Evidence ID
E02054Saint Name
Peter the Apostle : S00036Saint Name in Source
ΠέτροςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)Evidence not before
623Evidence not after
623Activity not before
623Activity not after
623Place of Evidence - Region
Arabia
Arabia
ArabiaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Riḥāb
Gerasa/Jerash
BosraPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Riḥāb
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
Shakka
Gerasa/Jerash
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
Shakka
Bosra
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
ShakkaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Bequests, donations, gifts and offeringsCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergySource
Rectangular mosaic panel framed by a tabula ansata with semicircular ansae containing stylized images, probably of small plants with double leaves. Dimensions are not specified. Situated in the nave in front of the steps of the choir and the chancel screen.
Remnants of the church and its floor-mosaics were discovered in 1979 near a private house, in the northwest sector of the town, between the church of the Holy Wisdom/Hagia Sophia (E02062) and a shrine of unknown dedication. The church was excavated by the Service of Antiquities of Jordan and was a very small three-aisled basilica with an apse (with preserved column bases for the altar) and two 'sacristies' (dimensions are not recorded). A cistern was found near the north wall. The mosaic of the nave contained squarish panels with labelled busts, probably of donors. All these figural depictions were destroyed during a period of iconoclasm.
The dedicatory mosaic inscription of this church was first published by Michele Piccirillo in 1981, in Revue Biblique, and then republished by the same author in his corpus, Chiese e mosaici della Giordania settentrionale. In 2000 the inscription was reprinted by Annie Sartre-Fauriat, based on the first edition.Discussion
The inscription commemorates the paving and completion of our church under Polyeuktos, metropolitan of nearby Bostra. The dating formula contains a reference to the 518th year of the province of Arabia and the 11th indictional year, which together correspond to AD 623. Therefore, it is the latest church built during the episcopacy of this metropolitan in Riḥāb. Other local churches dated by his name are: E02045, church of a martyr *Basil, AD 594; E02053, church of *Paul the Apostle, AD 596; E02062: church of the Holy Wisdom, AD 604; E02049: church of *Stephen the First Martyr, AD 620;E02637, the church *John the Baptist, AD 604 or 619. Michele Piccirillo notes that our church and the somewhat earlier church of Stephen were constructed during the Persian occupation of the region.
The church was dedicated to Saint Peter. Unlike Paul, the patron of another church in the town (E02053), he is explicitly named 'Apostle'. Piccirillo believed that the cult of Peter and Paul was brought to Riḥāb from nearby Gerasa/Jerash, where the two saints were venerated in the same sanctuary (E02366). One must note, however, that our church of Peter was built 27 years after that of Paul, which emphasises the priority of the cult of Paul over that of his companion.
The church was built from a donation of a certain Georgios, son of Martyrios. This Martyrios is unlikely to have been the same 'Martyrios' mentioned in the dedicatory mosaic of the local church of Mary in 533 (E02051), i.e. almost a hundred year earlier. Interestingly, the church of Paul in Riḥāb was also built by two sons of a certain Martyrios (Ioannes and Elias), see E02053. Whether they were related to our founder is, however, not clear.Bibliography
Edition:
Piccirillo, M., Chiese e mosaici della Giordania settentrionale (Jerusalem: Franciscan Print. Press, 1981), 80-82.
Piccirillo, M., "Les antiquités de Riḥāb des Benê Ḥasan", Revue Biblique 88 (1981), 66-67.
Further reading:
Michel, A., Les églises d'époque byzantine et umayyade de Jordanie (provinces d'Arabie et de Palestine), Ve-VIIIe siècle: typologie architecturale et aménagements liturgiques (avec catalogue des monuments; préface de Noël Duval; premessa di Michele Piccirillo) (Bibliothèque de l'Antiquité tardive 2, Turnhout: Brepols, 2001), 219. no. 79.
Piccirillo, M., "Aggiornamento delle liste episcopali delle diocesi in territoria transgiordanico", Liber Annuus 55 (2005), 387.
Piccirillo, M., "The Province of Arabia during the Persian Invasion (613-629/630)", in: K.G. Holum, H. Lapin (eds.), Shaping the Middle East. Jews, Christians, and Muslims in an Age of Transition, 400-800 C.E. (Bethesda, MD: University Press of Maryland, 2011), 104.
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), 310.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1982), 465.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 30, 1711-1716; 50, 1518; 61, 1476.
