Evidence ID
E00900Saint Name
Archangels (unspecified) : S00191Saint Name in Source
ἀρχάγγελοςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Images and objects - Sculpture/reliefsEvidence not before
450Evidence not after
650Activity not before
450Activity not after
650Place of Evidence - Region
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
TraianopolisPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Traianopolis
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
A slab, when recorded, kept in an Armenian church. It bears a low relief carving of a crown with a cross within it. Around the crown runs a text referring to the First Epistle to the Corinthians 1:24 and Psalm 56:11: 'Christ, the power of God and the Wisdom of God, the Lord, is my help, and I will not be afraid what man can do unto me'/+ Χριστὸς θεοῦ δύναμις καὶ θεοῦ σοφία, Κύριος, ἐμοὶ βοηθός, καὶ οὐ φοβήσομαι τί ποιήσει μοι ἄνθρωπος. An invocation of an archangel is inscribed on the cross.Discussion
The inscription records an invocation of an unnamed Archangel, certainly by an educated person (as the spelling is correct and the invocation is accompanied by quotations from the scriptures). This kind of invocation is not precisely datable but, inscriptions mentioning 'servants of saints' are characteristic of late 5th and later centuries.Bibliography
Edition:
Felle, A.E., Biblia epigraphica. La sacra scrittura nella documentazione epigrafica dell'«Orbis christianus antiquus» (III-VIII secolo) (Bari: Edipuglia, 2006), no. 496.
Leclercq, H., "Phrygie", Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et liturgie, vol. 14/1 (Paris: Librarie Letouzey et Ané, 1939), 797, no. 30B.
Ramsay, W.M., Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, vol. 1, part 2: West and West-Central Phrygia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1897), 558, no. 442.
LBW, no. 728.
Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, no. 8909.
Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae database, no. 1619: http://www.epigraph.topoi.org/ica/icamainapp/inscription/show/1619
Further reading:
Cumont, F., "Les inscriptions chretiennes de 1'Asie Mineure", Mélanges de l'école française de Rome 15 (1895), no. 174.
Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, IX, Asie Mineure", Analecta Bollandiana 71 (1953), 328.
