[Footnote 91: Domina Basilla, commendamus tibi Crescentinum et filiam nostram ... quae vixit menses x." ...]
More frequently it was to God they directed the loved soul, "Lord Jesus, remember our child," said a Grecian inscription reported by Northcote.
Is there not a remembrance of the stammering of a child in prayer, in the first pronunciation, and in the orthography of the last word of the epitaph on a little girl?
"Regina, bibas (vivas) in Domino Zezu!" "Regina, live in the Lord Jesus!"
If life is only a pilgrimage for us, is not this particularly true of those who have only passed a few days in this world? This idea has been rendered in the epitaph of a young Christian; and few have made so great an impression upon me as the following, simple and short as it is:
"Peregrina, vixit annos viii., menses viii., dies x. Decessit de corpore." "Peregrina lived eight years, eight months, ten days, then departed from the body."
Did this name of Peregrina, pilgrim, passenger, allude to her rapid voyage upon the earth, which she hastened to leave? I incline to this beautiful idea, which a similar inscription authorizes, not far from there, carved upon the tomb of a Christian: "Viator!"
Upon the grave-stones of children of the first centuries, it is not uncommon to see a white dove, carved upon an antique cup, drinking from the border. Those who repose beneath that stone had drunk of the cup of life, and taking a taste, not wishing more, had spread their wings and returned to heaven.
In that better land they become intercessors for their kindred on the earth. What family has not theirs? And who has not prayed to those young elect, yesterday our brothers and sons, to-day our defenders in that place from which they behold us and will prove their love for us? The following can be read in the Lateran Museum:
"Matronata matrona, intercede for thy parents!
She lived one year, fifty-two days." [Footnote 92]