to live in secret, not alerting the authorities to their whereabouts and burying their dead in catacombs underground².
Throughout this time of trouble, the Christians still managed to carry out the teachings that Christ imparted upon them: to love their neighbors (even if they were persecuting them), to care for the poor and impoverished, and to await the Kingdom of God³.
St. Peter was executed in 64 AD by Nero in the Circus Vaticanus (where the Vatican Hill now stands)⁴. The execution of the Christian leader did not do much to stop the new religion from spreading, and instead, the Christians became even more resolute in their desire to follow the teachings of Christ, even unto death (cf. Matthew 5:10 for why).
And yet, through all of this pain and suffering, the resolute Christians continued to carry out their mission of evangelization to spread the evangelion, the Good News.

Burial is a basic human right. Everyone deserves to be buried.
However, the Romans were not willing to let the Christians bury their own dead, because Roman law required cremation. Christians believe in the resurrection of the body at the end of time, so they buried the dead in catacombs underground instead.⁵
The Romans buried their dead out of a sense of duty to them, but Christians did so out of love for the person and the life that they lived.
Thus, for Christians, burial was a basic part of our moral fabric: the dead deserved peace in the afterlife and a chance to be reunited body and soul in Heaven.

This moral is very firmly rooted in the Bible (cf. Mark 12:31, Matthew 22:39, and others).
Even though the Romans were persecuting Christians whenever they had the chance, the Christians still loved the Romans as they would love themselves. To my knowledge, there was no Christian uprising against Rome in which they killed Romans, thus loving those that persecuted them.
There's a great story about St. Tarcisius that I want to include: he was a young boy, probably about 10 or 11, that asked to bring the Eucharist to the sick and dying. While on his way, he was waylaid by Roman teenagers that wanted to take his "toy" from him. He died protecting the Eucharist and loving his neighbors to the end – he didn't fight back, choosing to surrender himself over disobeying God.

This moral value is also rooted in Scripture (cf. Matthew 5:3, for example).
Christians were never brash, pompous individuals. When the Romans would tear their communities apart, they would quietly rebuild in a different location. They did not celebrate their holidays as the Romans did, with loud celebrations, public drunkeness, and other attention-catching events. Rather, they celebrated quietly, at home⁶. The Resurrection of the Lord was a time of great joy – and the Christians kept humble by celebrating it in private.

The emperor around this time was either Claudius (41-54 AD) or Nero (54-68 AD). Nero is responsible for the death of St. Peter.
Christianity was legalized by Emperor Constantine in 313 AD. Until then, practicing it was illegal.
Roman law forbade burying whole human bodies within 2 Roman miles of the city walls. Because of this, most Romans were cremated.
The Basilica of St. Peter (its portico is pictured to the left) in the Vatican is built on the spot where St. Peter was crucified.⁷
Rome was a crazy place to live and worship. Some of its emperors tried to erase their predecessors after they were made into gods – imagine trying to keep up with such a constantly changing religious system!⁸