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Footprints, Monumental

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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Sepulchral slabs have been found in the catacombs and elsewhere incised with footprints. The two feet as a rule point the same way, though sometimes, but rarely, they are turned in opposite directions. A slab in the Kircherian Museum bears two pairs of footprints pointed contrary ways, as of a person going and returning (fig. 1). Some of these slabs are certainly Christian, though the fact in other cases is uncertain. A slab given by Boldetti, inscribed with JANUARIA IN DEO at one end, bears the sole of a foot, with IN DEO incised upon it, at the other. Perret gives a slab erected by a Christian husband to his wife, with a pair of footprints incised on it, not bare, as is customary, but shod in shoes or sandals. Sometimes, but more rarely, we find a single foot seen in profile.

The signification of this mark is much controverted. Some regard the footprint as the symbol of possession, denoting that the burial-place had been purchased by the individual as his own. This view is based on a false etymology. The idea that a sense of their loss and a deep regret and affection for the departed was thus indicated is a mere romantic fancy. More may be said for the view, that as such emblems were sometimes dedicated as votive offerings by travellers on their return from a journey, they were intended on a Christian slab to indicate a holy thankfulness for the safe completion of the earthly pilgrimage of the departed. Another, more prosaic, but by no means, improbable, interpretation, especially of a single foot, is that it was a thank-offering for recovery from gout or other disease affecting the foot.

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