Greek invocation of an unnamed *Archangel, on a slab with a low relief carving of a crown with a cross within it. Found at Traianopolis (Phrygia, west central Asia Minor). Probably late antique.
Evidence ID
E00900
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Images and objects - Sculpture/reliefs
ἀρχάγγελε, βοήθει
τῷ δούλῳ σου
'O Archangel, help your servant!'
Text: Ramsay 1897, 558, no. 442.
Non Liturgical Activity
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOther lay individuals/ people
Source
A slab, when recorded, kept in an Armenian church. It bears a low relief carving of a crown with a cross within it. Around the crown runs a text referring to the First Epistle to the Corinthians 1:24 and Psalm 56:11: 'Christ, the power of God and the Wisdom of God, the Lord, is my help, and I will not be afraid what man can do unto me'/+ Χριστὸς θεοῦ δύναμις καὶ θεοῦ σοφία, Κύριος, ἐμοὶ βοηθός, καὶ οὐ φοβήσομαι τί ποιήσει μοι ἄνθρωπος. An invocation of an archangel is inscribed on the cross.Discussion
The inscription records an invocation of an unnamed Archangel, certainly by an educated person (as the spelling is correct and the invocation is accompanied by quotations from the scriptures). This kind of invocation is not precisely datable but, inscriptions mentioning 'servants of saints' are characteristic of late 5th and later centuries.Bibliography
Edition:Felle, A.E., Biblia epigraphica. La sacra scrittura nella documentazione epigrafica dell'«Orbis christianus antiquus» (III-VIII secolo) (Bari: Edipuglia, 2006), no. 496.
Leclercq, H., "Phrygie", Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et liturgie, vol. 14/1 (Paris: Librarie Letouzey et Ané, 1939), 797, no. 30B.
Ramsay, W.M., Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, vol. 1, part 2: West and West-Central Phrygia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1897), 558, no. 442.
LBW, no. 728.
Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, no. 8909.
Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae database, no. 1619: http://www.epigraph.topoi.org/ica/icamainapp/inscription/show/1619
Further reading:
Cumont, F., "Les inscriptions chretiennes de 1'Asie Mineure", Mélanges de l'école française de Rome 15 (1895), no. 174.
Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, IX, Asie Mineure", Analecta Bollandiana 71 (1953), 328.
Record Created By
Pawel Nowakowski
Date of Entry
26/11/2015
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00191 | Archangels, unnamed or name lost | ἀρχάγγελος | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Pawel Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E00900 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E00900