The catacomb saints represent the alleged martyrs who lived in the vicinity of Rome and whose remains were removed from the Roman catacombs during the 17th and 18th centuries. From the 16th century, the cult of these saints became very popular and subsequently became a very effective tool for recatholicization and a weapon against the Protestant faith.
In our territory, a special situation arose after the Thirty Years' War, when the original relics in churches and monasteries were destroyed and new ones had to be acquired. There was a great desire among the population to have an intercessor with God to whom they could turn. Catholic churches and monasteries therefore requested Rome for new relics, and they were transported to Bohemia with great glory. Whole bodies brought back from the catacombs were lavishly decorated and very often styled in period clothing of precious fabrics or Roman armor symbolizing the bloodshed for the faith. The Baroque pomp and ornamentation were intended to show the faithful that heavenly paradise could be attained.
Had it not been for the accidental rediscovery of the Roman catacombs, the cult of the catacomb saints would never have developed to such an extent. These saints were closer to the average Baroque person than the original earthly patrons and martyrs, since medieval reliquaries tended to contain small pieces of bone, whereas catacomb saints usually had whole skeletons preserved.
The Enlightenment, however, put an end to the Baroque pomp and worship of this cult. The glass coffins and display cases on altars, in which the ornate remains rest, became more like church paraphernalia and a symbol of Catholic hypocrisy. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, these relics are seen more as a kind of morbid bizarreness and eerie objects that are often removed from public spaces.
For this reason, many reliquaries containing the complete relics of catacomb saints are now found in museums, private collections, and depositories.