EL TEMPS DE LA MEMÒRIA

One of the earliest Christian symbols, used from the end of the second century, is the figure of a fish. In Greek, the word “fish” is ἰχθύς (capitalised ΙΧΘΥΣ). The letters of this word were interpreted by Christians as Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Ὑιὸς Σωτήρ, meaning “Jesus, the Christ, Son of God, Saviour”. Consequently, the fish became a representation of Christ that could easily go unnoticed by non-Christians, especially in times of persecution. It gradually disappeared after 313, when Constantine authorised the practice of the Christian religion and there was no need to hide anymore.

This bone plaque, 7.5 cm long and a few mm thick, with the gills and scales represented by fine incisions, was found in the Citadel of Roses in a context that can be dated to the 4^th-5^th centuries AD. We cannot say without a doubt that it is a Christian image, but it allows us, at least, to refer to the Christians of Roses in those times, who bequeathed us the remains of an early-Christian church dating back to those same centuries below the Santa Maria monastery church. From it comes a marble altar used as building material in Santa Maria, and previously reused as a medium for a 10^th-century inscription that reviewed the reconstruction of this early church.

​The importance of the Christian community in Roses speaks to the fact that, although there was an episcopal see in Empúries, at least in the 6^th and 7^th centuries, the episcopal see of Rotdon, documented in the 4^th-5^th centuries, has been attributed to Roses. Even today, as a titular diocese (the old dioceses no longer exist), it maintains an honorary bishop. The current bishop was appointed just two years ago.