Greek inscription on a lintel with the name of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030). Found at Nāmr al-Hawā (to the south of Sheikh Meskin and to the north of Adraha, Roman province of Arabia). Probably late antique.
Evidence ID
E02122
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
+ ὁ ἅγιος + Στέφανος
[1. Στέφανος Sartre & Sartre-Fauriat, Σ<τ>έφανος Dunand]
'+ Saint + Stephen.'
Text: IGLS 13/2, no. 9928.
Cult Places
Cult building - independent (church)
Source
A stone lintel. There is no published description of dimensions and the precise whereabouts of the discovery. Decorated with a carving of a cross in the middle of the inscribed face.First published in 1950 by Maurice Dunand from his own copy. Republished in 2011 by Annie Sartre-Fauriat and Maurice Sartre, based on the earlier edition as they were unable to find the stone.
Discussion
The inscription seems to be the first and only epigraphic attestation to the cult of Stephen in the Hauran. The other alleged attestation (IGLS 13/2, no. 9662), cited by Robert Devreesse, is actually the epitaph for a man named Stephanos.If our text was really carved on a lintel, one can suppose that it labelled a church dedicated to Stephen the First Martyr.
Bibliography
Edition:Sartre, M., Sartre-Fauriat, A. (eds.), Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 13/2: Bostra (Supplément) et la plaine de la Nuqrah (BAH 194, Beirut: Institut français du Proche-Orient, 2011), no. 9928.
Dunand, M., "Nouvelles inscriptions du Djebel Druze et du Hauran", Archiv Orientalni: Journal of the Czechoslovak Oriental Institute, Prague 18 (1950), no. 356.
Further reading:
Sartre-Fauriat, A., "Georges, Serge, Élie et quelques autres saints connus et inédits de la province d'Arabie", in: Fr. Prévot (ed.), Romanité et cité chrétienne. Permances et mutations. Intégration et exclusion du Ier au VIe siècle. Mélanges en l'honneur d'Yvette Duval (Paris: De Boccard, 2000), 306.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1953), 218.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 50, 1518.
For the false attestation to the cult of Stephen, see:
Sartre, M., Sartre-Fauriat, A. (eds.), Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 13/2: Bostra (Supplément) et la plaine de la Nuqrah (BAH 194, Beirut: Institut français du Proche-Orient, 2011), no. 9662.
Sartre-Fauriat, A., "Georges, Serge, Élie et quelques autres saints connus et inédits de la province d'Arabie", in: Fr. Prévot (ed.), Romanité et cité chrétienne. Permances et mutations. Intégration et exclusion du Ier au VIe siècle. Mélanges en l'honneur d'Yvette Duval (Paris: De Boccard, 2000), 297.
Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, I, Faux martyrs et inscriptions pseudo-hagiographiques", Analecta Bollandiana 67 (1949), 95.
Devreesse, R., Le patriarcat d'Antioche depuis la paix de l'Église jusqu'à la conquête arabe (Paris: J. Gabalda et cie, 1945), 229.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 50, 1518.
Images
)
Drawing by Dunand. From: Dunand 1950, 159.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
14/12/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Στέφανος | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E02122 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02122