XIV. Les reliques des saints et la construction de la Cité des martyrs

Informations générales

Date

VIe s. ou plus tard.

Il est signalé que le texte a été directement traduit du syriaque en arménien par le prêtre Gagig et le diacre Grigor.

3 mss: 200 (de 1224), 205 (du XIIe s.) et 227 (de 1846) de Saint-Lazare de Venise (identification par M. van Esbroeck)

extrait situé sous le règne deYazdgird Ier

Languearménien

Type de contenuTexte hagiographique

Informations éditoriales

Éditions

- Texte en arménien:
Łewond, M. A., Vark‘ ew vkayabanut‘iwnk‘ srboç hatentir k‘alealk‘ i carentrac‘ [Vies et passions de saints], II, Venise, 1874, p. 17-32.

- Traduction anglaise:
Marcus, R., «The Armenian Life of Marutha of Maipherkat», The Harvard Theological Review 25, 1932, p. 47-71.

- BHO 720.

Références bibliographiques

- van Esbroeck, M., «Salomon de Mak'enoc' vardapet du VIIIe siècle», dans M. Gianaschian (éd.), Armeniaca. Mélanges d'études arméniennes publiées à l'occasion du 250e anniversaire de l'entrée des pères mekhitaristes dans l'Ile de Saint-Lazare (1717-1967), Venise, Ile de Saint-Lazare, 1969, p. 33-44.

Plus spécifiquement sur Marūtha de Maypherqaṭ:
- Labourt, J., Le christianisme dans l'empire perse sous la dynastie sassanide (224–632), (Bibliothèque de l'enseignement de l'histoire ecclésiastique 11), Paris, 1904.

- McDonough, S., «A Second Constantine? The Sasanian King Yazdgard in Christian History and Historiography», Journal of Late Antiquity 1/1, 2008, p. 127-140.

- Stevenson, W., «John Chrysostom, Maruthas and Christian Evangelism in Sasanian Iran», Studia Patristica 47, 2010, p. 301-306.

- Sako, L. R., Le rôle de la hiérarchie syriaque orientale dans les rapports diplomatiques entre la Perse et Byzance aux Ve-VIIe siècles, (Textes et études sur l'Orient chrétien 2), Paris, 1986.

- Tisserant, E., «Marouta de Maypherqat (saint)», Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 10/1, Paris, 1928, col. 142-149.

- Vesa, V., «Church-Imperial Power Relationship in the Persian Empire of the 5th Century: The Role of Politics in the Reception of the First Ecumenical Council», Altarul Reîntregirii 2. Supplement, 2013, p. 261-276.

Liens

- Éd. Łewond, M. A., Vark‘ ew vkayabanut‘iwnk‘ srboç hatentir k‘alealk‘ i carentrac‘ [Vies et passions de saints], II, Venise, 1874: texte arménien.
- Pour la bibliographie sur Marūtha, voir le site de

A Comprehensive Bibliography on Syriac Christianity

Indexation

Noms propresChrist, Gagig, prêtre, Grigor, diacre, Marūtha de Maypherqaṭ, Perses, Romains, Théodose II, Yazdgird Ier

ToponymesAsūrestān, Cité des martyrs, Cop‘k‘, Np‘ǝrkert, Perse, Sophène

Sujetsédit de paix, église, ermitage, mage, martyr, miracles, monastère, Passion, persécution, reliques

Traduction

Texte

The remains of the saints
and the building of the City of Martyrs

[trad. éd. Marcus p. 67] [arm. éd. Łewond p. 30] And he gathered the remains of the martyrs of Christ who had been put to death by the Magians and the king, and he assembled them from different places into a sepulchre with great honor by the command of the king; and taking some relics from all the remains, he carried them with him to the City of Martyrs. And he was sent away by the king with a message of peace and many gifts, [among them] a cup of gold in memory of the king, full of gold for the building-material of the church which had been built in the city under the dedication of “The Martyrs of God.” And seeing the skilfulness of the construction of the city and of the church of God, he praised God. And he returned again to the pious Theodosius; and he related to him his friendship and peace with the king, and the cessation of the persecutions and the rebuilding of the churches of God and the collecting of the relics into sepulchres and the carrying of a part of them to the City of Martyrs; and all the miracles that the Lord had performed through him, and how he had saved the king from death; and what the king of the Persians had truly written to Theodosius, emperor of the Greeks. And when he [the emperor] read this, he rejoiced, and with thanksgiving praised God Almighty for all his exceeding great wonders and for God's care of those who believed in him who was manifested through him [Marūtha]. And he extolled and honored the blessed Marūtha even more than before. And he asked of the emperor that he issue a decree for him to gather from the remains of all the saints in his empire some relics to carry to the [trad. éd. Marcus p. 68] City of Martyrs, as he had himself said before; and he received permission to do whatever he wished; and he went out to Rome and to all the cities and provinces and villages and monasteries and hermitages, and gathered relics with the help of God. And he returned to the pious Theodosius, and great was the joy of the emperor. And he gave many gifts and villages and farms and vineyards and olive groves, all fruitbearing, to the churches of God, and to the martyrs who were [arm. éd. Łewond p. 31] gathered in the city. And he sent him away full of joy, as the blessed one desired.

And arriving in his own land, in the city of Cop‘k‘ (= Sophène), with a glad heart, he gave thanks to God. And the city and churches of God were built with marvellous construction, and he made altars within the walls of the house of God and placed reliquaries within them, arranging them with admirable skill; [and he gathered the relics] from the kingdom of the Romans, one hundred and twenty thousand, and from that of Asūrestān twenty thousand, and from the kingdom of the Persians eighty thousand, and from our kingdom sixty thousand; altogether the number of the relics of the saints brought together was two hundred and eighty thousand. I omit those which were collected afterwards, and also the holy martyrs who died in that city and remain there, by whose intercession may the Lord be merciful to us who have translated the Passions from Syriac into Armenian, [namely] I, Gagig, and my deacon Grigor who is with me – may they [and] all believers be worthy of a part in the inheritance of the saints who are gathered there! And so with gladness and with great zeal Marūtha gathered the relics of the martyrs in the city of Maypherqaṭ (Np‘ǝrkert), whose names are written in the Book of Life. And throughout the days of the blessed one the Lord kept peace between the two sovereigns of the Greeks and of the Persians, and [there was] a cessation of persecution, and a rebuilding of the church to the glory of his holy name.

Traducteur(s)Ralph Marcus

Description

Analyse du passage

La conjonction des deux éléments traditionnellement articulés, à savoir la collecte de reliques en vue de la fondation d'un lieu de culte à Martyropolis [1], et un processus rédactionnel de passions afférentes aux ossements et objets qui s'y trouvent vénérées, ont motivé une élaboration du personnage de Marūtha en auteur de textes martyrologiques. Cet élément est réfuté par la critique, Wood, Ph., The Chronicle of Seert. Christian Historical Imagination in Late Antique Iraq, Oxford, 2013; auparavant Wiessner, G., Untersuchungen zur syrischen Literaturgeschichte I: Zur Martyrerüberlieferung aus der Christenverfolgung Schapurs II, (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen Philologisch-Historische Klasse 67), Göttingen, 1967, p. 11; Labourt, J., Le christianisme dans l'empire sassanide, Paris, 1904, p. 51-53. Bref état de la question dans une courte note Smith, K., Constantine and the Captive Christians of Persia: Martyrdom and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity, (Transformation of the classical heritage 57), Oakland, 2016, p. 146-147. À partir des données de deux anciens homéliaires arméniens, L. Tēr-Petrossian était d'un avis différent, Tēr-Petrossian, L. H., « L'attribution du recueil des passions des martyrs perses à Marutha de Maypherqaṭ », Analecta Bollandiana 97, 1979, p. 129-130.

Sur Martyropolis, voir aussi la Vie grecque de Marūtha, éd. Noret, J., «La vie grecque ancienne de S. Marūtā de Maypherqaṭ», Analecta Bollandiana 91, 1973, p. 77-103. Sur les traditions plus tardives, Fiey, J. M., «Maruta de Martyropolis d'après Ibn al-Azraq (m. 1181)», Analecta Bollandiana 94, 1976, p. 35-45; Munt, H., «Ibn al-Azraq, Saint Marūthā, and the Foundation of Mayyāfāriqīn (Martyropolis)», dans Papaconstantinou, A., et alii (edd), Writing ‘True Stories': Historians and Hagiographers in the Late Antique and Medieval Near East, (Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 9), Turnhout, 2010, p. 149-174.

Édition numérique

Éditeur numériqueProjet ANR TransPerse (CeRMI, CNRS) ; projet EMAN (Thalim, CNRS-ENS-Sorbonne Nouvelle).

Mentions légalesFiche : Projet ANR TransPerse (CeRMI, CNRS) ; projet EMAN (Thalim, CNRS-ENS-Sorbonne Nouvelle). Licence Creative Commons Attribution – Partage à l'Identique 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0 FR).

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Notice créée par Florence Jullien Notice créée le 14/02/2020 Dernière modification le 01/07/2022