Greek inscription on a fragment of a bread stamp, probably referring to three saints whose name are lost, differently identified by modern editors. Found at Mount Zion in Jerusalem (Roman province of Palaestina I). Probably late antique.
E02797
Inscriptions - Inscribed objects
Images and objects - Lamps, ampullae and tokens
Images and objects - Other portable objects (metalwork, ivory, etc.)
Fragment from the edge of a moulded bread stamp. The inscription runs in a band around the stamp, in mirror writing (but with reversed nu). Below the inscription there is a row of small holes. The centre of the stamp was probably decorated with a depiction of the three bishops, as suggested by the remnants of folds of a mantle, still visible on the fragment.
The fragment was found in the debris of a church, on the estate of the Augustine Fathers of the Assumption (St. Peter in Gallicantu). First published by Jean Germer-Durand in 1906 with a photograph. Later re-published by a number of editors. We follow the edition by Leah Di Segni in the Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae (2012).
Text:
[- - -]ΤΩΝΤΡΙΟΝ (sprig) [- - -]
Di Segni's interpretation:
[εὐλογία (?)] τῶν τρι<ῶ>ν [- - -]
'The blessing of the three [- - -].'
or: [εὐλογία τοῦ Κ(υρίο)υ μεθ' ἡμῶν καὶ (?)] τῶν τρι<ῶ>ν [- - -]
'[The blessing of the Lord (is) with us and (?)] the three [- - -].'
Germer-Durand and Thomsen's interpretation:
τῶν τριῶν [ἱεράρχων]
'Of the three [hierarchs].'
Text: CIIP 1/2, no. 1076.
Cult building - unspecified
Activities accompanying CultProduction and selling of eulogiai, tokens
Use of ImagesPrivate ownership of an image
Non Liturgical ActivityPilgrimage
Visiting graves and shrines
RelicsAmpullae, eulogiai, tokens
Contact relic - other
Making contact relics
Cult Related ObjectsAmpullae, flasks, etc.
Discussion
The inscription comes from a mould used for stamping bread, given out as eulogia. The editors agree that it almost certainly refers to the three hierarchs: Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom.Di Segni does not comment on the date of the object. Germer-Durand notes that a common feast of the three hierarchs was established in the 11th c. and celebrated on 30th January. There is no evidence of the joint cult of the 'three hierarchs' in Late Antiquity, so if this inscription does refer to them it must be of a middle Byzantine date.
Denis Feissel (BE (2012), 475) sees here a reference to the *Three Hebrew Youths (of the Old Testament Book of Daniel, S01198).
We suggest yet another possibility, that the three saints were the three Egyptian martyrs, *Ares, Promos, and Elias (S00196), whose shrine near Gaza was marked on the Mosaic Map of Madaba (E02524), and whose paintings were found in Caesarea Maritima (E02845). Importantly, the Piacenza Pilgrim says that by the time of his visit they were not venerated by their personal names but they were addressed collectively as the three Egyptians (E00504).
Bibliography
Editions:Cotton, H.M., Di Segni, L., Eck, W., Isaac, B., Kushnir-Stein, A., Misgav, H., Price, J.J., Yardeni, A. and others (eds.), Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae: A Multi-Lingual Corpus of the Inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad, vol. 1, part 2: Jerusalem, nos. 705-1120 (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2012), no. 1076 (with further bibliography).
Bieberstein, K., Bloedhorn, H., Grundzüge der Baugeschichte vom Chalkolithikum bis zur Frühzeit der osmanischen Herrschaft (TAVO Beiheft B 100, 1-3; Wiesbaden 1994), vol. 2, 291.
Thomsen, P., "Die lateinischen und griechischen Inschriften der Stadt Jerusalem und ihrer nächsten Umgebung. 1. Nachtrag", Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins 64 (1941), no. 253.
Vincent, L.H., Abel, F.M. (eds.), Jérusalem: recherches de topographie, d'archéologie et d'histoire, vol. 2: Jérusalem nouvelle, part 3: La Sainte-Sion et les sanctuaires de second ordre (Paris: J. Gabalda, 1922), 509 and Pl. 53,12.
Thomsen, P., Die lateinischen und griechischen Inschriften der Stadt Jerusalem und ihrer nächsten Umgebung (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1922), no. 253.
Germer-Durnad, J., "Glanes épigraphiques", Échos d'Orient 9 (1906), 132, no. V.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (2012), 475.
Images
)
Photograph. From: CIIP 1/2, 455.
Paweł Nowakowski
13/05/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | Certain | S00196 | Ares, Promos and Elias, Egyptian martyrs of Ascalon | Uncertain | S00779 | John/Ioannes Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, ob. 407 | Uncertain | S00780 | Basil, bishop of Caesarea, ob. 379 | Uncertain | S00837 | Gregory 'the Theologian', bishop of Nazianzos, ob. 390 | Uncertain | S01198 | Three Hebrew Youths of the Old Testament Book of Daniel | Uncertain | S01744 | Saints, name lost or very partially preserved | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E02797 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02797