Aberkios

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Replica of the Aberkios epitaph, Museo della Civiltà Romana

Aberkios ( Greek : Αβέρκιος . Latin Abercius ) (died before 216 in Hierapolis , Phrygia salutaris ) was a bishop of Hierapolis in the Phrygian Pentapolis .

Life

The identity and the exact dates and circumstances of the Aberkios have been repeatedly controversial in research, especially since the later saints of Aberkios ( Vita Abercii des Symeon Metaphrastes or the Acta Sanctorum ) embellished the true events with all kinds of legends. It is unclear whether Aberkios is identical with Aviricius Marcellus, whom Eusebius mentions, but without calling him bishop. According to Eusebius, this Aviricius Marcellus is said to have been the author of a work against the Marcionites , which is dated to the end of the reign of Emperor Commodus , i.e. the beginning of the 190s . An epitaph (see below) has also survived from an Aberkios , which must have been made in Phrygia before 216, as a stele from that year, which was erected for an Alexandros, son of Antonios, literally quotes the epitaph of Abercios. On the other hand, there is a record of a stay in Rome at the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius , which is dated to the year 163. At the time of his death, Aberkios was 72 years old according to his grave inscription , which could be reconciled with this trip to Rome at a young age and a death between 190 and 216.

However, the stay in Rome is so legendary that its actual course can hardly be reconstructed. Aberkios is said to have succeeded Papias von Hierapolis in the episcopate in the Phrygian Hierapolis . This assignment of Eusebius is probably erroneous, since Abercius actually did not work in Hierapolis in the province of Phrygia pacatiensis , but in Hierapolis in Phrygia salutaris , where his epitaph was found. Aberkios refused to make sacrifices to Roman gods, creating many enemies for himself, so that even believing Christians advised him to flee. But then he worked miracles and converted numerous pagans and even Emperor Mark Aurel called him to Rome because the Emperor's daughter was possessed by demons . Aberkios then managed to cure them. He then traveled to Syria and Mesopotamia to do missionary work there , and finally returned to Hierapolis, where God had revealed to the old man that he would soon die. He then dug his own grave, admonished the believers to lead a Christian life and died peacefully.

Aberkios inscription

Of particular importance is the epitaph of Aberkios, which is now in the Vatican Museums . In 1882 William Ramsay found a stele in Kelendres near Synnada , which dates the year 300 of the Phrygian era (corresponds to 216 AD) and corresponds almost literally to the existing fragments of the Aberkios inscription, of which only the beginning and the end were known. In 1883, Ramsay found the missing middle part of the inscription in Hierapolis, the text of which also showed textual similarities with the stele of Alexandros.

The inscription gives an insight into the life of an early Christian bishop. In the inscription, Aberkios calls himself a disciple of a holy shepherd who tended his sheep and who taught him to venerate the book of life. That shepherd sent him to Rome, where he saw a magnificent queen. He then went to Syria, where he met brothers in the faith. He was fed with a large fish that a virgin had drawn from a spring and given him the wine of virtue and bread.

The metaphor-rich language of the inscription has led to various interpretations. In 1894 , Gerhard Ficker assumed that the text of the epitaph proved that Aberkios had been a priest of Cybele , while Adolf Harnack wanted to see it as a sign of religious syncretism in 1895 . Giovanni Battista de Rossi , Louis Duchesne and Franz Cumont contradicted such theories, however, and advocated seeing the author of the epitaph as a Christian; this opinion is generally followed today.

Adoration

Aberkios is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church . His feast day is October 22nd .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ today Koçhisar in the Turkish province of Afyonkarahisar in the district of Sandıklı .
  2. ↑ cf. Vera Hirschmann : Investigations into the grave inscription of Aberkios . In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik , Volume 129 (2000), pp. 109–116 ( online (PDF) , accessed July 28, 2015); this .: Unsolved riddles? Again to the funerary inscription of Aberkios . In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Volume 145 (2003), pp. 133-139.
personal data
SURNAME Aberkios
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abercius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Hierapolis and saint
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH at 200
Place of death Hierapolis , Phrygia Salutaris