ARAM, 18-19 (2006-2007) 381-401. doi:L. DI 10.2143/ARAM.19.0.2020736 SEGNI 381 ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN CULT SITES ON TOMBS OF THE SECOND TEMPLE PERIOD Dr. LEAH DI SEGNI (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Early Byzantine sources handed down to us a number of reports of inventiones, that is, miraculous discoveries of tombs that preserved the bodies of figures of the Old and New Testaments, or of Christian saints. These inventiones were frequent especially between the late fourth and the mid-fifth century, and they all follow the same pattern. Someone – sometimes a member of the clergy or a monk, sometimes a mere layman – has a dream (or, more rarely, sees a vision), in which the holy person reveals the place of his burial and requires that it be made known to the faithful. The dreamer reports to the local bishop who orders to dig at the spot indicated, and brings to light an an- cient tomb; or sometimes it is the dreamer himself who pursues the search and reports the discovery of the tomb to the ecclesiastical authorities. The body that lies in the grave is identified through an inscription or other signs, and the next step is usually the erection of a church on the tomb. Palestine “specialized” in personages known from the Scriptures, but the phenomenon of inventio was not restricted to the Holy Land. Miraculous dis- coveries of martyrs’ remains occurred in the late fourth century, in the fifth and in the early sixth century also in Phoenicia, Syria, Cyprus, Asia Minor, and in the West in Italy, Gaul, and Africa, where the Third Council of Car- thage in 397 found it necessary to deplore the indiscriminate erection of altars as a result of dubious dreams and visions.1 In Egypt, the monk Shenuti in the mid-fifth century complained that his fellow-countrymen would find martyrs’ bones under every heap of stones.2 The reason for this lack of enthusiasm is understandable: the multiplication of inventiones did not always enhance the 1 Some of the inventiones are reported by written sources: at Orthosias in Phoenice, Lucas, Phocas and Romanus, ca. 490; at Zoraua in Arabia (Ezra in southern Syria), George in 515; at Gindaropolis in Syria Prima, Marinus in 529; in Emesa, the head of St. John the Baptist, in 452; in Cyprus Barnabas, St. Peter’s disciple, in 458; at Constantinople the Forty Martyrs of Sebastia, in 434-437; at Skepsis in Hellespontus, Cornelius the centurio (Acts 10), ca. 425; in Gaul various martyrs, from ca. 390 to the first half of the sixth century, in Italy various martys in Rome under Pope Damasus (366-384), in Milan and Bologna under Bishop Ambrosius (d. 397). For Africa specific stories are not forthcoming, but the ecclesiastic condemnation at Carthage (Mansi, Conc. III, col. 971; C. Munier, Concilia Africae A. 345-A. 525 [CCSL 149, Turnhout 1974], pp. 204- 205) shows that inventiones were all too frequent. See H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs (Bruxelles, 1912), pp. 86-107. 2 G. Zoega, Catalogus codicum copticorum qui in museo Borgiano Velitris adservantur (Rome, 1810), p. 424; Delehaye, Les origines, p. 107. 06-8819_Aram 18-19_18_Segni 381 06-26-2007, 18:00 382 ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN CULT ON TOMBS reputation of the Christian faith. A hint of this uncomfortable feeling is ex- pressed by St Jerome, who flatly rejected the relocation of the tomb of James, Jesus’ brother, following the pretended discovery of the bodies of James, Symeon the Elder and Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, in a cave on the western slopes of the Mount of Olives.3 The tomb of James, says Jerome, was already well known to Jews and Christians alike: Eusebius located it just un- der the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount, quoting the second-century writer Hegesippus.4 Since in the process of inventio the initiative always lay with a private person, the Church had to apply caution in sanctioning it, for implausible discoveries discredited her, not to mention the fact that the exist- ence of two or more rival tombs of the same venerated figure lowered the chance of each place to become an attractive focus of pilgrimage.5 3 The story of the inventio in 351, by a hermit called Epiphanius, is preserved in a Latin ver- sion published by F.-M. Abel (“La sépulture de saint Jacques le mineur,” RB 28 [1919], pp. 480- 499; text at pp. 485-487), as well as in a Georgian version: cf. G. Garitte, Le Calendrier Palestino-Géorgien du Sinaiticus 34 (Xe siècle) (Subsidia hagiographica 30, Bruxelles, 1958), p. 228. Abel identifies the hermitage of Epiphanius with the tomb of Bene Hezir. A notable of Eleutheropolis called Paul built a chapel in front of the cave, and the commemoration of James, Symeon and Zechariah was celebrated in this building (Garitte, Calendrier, pp. 227-228). The tomb on the slopes of the Mount of Olives was seen also by the pilgrim Theodosius (ca. 530: De situ Terrae Sanctae 9, ed. P. Geyer, in Itineraria et alia geographica [CCSL 175, Turnhout, 1965], p. 119) and by Gregory of Tours (late sixth century: In gloria martyrum I, 26, ed. B. Krusch [MGH Script. Merow. I, 2, Hannover, 1885], p. 53), who ascribed its erection to St. James himself: evidently they speak of the ancient tomb, not of the later foundation where, ac- cording to the Latin and Georgian accounts, the bodies had been translated. J.T. Milik (“Notes d' épigraphie et de topographie palestiniennes IX. Sanctuaires chrétiens de Jérusalem à l'époque arabe (VIIe-Xe s.),” RB 67 [1967], p. 561, no. 32) locates the chapel built by Paul in front of the “Tomb of Zechariah,” where remains of a Byzantine chapel with a crypt were discovered in 1959-60: see H.E. Stutchbury, “Excavations in the Kidron Valley,” PEQ 93 (1961), pp. 101- 113; V. Corbo, “La mort et la sepulture de S. Jacques le Mineur,” in S. Jacques le Mineur, pre- mier évêque de Jérusalem (Jerusalem, 1962), pp. 61-77; id., “Dans la vallée de Josaphat, le culte de saint Jacques et le tombeau des Beni Hezir à Jérusalem,”, Bible et Terre Sainte 56 (Mai 1963), pp. 20-23. In a recent article Puech rejected Milik’s identification of the Bene Hezir monument as the place where the tomb of the three would have been discovered. He locates the traditional tomb of James in the “Tomb of Zechariah” and identifies the tomb of Zechariah and Symeon with a separate monument, the “Tomb of Absalom,” based on an inscription above the entrance of the upper chamber (E. Puech and J. Zias, “Le tombeau de Zacharie et Siméon,” RB 110 [2003], pp. 321-335). This hypothesis contradicts the report of Epiphanius’ inventio and is not really supported by the inscription, for the reading is not very reliable and in any case it is impos- sible to determine its age. 4 Eusebius, HE II, 23, 18, ed. E. Schwartz (GCS 9 i, Leipzig, 1903), p. 170; Jerome, De viris illustribus liber 2, ed. E.C. Richardson (TUGAL 14, Leipzig, 1896), p. 8. According to this tradi- tion, James was buried beside the Temple, in the same place where he was killed, after he was thrown from the pinnacle, and Jerome says that until Hadrian’s time the tomb was marked by a stele. J. Wilkinson (Egeria's Travels to the Holy Land [2nd ed., Jerusalem, 1981], p. 183, n. 3) maintains that the place “beside the Temple” might be the same that is pointed out today, be- tween the tombs of Absalom and Zechariah, but this is rather the place of the relocation, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. Both Jerome and the pilgrim Theodosius clearly indicate that the new place of the tomb was different from the place of James’ death and contradicted the old tra- dition. 5 In fact, the account of the inventio of St. James and his companions stresses the disbelief and even the distaste of Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem vis-à-vis the hermit’s announcement of his dream. Only when Epiphanius forced his hand by enlisting Paul’s support did the bishop recog- 06-8819_Aram 18-19_18_Segni 382 06-26-2007, 18:00 L. DI SEGNI 383 The stories we hear from the written sources are of course the successful ones. The earliest documented inventio is the afore-mentioned inventio of St. James and his companions in Jerusalem, in 351. A hermit called Epiphanius had a dream in which St. James revealed to him that he was buried in Epiphanius’ cave, together with Symeon and Zechariah. The hermit reported to Bishop Cyril but was driven away as an impostor. He enlisted the help of a notable from Eleutheropolis called Paul, who paid for the excavation and un- covered the saints’ remains. Then the bishop accepted the authenticity of the relics and brought them to the Holy Sion. Paul had a chapel built in front of the cave, and the bishop deposed the bones under its altar. The church became the focus of the cult of St. James in Jerusalem and seemingly a monastery was established beside it.6 An inventio of John the Baptist must have taken place before the reign of Julian, for during the anti-Christian disorders under this em- peror the remains of the Baptist, who had died at Machaerus, suddenly make their appearance in Sebaste, in the traditional tomb of Elisha. No extant source tells us how the body came to be found there, but many relate how pagan rioters took the remains out of their resting place and dispersed them.