Evidence ID
E07372
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Locus sa
n(c)torum
septe(m) fratrum.
(H)ic me(moriae) Maca
beorum.
'The place of the Seven Brothers. Here is the memorial [or 'Here are relics'] of the Maccabees.'
Text: Ennabli 1991, no. 299.
Translation: Stanisław Adamiak.
Cult Places
Cult building - unspecified
RelicsUnspecified relic
Cult Related ObjectsInscription
Source
This mosaic medaillon was found during the construction of the highway of La Goulette between Carthage and Tunis, near the so-called 'chapel of St Stephen'. The inscription is set within a garland of leaves, with letters 7 to 9 cm high. Their character suggests a date for the inscription in the Byzantine period.Recorded by Ennabli as in the museum of Carthage.
Discussion
L. Ennabli interprets the inscription as commemorating the place of burial of seven monastic brothers, martyred in Carthage under the Vandals (see E08279 and E08290), understanding 'the place (locus) of the seven holy brothers' as the burial place of these spiritual brothers. She suggests that the whole structure, on the floor of which the inscription was found, was constructed to host the bodies of these martyrs, whose deaths, in their Martyrdom (E08279) was explicitly associated with that of the seven Maccabean blood brothers.Alternatively, this may be a record of relics (memoria) of the seven Maccabean brothers. The word memoria had multiple precise meanings in Africa, when applied to saints; but could be used to refer to relics (see, for instance E01109 and E01111).
Bibliography
Editions:Duval, Y., Loca sanctorum Africae: Le culte des martyrs en Afrique du IVe au VIIe siècle (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1982), vol. 1, 10-11, no. 4.
Ennabli, L., Les inscriptions funéraires chrétiennes de Carthage. III. Carthage intra et extra muros (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1991), 211, no. 299.
Ennabli, L., La Basilique de Carthagenna et le locus des sept moines de Gafsa. Nouveaux édifices chrétiens de Carthage (Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 2000), 83-87; 122-124.
Images
)
From Y. Duval 1982, no. 4
Record Created By
Stanisław Adamiak
Date of Entry
29/01/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00303 | Maccabean Martyrs, pre-Christian Jewish martyrs of Antioch | Certain | S02936 | Seven monastic brothers, martyrs of Carthage under the Vandals in 484. | Uncertain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Stanisław Adamiak, Cult of Saints, E07372 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07372