Christian Burial Through the Ages

 From Catholic Exchange:

Care of cemeteries has a long pedigree within Catholicism. It is well known that during the age of the persecutions, Christians maintained their own cemeteries in the famous catacombs, subterranean chambers cut out of the earth. These tombs were cared for by a special class of craftsmen known as fossors, or fossores in Latin. Fossors performed a variety of tasks, most notably digging the passages within which Christians would bury their dead. A famous fresco of a 4^th century fossor known as Diogenes was discovered in the 1700s during the excavations of Antonio Boldetti. An inscription identifies Diogenes as a fossor while the image shows a man holding a pickaxe (a reproduction of the image can still be seen in Rome’s St. Marcellino church today).[1] (Read more.)