106, fig. 108 (ed. pr.) | |
42, no. 137 | |
140, no. 12 a-b | |
266, no. 399 a-b | |
787-789, no. 305 A-B, fig. 355 (ph.) |
Findspot: Engraved on either sides of a limestone slab, discovered at the eastern end of the northern aisle over a grave.
Pres. location: IAA, Inv. no. 36.1374.
A limestone slab discovered over a grave. The stone was recovered by the Colt Expedition in 1936 in a broken and burned condition; but a facsimile made from an earlier photograph is available in Wiegand's edition. A cross within a circular frame is engraved in the centre of the stone; a palm branch is cut below. Two texts are incised on either side of the medallion: (A) on the left, (B) on the right. Both texts are written in a rectangular script and arranged symmetrically; apparently they were engraved at the same time. Stigma and diagonal stroke mark the abbreviations. Ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) is abbreviated with a cursive delta crossed by a transversal bar. Numerals are marked with horizontal lines.
(A) ΟΥ ΑΣΣ
☩ Κατ(ετ)ήθη ὁ μακάρ(ιος) Σέργιος
Πατρικίου πρεσβ(ύτερος) κ(αὶ) ἡγουμέ-
4 νου μενὶ Περιτίο(υ) κϛ´
ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) ι´ ἔτους υπϛ´.
(B) ΑΣΣ ΟΥ
☩ Κατ(ετ)ήθη ὁ μακάριος
Πατρικίου Σεργίου πρεσβ(ύτερος)
4 κ(αὶ) ἡγούμενος τῇ μενὸς
Λώον ε´ ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) α´ ἔτ(ους) φκγ´.
(A) Was laid to rest the blessed Sergius (son) of Patricius, priest and hegumen, in the month of Peritios, the 26th, of the 10th indiction, year 486.
(B) Was laid to rest the blessed Patricius (son) of Sergius, priest and hegumen, on the 5th day of the month of Loos of the 1st indiction, year 523.
L.1: The letters are ΟΥ ΑΣΣ or ΟΥ ΑΣΓ or possibly ΟΥ ΑΓΓ and the reverse: their. meaning is obscure; l.3 (B): Πατρικίου for Πατρίκιος is perhaps influenced by l.3 (A), an indication that the two epitaphs were written at the same time; l.4 (A): the genitive ἡγουμένου is a mistake for a nominative.
Two dated epitaphs of Sergius and his son Patricius, priests and abbots, on a limestone slab, found over a grave in the northern aisle, 10 Feb. 592 and 24 Jul. 628.
The two deceased, father and son, were both priests and abbotts, presumably of the monastery annexed to the church. Both were prominent in the business life of Nessana, and are mentioned in several papyri. They and their descendants kept in their hands the abbacy of St.Sergius. Probably they acceded to the clergy while still living in matrimony and entered monastic status after being widowed or having renounced matrimonial life, a common enough procedure at the time.
Sergius died on February 10, 592, in the 10th indiction; his son was laid in the same grave 36 years later, on July 24, 628, in the first indiction .A daughter of Sergius, Maria, was buried in the southern aisle in 630 (Kirk–Welles, no. 14).
The initial letters are puzzling. They must represent an abbreviated formula, and appear in this or in a shorter form, in the same or in inverse order, in two other epitaphs (Kirk–Welles, nos. 14 and 79). For the group ΟΥ, the editors proposed the solution οὐ(ρανός); for the other letters, Kirk and Welles maintained that the rectangural sigma could admit confusion of writing or reading; thus they suggested the reading ΑΓΓ, for ἄγγελος. This reading, however, seems unwarranted by the facsimile: it is preferable to preserve ΑΣΣ as a hint to ἅγιοι Σέργιος (καὶ) Στέφανος, or ἅγιοι Σέργιος (καὶ) Γεώριος, when the letters seem to be ΑΣΓ; as for ΟΥ, οὐ(ρανόνδε) or οὐ(ρανόθι), "to (in) Heaven" is perhaps preferable to plain οὐ(ρανός). The funeral formula ψυχὴ εἰς οὐρανόν is known. Another possible interpretation may be οὐρανοπολίται, as an attribute of the martyrs.