Record | The Cult of Saints

Greek epitaph for a deacon of a sanctuary of unnamed Apostles, probably the apostoleion of Peter (S00038) and *Paul (S00008) at the estate of Rufinianae. Found near Chalcedon (Bithynia, north-west Asia Minor, near Constantinople), probably 5th-6th c.

Evidence ID

E01132

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

ἐνθά[δε κ]-
ατάκιτε <δ>[ιά]-
κονος + <Ε>ἰο[ά]-
νις + τ<ῶ>[ν]
ἁγίων ἀ[π]-
ωστόλον

'Here lies the deacon + Ioannes + (of the church) of the holy A[p]ostles.'

Text: Feissel 1987, no. 21.

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)
Cult building - monastic

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy

Source

The inscription was seen and copied by Johann Heinrich Mordtmann before 1885 at Erenköy (near Chalkedon), but it had probably been brought there from another location. First published by X. Sideridis in 1908 after Mordtmann's copy, sent to him in a letter dated 1899. There is no detailed description of the stone.

Discussion

The inscription is the epitaph for a deacon of a church dedicated to the Apostles. In a letter to Sideridis, Mordtmann noted that this was almost certainly the martyr shrine built by Rufinus, a pretorian prefect of the East (392-395) under the emperor Theodosius I, at his estate of Rufinianae, and connected to the monastery of Rufinianae. The mid-5th c. Life of Hypatios says that the shrine was located close to Chalkedon and that Rufinus, in c. 393, acquired some relics of Peter and Paul the Apostles at Rome, and deposited them in this martyrion (66, 16-25, see E01133).

Denis Feissel rightly dismisses Mordtmann's idea that, based on this inscription, we could identify the site of Rufinianae precisely as Erenköy - because the stone was said to have been brought to the town from elsewhere.

Dating: probably 5th or 6th c. (based on the contents).

Bibliography

Edition:
Feissel, D., "De Chalcédoine à Nicomédie, quelques inscriptions négligées", Travaux et Mémoires 10 (1987), no. 21.

Miliopoulos, I., Ἀρχαιολογικαὶ ζητήσεις, [1921], 8.

Sideridis, X., Syll. Const., 30 (1908), 219.

Reference works:
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 37, 1045.

Record Created By

Pawel Nowakowski

Date of Entry

19/02/2016

Related Saint Records

ID	Name	Name in Source	Identity
S00008	Paul, the Apostle		Uncertain
S00036	Peter, the Apostle		Uncertain
S00084	Apostles, unnamed or name lost	ἀπώστολοι	Certain

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Pawel Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E01132 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01132

The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world

Greek epitaph for a deacon of a sanctuary of unnamed Apostles, probably the apostoleion of Peter (S00038) and *Paul (S00008) at the estate of Rufinianae. Found near Chalcedon (Bithynia, north-west Asia Minor, near Constantinople), probably 5th-6th c.

E01132

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

Cult building - independent (church)
Cult building - monastic

Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy

Source

Discussion

Bibliography

Pawel Nowakowski

19/02/2016

Greek epitaph for a deacon of a sanctuary of unnamed *Apostles, probably the apostoleion of *Peter (S00038) and *Paul (S00008) at the estate of Rufinianae. Found near Chalcedon (Bithynia, north-west Asia Minor, near Constantinople), probably 5th-6th c.

E01132

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

Cult building - independent (church) Cult building - monastic

Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy

Source

Discussion

Bibliography

Pawel Nowakowski

19/02/2016

Greek epitaph for a deacon of a sanctuary of unnamed Apostles, probably the apostoleion of Peter (S00038) and *Paul (S00008) at the estate of Rufinianae. Found near Chalcedon (Bithynia, north-west Asia Minor, near Constantinople), probably 5th-6th c.

Cult building - independent (church)
Cult building - monastic