Site logo

The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


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


Fragmentary Greek inscription with an invocation of *Polycarp/Polykarpos (martyr of Smyrna, S00004). Found at Mytilene (Lesbos, the Aegean Islands). Probably late antique or middle Byzantine.

Evidence ID

E01212

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Inscribed architectural elements

Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)

[- - - ἅγι]ε Πολύκαρπε τῶν κλῆ[ρον σου - - -] τίρησον αὐτό[ν]

1. perhaps αὐτõ[ν]

'[- - - Saint] Polykarpos, [help (?) your] clergy (?) [- - -] guard him!'

Text: Charitonidis 1968, 21.

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Non Liturgical Activity

Prayer/supplication/invocation

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Other lay individuals/ people

Source

The inscription is engraved facing downwards, on the inner surface of an arch, in the basilica of St Polycarp, located in the southern suburb of Mytilene (Lesbos, the Aegean Islands). There is no detailed description of the inscription's dimensions. Seen and copied by Seraphim Charitonidis between 1960 and 1964.

Discussion

The inscription is an invocation of Polykarpos, bishop and martyr of Smyrna (ob. 2nd c., S00004). As Lesbos lies just opposite Smyrna, we can suppose that his cult on the island developed because of the vicinity of the tomb of the martyr.

Polykarpos is not a saint frequently referred to in dedicatory inscriptions and invocations from Anatolia and the Cyclades, but an inscription from Ephesos (see: E00708) may prove that the bishops of Smyrna used him to assert their peculiar ecclesiastical status, as Polykarpow was said to have been a disciple of *John the Apostle and Evangelist, and thus an inheritor of his extraordinary, mystical knowledge.

The invocation from Mytilene is, unfortunately, very fragmentarily preserved. Charitonidis completed the word appearing after the name of the saint as κλῆρος (in the plural form), which may refer either to 'clergy', for whom the aid of the saint is sought, or to 'lands' placed under the protection of the saint, i.e. the whole province, city, or specific estates owned by the church. The invocation ends with a request for protection for a certain man or for a group, perhaps even the mentioned clerics, as the pronoun αὐτόν could be read as a misspelt plural form: αὐτõν.


Bibliography

Edition:
Charitonidis, S., Παλαιοχριστιανικὴ τοπογραφία τῆς Λέσβου, ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΚΟΝ ΔΕΛΤΙΟΝ 23 (1968) ΜΕΡΟΣ Α' - ΜΕΛΕΤΑΙ, 21.

Further reading:
Kiourtzian, G., "Pietas insulariorum", [in:] Eupsychia: mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler, vol. 2 (Série Byzantina Sorbonensia 16, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1998), 376.

Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1969), 421.


Record Created By

Paweł Nowakowski

Date of Entry

17/03/2016

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00004Polykarpos/Polycarp, bishop and martyr of Smyrna, and his companion martyrsΠολύκαρποςCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E01212 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01212