The third stone72 from the coffin of the Martyr Martina and her companions in her martyrdom – Concordius, Epiphanius, and others, whose bodies were placed in one arch; together with the clay board, this stone separated the body of the martyress from the bodies

Martyrs. It is not whole, but in the form of a fragment, on which, however, all the words of the inscription are visible. The venerable body of this martyr was found in the time of Pope Urban VIII in 1634 under the altar of the ancient church dedicated to this martyress. Before the inscription and after the inscription carved on this stone, two four-pointed crosses + + are inscribed. At the place where this stone was found, the bones of three martyrs were also found together, buried together with the body of the benevolent martyress. The time when the martyrs and martyress suffered are not indicated on the stone, but it is enough for us to know that this stone dates back to the first two centuries of Christianity.

Already in these centuries of persecution we see Christians wearing the cross around their necks. For example, the cross around her neck was worn by the above-mentioned Holy Martyr Martina. This cross was found in her coffin – it is small, wooden, skillfully made; there was a hole in the top of it, as it always happens now on neck crosses.

This cross, preserved intact for so many centuries, was taken by Pope Urban VIII in memory of the holy martyress. On the stone slabs that were pushed into the quadrangular cave-like coffins of the martyrs, the following inscriptions can be found very often73:

i.e. the cross, the palm tree and the name of Christ the Savior together with the holy cross.

In addition to the coffinstones, on which the image of the Holy Cross is visible, it is also very often found on lamps74 used by Christians hiding from persecution in the dungeons. These crosses can be found here in two forms: either they have the usual shape of a four-pointed cross, or from their upper end there is an arc-shaped line to the cross across, ending at its longitudinal line, near the very cross.

Let us now speak of the cross in the vault of the church of St. Sylvester, built in the baths of Trajan.

These baths are nothing more than underground galleries that go into the interior of the earth side by side with each other. In one of these vaults of the galleries we have mentioned, in the former small church of St. Sylvester, a huge cross of mosaic work of different colors was visible. St. Sylvester settled in the baths of Trajan, or otherwise Domitian, at a time when the persecution against Christians was still going on – namely, under the tyrant Maxentius, who was still in power at that time, and under Constantine, still a pagan. Here, even before him, the priest Equitius, a famous man, a friend of Sylvester, who had an estate in this place, settled. St. Sylvester, having settled with him, built himself a small church and, conducting high priestly services in it, taught the visiting Christians the mysteries of the Holy Eucharist and consoled them in the misfortunes that then weighed upon them. In this church, until the XVIII century, a marble altar was visible, on which the Holy Pope offered the Bloodless Sacrifice, and several images of saints. After Constantine the Great was baptized by him, Christians breathed more freely and Christian churches quickly began to be erected. Then St. Sylvester built a larger church at the baths of Domitian.

C. On the Crosses That Were in the Fourth Century

The Cross of Christ, buried in the ground after the removal of the Life-Creating Body of the Lord from it, was found and shone like the sun three centuries later, during the reign of the pious Emperor Constantine. It was exhumed from the ground by the holy Empress Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, for the adornment and glory of the entire Church. At the same time, many crosses and their images were made by Constantine, who now placed all his glory in the cross and, together with the Apostle, boasted of nothing but the cross. In the fourth century, the glory of the Cross of Christ filled all Christian dwellings, various household and military garments, and even places outside the dwellings, so that St. Chrysostom already said: "The Cross is everywhere in glory: on houses, in the square, in solitude, on the roads, on the mountains, on the hills, on the plains, on the sea, on the masts of ships, on islands, on couches, on garments, on weapons, at feasts, on silver and gold vessels, on precious stones, on wall paintings... so everyone admires this amazing gift for a break." Without a doubt, St. Chrysostom speaks here of a four-pointed cross, for no other type of cross was known at that time.