(VIS/Vatican Radio) – At 4 p.m. Tuesday, in the Basilica of San Silvestro at the catacombs
of Priscilla, the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology will present the results
of the work carried out there during the last five years. The speakers at the presentation
will be Fr. Ciro Benedettini C.P., vice director of the Holy See Press Office; Cardinal
Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology (PCAS);
Msgr. Giovanni Carrù, secretary of the same Commission, Fabrizio Bisconti, superintendent;
Giorgia Abeltino, head of public policy at Google; and Barbara Mazzei and Raffaella
Giuliani, both members of PCAS. During the last five years, archaeological excavation
works have been carried out, along with the conservational restoration of the paintings
inside the catacombs and the renovation and reorganisation of one of the most evocative
spaces, the basilica in which Pope Silvestro was buried. Of particular note is the
restoration of the cubiculum of Lazzarus, in the subterranean cemetery close to the
papal basilica, which was the last in a long series of conservational procedures carried
out in the cemetery of Priscilla. The basilica of San Silvestro is composed of
two spaces, one dedicated to worship and the other used in the past as a deposit for
ancient sculptural material unearthed during the excavations. These include over 700
fragments of sarcophagi, meticulously restored, from the necropolises which during
the late imperial age extended along this part of the Via Salaria Nova. The result
is an important body of late-ancient funerary sculptural works, arranged and presented
to the public as a museum exhibit. This valuable example of sculptural heritage
may be viewed on-line at the site mupris.net; the complex of the catacombs of Priscilla