The Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology (Italian: Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra) is an official board of the Vatican founded in 1852 by Pope Pius IX for the purpose of promoting and directing excavations in the Catacombs of Rome and on other sites of Christian antiquarian interest, and of safeguarding the objects found during such excavations.
In 1925, Pope Pius XI declared that the Commission was Pontifical and its competencies were defined in detail and reaffirmed recently in the conventions between the Holy See and the Italian State.
At that period Giovanni Battista De Rossi, a pupil of the archæologist Giuseppe Marchi, had already begun the investigation of subterranean Rome, and achieved results which, if confirmed, promised a rich reward.
MARTYR", which he recognized as belonging to the sepulchre of Pope Cornelius, slain in 253, whose remains were laid to rest in the Catacomb of St. Callixtus on the Appian Way.
The work achieved under its direction has included the formation of the Pio Cristiano Museum; large-scale excavations and repairs in the Catacombs; the discovery and opening up of several subterranean chapels of third-century popes, of Cecilia, of the Acilii-Glabriones, and the Cappella Greca; the opening up of many Catacombs now accessible to visitors; the publication of the three volumes of De Rossi's Roma Sotteranea and his Bulletin of Christian Archæology, and many other works of a kindred nature.