Evidence ID
E04403Saint Name
Aeglon, unidentified anchorite and hegumen. : S01514Saint Name in Source
ἜγλωνType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)Evidence not before
500Evidence not after
600Activity not before
500Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Palestine with Sinai
Palestine with SinaiPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
'Aila/'Aqaba
Geziret Faraoun/Gezira al-Fir‘aunPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
'Aila/'Aqaba
Caesarea Maritima
Καισάρεια
Kaisareia
Caesarea
Kayseri
Turris Stratonis
Geziret Faraoun/Gezira al-Fir‘aun
Caesarea Maritima
Καισάρεια
Kaisareia
Caesarea
Kayseri
Turris StratonisCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Women
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
The inscription is carved into the plaster in the apse of the church at Geziret Faraoun/Gezira al-Fir‘aun. The carved letters are also picked out in paint.
Found during the excavations of the church between 1988 and 1990, and first published by Jean-Yves Carrez-Maratray and Guy Wagner in 1994.Discussion
It is not clear who this saint Eglon was. The editors point out that this Semitic name occurs in the Septuagint in the form Ἐγλώμ/Eglom, and later is used in the form Ἔγλων/Eglon, and Αἴγλων/Aiglon (probably under the influence of a homophone Greek name). Among prominent Christians, the name was borne, for example, by a pre-Constantinian bishop of Kynopolis in Egypt, and, more importantly, by Saint 'Aiglon of Sketis', an abbot commemorated in the seventh-century Georgian version of the Lectionary of Jerusalem on 14 August (E03349: in the village of Beth Horon), in the Church Calendar of Ioane Zosime on 13 August (E03831) and 14 August (E03832), and in the Synaxarion of the Church of Constantinople (on 16 August, and 17 August). That person is sometimes wrongly identified with Aiglon, a 6th c. abbot of the monastery at Khirbet el-Makhrum near Bethlehem, mentioned in a votive inscription on a floor-mosaic (see SEG 37, 1498: the inscription, however, does not record any cultic activities, and commemorates an offering to God for this Aiglon's and his convent's salvation). The editors suggest that Aiglon of Sketis also appears in the present invocation. Although not implausible, this is, of course still a supposition.
Dating: the church, where the inscription was found, was dated by the excavators to the 6th c.Bibliography
Edition:
Carrez-Maratray, J.-Y., Wagner, G. (eds.), in: "On the Church at the Gezira al Fir‘aun in Sinai", Cahiers de recherches de l'Institut de papyrologie et d'égyptologie de Lille 16 (1994), 87-92, no. 1.
Further reading:
Milik, J.T., "Notes d'épigraphie et de topographie palestiniennes", Revue biblique 67 (1960), 573-574.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1996), 506.
Chroniques d'épigraphie byzantine, 826.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 44, 1365.
For Aiglon of Khirbet el-Makhrum, see also:
Corbo, V., Gli scavi di Kh. Siyar el-Ghanam (Campo dei pastori) e i monasteri dei dintorni (Gerusalemme: Tip. dei PP. Francescani, 1955), 152-153.
Bulletin épigraphique (1959), 477.
Chroniques d'épigraphie byzantine, 826.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 37, 1498.
