In the Greek Life of *Porphyrios of Gaza (bishop of Gaza, ob. 420, S01368), attributed to Mark the Deacon, the saint leads a supplicatory procession out of the city of Gaza to the martyrium church of *Timotheos (martyr of Gaza, S00122), where there are also relics of *Maior (martyr of Gaza, S03093) and Theē (confessor of Gaza, S03099). Written probably in Gaza, in the second half of the 5th c. or first half of the 6th.
Evidence ID
E08573
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Life of Porphyrios of Gaza, ch. 20
On his arrival in Gaza as its bishop, Porphyrios finds the city suffering a terrible drought, which the pagans attribute to their gods' displeasure at Porphyrios' arrival. He leads a supplicatory procession to two shrines outside the city: first to a church built by his predecessor Asklepas, and then:
κἀκεῖθεν ἐξελθόντες ἐπορεύθημεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἅγιον μαρτύριον τοῦ ἐνδόξου μάρτυρος Τιμοθέου, ἐν ᾦ ἀπόκεινται καὶ ἄλλα τίμια λείψανα Μαΐουρος μάρτυρος καὶ Θέης ὁμολογητρίας, κἀκεῖ τοσαύτας εὐχὰς καὶ γονυκλισίας ποιήσαντες, ὑπεστρέψαμεν εἰς τὴν πόλιν, ποιήσαντες ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ τρεῖς εὐχὰς καὶ τρεῖς γονυκλισίας.
' ... leaving there we went to the holy martyr-shrine (martyrion) of the glorious martyr Timotheos, in which are also deposited other precious relics, of the martyr Maior and of the confessor Theē. There, too, we performed the same number of prayers and genuflections, and then returned to the city, performing on the way three prayers and three genuflections.'
Text: Lampadaridi 2016, 96.
Summary and translation: Bryan Ward-Perkins.
Liturgical ActivitiesCult building - independent (church)
RelicsEcclesiastics - bishops
Procession
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Burial site of a saint - unspecified
RelicsUnspecified relic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Crowds
Source
For a full discussion of the Life of Porphyrios, written between c.450 and c.550, see E08566Discussion
This supplicatory procession, with its visit to the martyrium of Timotheos, supposedly took place very soon after Porphyrios' arrival in Gaza, which - if the Life's chronology is accurate - occurred in around 395.The procession visits two Christian shrines outside the city of Gaza. First, the 'ancient church', which, though associated with the memory of the saintly bishop Asklepas (who is said to have built it), is not explicitly said to be hosting his tomb or cult. And then the martyrium of Timotheos, which by contrast seems to have been a typical cemeterial shrine, with numerous burials of important dead, including three saints. The main figure, after whom the martyrium is known, is Timotheos, readily identified as a martyr of Gaza under Diocletian, whose martyrdom is recorded by Eusebius of Caesarea in his Martyrs of Palestine (3.1) - see E00299.
The martyr Maior, and particularly the confessor Theē, are more shadowy, as we have no other reliable late antique evidence for their cults, and our text provides no details about them. All we know is that their relics (leipsana) rested in the church, which may mean that this was their original burial site.
Modern scholarship often considers them to be a pair of martyrs, who suffered together, but there is no reason to think this - for instance, no church calendar has a joint feastday for a Maior and a Theē.
Later evidence suggests that Maior had notable cult, though his hagiography has not survived. He can be plausibly identified with a soldier martyr of this name, martyred in Gaza, who is commemorated on 15 February in the 10th-century Synaxarion of Constantinople. The Synaxarion's entry summarises a story which must derive from a lost martyrdom account: according to it, Maior was a soldier of a unit of Mauri, under Diocletian, who was denounced as a Christian in Gaza, and died after being flogged by 36 soldiers and suffering torments for seven days. The story apparently contained an emphatic description of the saint's abundant blood which stained the ground during his martyrdom.
Theē is qualified as a confessor in our text, which may mean that she did not suffer a violent death. Epigraphy suggests that her name was not uncommon in Palestine - it may be a version of the ancient Egyptian name Tiyi. It has been suggested that Theē of Gaza can be identified with a homonymous martyr commemorated in the Synaxarion of Constantinople on 15 July, along with companion martyrs named Paulos and Valentina/Oualentina, again presumably on the basis of a lost Martyrdom. However, the recorded place of martyrdom of these three (who are said to have been from Egypt) is Diocaesarea, which is a long way north of Gaza. She is more likely to be an otherwise unknown saint, local to Gaza itself.
Bibliography
Editions:Grégoire, H. and Kugener, M.A., Marc le Diacre. Vie de Porphyre, évêque de Gaza. Texte établi, traduit et commenté (=Collection byzantine) (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1930). (Critical Edition and French translation).
Lampadaridi A., La conversion de Gaza au christianisme. La Vie de S. Porphyre par Marc le Diacre (BHG 1570). Édition critique, traduction commentaire (Subsidia Hagiographica 95) (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 2016). (Critical Edition and French translation)
Translations:
Childers, J., Rapp, C., Whitby M., Mark the Deacon: The Life of Porphyry of Gaza: Translated with Introduction and Notes, with a translation of the Georgian Life (Translated Texts for Historians 88) (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2025) (English translation) (forthcoming).
Record Created By
Bryan Ward-Perkins, Efthymios Rizos
Date of Entry
19/01/2025
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00122 | Timotheos, martyr of Gaza | Τιμόθεος | Certain | S03093 | Maior, martyr of Gaza | Μαΐουρ | Certain | S03099 | Thee, confessor of Gaza | Θέη | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Bryan Ward-Perkins, Efthymios Rizos, Cult of Saints, E08573 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08573