Stone reliquary, reportedly inscribed with the names of *Sergios (soldier and martyr of Rusafa, S00023), and a certain Saint *Abraham (probably a local martyr or holy monk). Found in the territory of Epiphaneia/Ḥamāh (central Syria). Now lost. Probably 5th-6th c.
E04559
Inscriptions - Inscribed objects
Archaeological and architectural - Extant reliquaries and related fixtures
Marie-Christine Comte mentions a stone reliquary inscribed with the names of saints Sergios and Abraham. The reliquary was found to the east of the city of Epiphaneia/Ḥamāh, but its shape and decorations resemble reliquaries from the territory of Apamea on the Orontes. The object is now lost. There is no photograph or drawing.
The reliquary was mentioned by René Mouterde and Antoine Poidebard in 1949, in their paper on the archaeological and epigraphic evidence for the cult of Saint Sergios. They say that the object was communicated to them by Father Nicolas Karam.
According to the published description, the reliquary had the shape of a small sacrophagus, about 80 cm long. One of the longer sides was decorated with carvings of busts of two saints, erased in a period of iconoclasm. The other bore the inscription mentioned above. The exact text is not known.
Comte supposes that the reliquary was designed for the production of holy oil. She stresses the significance of the find, as no other stone reliquaries decorated with busts of saints have been found in this region, and even inscribed reliquaries are extremely rare.
Whereas the identity of Sergios is clear (this is certainly the soldier and martyr of Rusafa), there were several martyrs and holy monks who bore the name Abraham, who were venerated in Syria. Sadly, we cannot confidently identify any of them with our Abraham. The figure is unlikely to have been the Old Testament Patriarch.
Public display of an image
RelicsContact relic - oil
Making contact relics
Reliquary – institutionally owned
Bibliography
Further reading:Comte, M.-Ch., Les reliquaires du Proche-Orient et de Chypre à la période protobyzantine, IVe-VIIIe siècles: formes, emplacements, fonctions et cultes (Bibliothèque de l'Antiquité tardive 20, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2012), 101, 381.
Peña, I., Lieux de pèlerinage en Syrie (Milan: Franciscan Printing Press, 2000), 23.
Mouterde, R., Poidebard, A., "À propos de saint Serge. Aviation et épigraphie", Analecta Bollandiana 76 (1949) [= Mélanges Paul Peeters], 112 (original description).
Paweł Nowakowski
05/01/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00023 | Sergios, soldier and martyr of Rusafa | Certain | S00355 | Abraham, monk of Syria, 2nd half of 4th c. | Uncertain | S00366 | Abraham of Harran, monk and bishop of Syria, ob. c. 420s | Uncertain | S01233 | Abraham of Qidun, monk in Syria, 4th c. | Uncertain | S01366 | Abraham of Arbela, bishop and martyr in Persia, ob. c. 345 | Uncertain |
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