
In the waning days of the Roman Empire, the city’s marble streets echo with the whispers of a hidden faith. Fabiola, a beautiful and privileged young woman, finds her world upended when she encounters the secret worship of the early Christians gathering in the catacombs beneath the city. Torn between her aristocratic obligations and a growing compassion for the suffering believers, she steps into a world where love and danger walk hand in hand.
The narrative weaves together the lives of saints—Agnes, the steadfast virgin; Sebastian, the brave soldier; and Pancratius, the youthful martyr—each shining a light on the courage required to live a faith that the pagan majority condemns. Through vivid description and heartfelt dialogue, the story captures the tension of secret worship, the allure of charity, and the quiet heroism of ordinary people. Listeners will be drawn into a timeless struggle between conviction and oppression, feeling the pulse of a community that refuses to be silenced.
Language
en
Duration
~13 hours (774K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Chuck Greif, Veronica Brandt, Karina Aleksandrova and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Release date
2020-05-28
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1802–1865
A leading Catholic churchman in 19th-century Britain, this scholar-priest helped re-establish the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and became the first Archbishop of Westminster. He was also a popular writer whose historical novel "Fabiola" reached a wide audience.
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