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Pope Damasus I speaks: An inscription to the saints

This poetic inscription, celebrating the martyrdom of St Eutychius, was one of many such inscriptions composed and set up by Pope Damasus I during his long and tumultuous pontificate (366-384). By this time, the era of persecution and martyrdom was more than half a century in the past and Damasus’ poetic interventions served both to establish papal authority over the sites of the martyrs’ graves but also to keep alive and shape the memory of these heroes of early Christianity. It is noteworthy that in executing these inscriptions, Damasus chose to employ the finest epigrapher/calligrapher then at work, Furius Dionysius Filocalus.