Ancient Christian Gravestones

I like this picture I took from a second floor window in one of the buildings of the Roman National Museum in Italy.  I think it looks like a painting.  It's a view of the inner courtyard which contains many ancient statues and pieces of columns and buildings.

As we continued along the hallway on this floor, we came to a small exhibit of funerary steles, which were tombstones for graves in ancient times.  The stones I was particularly interested in were the ones dedicated to Christians.  It made me think of Paul and the other Christians in the early church described in the New Testament.  I thought, these were brothers and sisters in Christ and here I am reading their tombstones 1900 years after their deaths.  I was fascinated by them.  Here are a few of the gravestones and the description written out for each of them:

For Licinia Amias

    This is considered to be one of the most ancient Christian inscriptions in Rome, from the beginning of the 3rd century AD.  That would mean this man or woman may have died around the year 200 and may have been living in the early 100's -- not too many years after the apostle John would have died.  This would be a person who was truly part of the very early church.

      Here is the written description:  Funerary stele of Licinia Amias, characterized by the pagan consecration to the Gods Manes together with a rich Christian symbolism.  The expression, “fish of the living,” written in Greek, combined with the representation of the fish, refers to the name of Christ: the Greek word ICHTUS, fish, in fact, is the acrostic for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”  The anchor refers to the salvation of the soul, reachable through the Christian faith.

       Roma, near the Vatican Necropolis  /  beginning 3^rd century AD

Priscus

Priscus lived to be 36 years old and died on May 28.  The dedication is placed here by his brother.  The text is closed by the Christian formula in pace, an expression of the state of bliss of the deceased. Priscus himself is probably portrayed on the right of the slab and in the middle as a standing man in an attitude of prayer. On the two sides the dove with the olive branch and the Christogram are also depicted.  

   Unknown origin / late 4^th century AD

Victoria

Funerary inscription of Victoria, consecrated virgin -  virgo-Dei, who died at 28.  The Christian formula in pace precedes the date of the deposition.  A dove with a little branch is depicted on the left of the slab, as well as the Christogram, a combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ.

   Unknown provenance – second half of the 4^th century

Well, that's a bit of ancient history for us.  As I think about inscriptions on tombstones, without being too morbid, I wonder what sort of epitaph would we want on our tombstone?  Better yet, what sort of living "epitaph" might people write over our lives now?  

The three gravestones we've looked at are engraved with words that testify of lives lived for Christ Jesus.  Are our lives engraved with the testimony of Christ Jesus?  As the Apostle Paul once said, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21.