Evidence ID
E01179Saint Name
John the Evangelist : S00042
Saints, name wholly or largely lost : S01744Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Inscriptions - Inscribed architectural elementsEvidence not before
500Evidence not after
1300Activity not before
500Activity not after
1300Place of Evidence - Region
Aegean islands and CyprusPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
PatmosPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Patmos
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
ConstantiaCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
Fragment of a marble plaque. H. 0.18 m; W. 0.3 m; Th. 0.09 m; letter height 0.025 m. Seen and copied in the autumn of 1962 by Giacomo Manganaro in the Monastery of John the Theologian on Patmos.Discussion
The inscription is the invocation of the God of a saint whose name is lost. This was most probably *John the Evangelist (also venerated as the Theologian). John was said to have been exiled on Patmos during the persecutions of the emperor Domitian and it was believed that he authored the Book of Revelation on the island. He is also frequently mentioned in other (mostly middle Byzantine) inscriptions from the island, see: Manganaro 1963-1964, p. 346. In 1088 the emperor Alexios I Komnenos founded a monastery there, dedicated to John as the Theologian. The date of our inscription is disputable, but as the plaque was cut to be reused in a new structure, we can at least suppose that it predates the construction of the monastery.Bibliography
Edition:
Manganaro, G., "Le iscrizioni delle Isole Milesie", Annuario della Scuola archeologica di Atene e delle missioni italiane in Oriente, 41-42 (1963-1964), no. 49.
Further reading:
Kiourtzian, G., "Pietas insulariorum", [in:] Eupsychia: mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler, vol. 2 (Série Byzantina Sorbonensia 16, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1998), 377.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1966), 323.
