Archaeology and the Cult of Saints in the Early Middle Ages: Accessing the Sacred

In order to contextualise the development of S. Agnese in agone, this paper examines four other intramural churches of Rome dedicated to cults of martyrs : SS Giovanni e Paolo, S. Cecilia in Trastevere, S. Pudenziana and S. Felicita as well as chapels or oratories dedicated to martyrs in larger intra muros churches. At these sites, archaeology was invested with a sacred function during the late antique or early medieval period. The original functions of ancient structures were reconfigured by a new understanding of Christian history ; through the reading of Passiones, people identified these archaeological spaces as places associated with lives and deaths of martyrs. Such hagiographic invention could take place either at the time of the foundation of a church or a posteriori, as in the case of SS. Giovanni e Paolo or S. Cecilia in Trastevere