Evidence ID
E01992Saint Name
Unnamed martyrs (or name lost) : S00060Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)Evidence not before
450Evidence not after
550Activity not before
450Activity not after
550Place of Evidence - Region
Arabia
ArabiaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Bosra
AerePlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Bosra
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
Shakka
Aere
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
ShakkaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Construction of cult buildingsCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - bishopsSource
Basalt lintel found near a building in the north part of the village. Decorated with three carvings of crosses within circles. Seen and copied in 1904 by Félix-Marie Abel. Now lost.
The building, identified as a martyr shrine in our inscription, was probably a three-aisled basilica with a tripartite apse with a synthronon, probably flanked by 'sacristies'. Sadly, only remnants of the apse and the choir survived and were accessible, as the site of the sanctuary was reportedly partially occupied by a modern building. So far neither the building nor the lintel have been rediscovered by later surveyors.Discussion
Abel, who found and published the inscription, restored its line 3 as τοῦ ἁγίου Μα[κα]ρίου, suggesting that the church was dedicated to a certain saint Makarios, possibly Makarios, bishop of Jerusalem (312-335) or Makarios, bishop of Petra who attended the council of Sardica in 343. This completion was accepted by Robert Devressee and Francois Halkin who put that Makarios on their lists of saints of the province of Arabia. A different, and more plausible, restoration was suggested by Pauline Donceel-Voûte. She believes that line 3 mentions simply an unnamed martyr shrine (martyrion) and not the name Makarios. Donceel-Voûte's idea was found convincing by Annie Sartre-Fauriat.
Dating: Based on the description of the shape of the church Donceel-Voûte dates the building, and therefore also our inscription, to the early 6th century. Abel hypothesised that the church could have been constructed in the late 5th/early 6th c.Bibliography
Edition:
Abel, F.-M., "Une église à Es-Sanamein", Oriens Christianus 5 (1905), 222-226.
Further reading:
Devreesse, R., Le patriarcat d'Antioche depuis la paix de l'Église jusqu'à la conquête arabe (Paris: J. Gabalda et cie, 1945), 225, note 3.
Donceel-Voûte, P., Les pavements des églises byzantines de Syrie et du Liban. Décor, archéologie et liturgie (Publications d’histoire de l’art et d’archéologie de l’Université catholique de Louvain 69, Louvain-La-Neuve: Département d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art, 1988), 288, note 1.
Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, III, La province d'Arabie", Analecta Bollandiana 67 (1949), 107.
Sartre-Fauriat, A., "Georges, Serge, Élie et quelques autres saints connus et inédits de la province d'Arabie", in: Fr. Prévot (ed.), Romanité et cité chrétienne. Permances et mutations. Intégration et exclusion du Ier au VIe siècle. Mélanges en l'honneur d'Yvette Duval (Paris: De Boccard, 2000), 300.
Reference works:
Chroniques d'épigraphie byzantine, 837.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 40, 1540bis; 50, 1518; 50, 1543.
