I recently borrowed (read "pilfered") a most fascinating book from a friend of mine. Entitled Christian Epigraphy, by Orazio Marucchi, it contains a treatise on and collection of ancient Christian inscriptions, including some of the weightiest evidence I have yet seen for the existence from the very first of such Christian doctrines as the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the veneration of Mary as Birthgiver of God and the communion of the Saints. And all this in some of the most beautiful symbolic language I have ever seen, bearing testimony to an incredible faith, joy and hope among the some of the earliest Christian believers. Of particular note is the epitaph of Abercius, the Christian Bishop of Hieropolis in Phrygia during the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, written sometime around A.D. 170. Below is the translation provided by Marucchi.

"I, a citizen of an eminent city, have made a tomb for myself, while yet alive, in which my body shal lie when the time shall have come. My name is Abercius, a disciple of the chaste Shepherd who feedeth the flocks on the mountains and plains, and hath great eyes that look on all things. He instructed me in the sure Word of Life,a nd sent me to Rome, the royal city, to contemplate that queen girt with golden robe and adorned with golden shoes. There I saw a mighty people famous for their splendid Signet. And I saw the plains and all the cities of Syria and Nisibis, having crossed the Uephrates; and everywhere I found brethren in agreement (with me), having Paul...And faith was my guide through all, and everywhere gave me for food the fish (IXTHYS) mighty out of the spring, and pure, which the unsullied virgin took and gave to eat to her friends for ever, having the choicest wine, and ministering it mixed (with water) together with the bread. I, Abercius, being myself present, dictated these things at the age of seventy-two years. Let him who understandeth all this and thinketh in like manner pray for Abercius."

It's interesting to note that Abercius was born not long after 100 A.D., if not indeed before. He thus would have been catechized in the Christian faith by contemporaries of Ignatius and Polycarp, those who had learned the Christian faith directly from the Apostles. Indeed, it is not beyond belief that he might have been taught by one of the very first generation of Christians, perhaps even one of those who had seen Christ with their own eyes and heard him with their own ears. I know many that claim that such doctrines are innovations, but for myself I cannot believe that those early Christian bishops, chosen by the Apostles precisely for their faithfulness to the truth and zeal for the faith, would have abandoned orthodoxy so soon and come up with such strange and unbelievable doctrines as that of the Real Presence. It seems obvious that those must have been part and parcel of the Christian gospel from the very beginning. But then, I suppose I am biased... ;)