[ἐνθάδε κατάκιτε ....... ὁ τῆς μακαρίας μνή-]
μης ἀ[ρχι-]
μανδ[ρ(ίτης)]
τοῦ ἁγίο[υ]
Τρύφονο[ς]
'[Here lies - - - of blessed] memory, abbot (archimandrite) (of the monastery) of Saint Tryphon.'
Text: I. Kalchedon, no. 97.
Evidence ID
E00955Saint Name
Tryphōn, martyr of Phrygia (ob. c. 250) : S00439Saint Name in Source
ΤρύφωνType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptionsEvidence not before
400Evidence not after
800Activity not before
400Activity not after
800Place of Evidence - Region
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
ChalcedonPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Chalcedon
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaCult activities - Places
Cult building - monasticCult activities - Places Named after Saint
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - abbotsSource
A slab found in a cemetery at the Phanaraki/Fenerbahçe Peninsula (area of Chalcedon, Bithynia, northern Asia Minor) by Jules Pargoire before 1899. The inscription is currently lost and Pargoire did not mark line breaks precisely.Discussion
The inscription offers us the epitaph of an archimandrite of a monastery dedicated to Saint Tryphon, a figure addressed in one more late antique inscription from northern Asia Minor (see E00733).
Reinhold Merkelbach points out that the closest monastery of Tryphon lay in Kap Akritas/today Tuzla (see Janin 1975, 55-56).
The cult of Tryphon perhaps reached this area only after his relics were transferred to nearby Constantinople, thereby suggesting a terminus post quem for our inscription. The first sanctuaries dedicated to this saint in the capital are attested under the emperor Justinian (E04420; see Janin 1969, pp. 488-490, nos. 1; 2; 6). A monastery of Tryphon (μονὴ τῶν Τρύφωνος / μονὴ τοῦ ἐν ὁσίοις Τρύφωνος), which existed there already in 488, is unlikely to be named after the martyr, but rather after its founder (see: Janin 1969, 490). There are no other dating criteria for our inscription.Bibliography
Edition:
Die Inschriften von Kalchedon, no. 97.
Further reading:
Destephen, S., "Martyrs locaux et cultes civiques en Asie Mineure", in: J.C. Caillet, S. Destephen, B. Dumézil, H. Inglebert, Des dieux civiques aux saints patrons (IVe-VIIe siècle) (Paris: éditions A. & J. Picard, 2015), 96.
Janin R., La géographie ecclésiastique de l’Empire byzantin, vol. 1: Le siège de Constantinople et le patriarcat oecuménique, part 3: Les églises et les monastères (Paris: Institut français d'études byzantines, 1969, 2nd ed.), 488-490.
Janin R., Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins : Bithynie, Hellespont, Latros, Galèsios, Trébizonde, Athènes, Thessalonique (Paris: Institut français d'études byzantines, 1975), 55-56.
