Greek building inscription for a church (oikos) dedicated to *Mary (Mother of Christ, S00033) as the God-Bearer (Theotokos). Found at Sakkaia/Maximianopolis near Bostra (Roman province of Arabia). Probably late 5th or 6th c.
Evidence ID
E02146
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
οἶκος τῆς ἁγ[ί]ας ἐ[ν]δόξου [Θε]-
οτόκου Μαρίας ἐκ προσ[φ]ορ[ᾶ]-
ς Ἀμέ[ρ]ου Κάρσου Μάνου ἐκ[τί]-
[σθη ἐ]π[ὶ τ]οῦ ὡσιοτ(άτου) Θεοδώ[ρ]ου
ἐν μ(ηνὶ) Ὀκτοβ[ρίῳ, ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) ..], ἔτου[ς ...]
[3. Κάρσου Μάνου Waddington, Καρσουμάνου Kirchhoff Burckhardt. We ommit other, obviously wrong, completions by Burckhardt.]
'Church (oikos) of the holy and glorious God-Bearer (Theotokos) Mary was founded from the offering of Ameros, son of Karsos, grandson of Manos (?), under the most pious Theodoros, in the month of October, [- - - indiction], the year [- - -].'
Text: Waddington 1870, no. 2160a.
Translation: P. Nowakowski.
Cult PlacesBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Cult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Construction of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Other lay individuals/ people
Source
Probably a stone slab. Found by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1810 in Shaqqa (Sakkaia/Maximianopolis near Bostra, Arabia) 'in the courtyard of a peasant's house.' First published by Burckhardt in 1822 with no comments and no translation. His transcription is full of incorrect completions. Corrected and republished by Adolf Kirchhoff in Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, based on the earlier edition. When Waddington revisited Sakkaia in the 1860s, he was unable to find the inscription, so his edition follows that of Kirchhoff. A new edition will be offered in the sixteenth volume of Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie.Discussion
The inscription commemorates the construction of a church dedicated to Mary as the Theotokos. The church was apparently constructed from the offering of one man. Burckhardt and Kirchhoff read his name as Ameros, son of Karsoumanos, but Waddington, probably rightly, pointed out that we can have here a reference to the father and grandfather of the founder, and not only to his father. Hence his reading: Ameros, son of Karsos, grandson of Manos.Unfortunately, the dating formula of our inscription is almost completely lost. Other inscription from the city, commemorating the construction of churches dedicated to saints, date to the mid-6th c. and later periods: E00839 (549-567); E02133 (596 or 611). Thus, a date in the mid-6th c. is probable. Strangely, the function of Theodoros, the ecclesiastic mentioned in the dating formula, is not specified. Waddington plausibly suggests that he was bishop of Sakkaia.
Bibliography
Edition:Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 16/2, no. 518 (forthcoming).
Waddington, W.H., Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, Libraires-Éditeurs, 1870), no. 2160a.
Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum IV, no. 8821.
Burckhardt, J.L., Travels in Syria and the Holy Land (London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1822), 75.
Further reading:
Devreesse, R., Le patriarcat d'Antioche depuis la paix de l'Église jusqu'à la conquête arabe (Paris: J. Gabalda et cie, 1945), 235, note 10 (wrong citation).
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), 308, note 88.
Reference works:
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 50, 1518.
Images
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
19/12/2016
ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00033 | Mary, Mother of Christ | Μαρία | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E02146 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02146