Червената църква в Перущица – мартириум на марцианополските мъченици св. Теодот, св. Асклепиода и св. Максим?!

Автори:
Страници: 67-91
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/UOSQ1219

Резюме:

The Red Church near Perushtitsa, south of Plovdiv (Philippopolis), is a symbolic monument of early Christian architecture and archeology. This is a large tetraconch with a dome and corridors that surround it [fig. 1, 3]. Scientists from previous generations describe it as a martyrium of an early Christian martyr [or martyrs] – an opinion that has been disputed in the recent decades. In the recent decades, E. Kleinbauer and other scholars have suggested that the tetraconchaes are city cathedrals, pointing out as example Apamea's cathedrals in Syria [fig. 5], Perge in Paphlagonia [fig. 6[, San Lorenzo in Milan, and the Great Church in Antioch [?]. However, the tetraconchal church near Perushtitsa is not a cathedral, because it is far from big cities, even from fortresses and settlements of the Late Antiquity. It is located in a desolate place near a large spring. Similar shape and size has the tetraconchal martyrium at the necropolis of Augusta Traiana [Beroe, Stara Zagora], which is certainly not a cathedral [fig. 7, 8]. That is why I think that no cathedral was found near Perushtitsa, but it is an early Christian martyrium from the second half of the 4th century in the form of a tetraconch. The entrance was in the western conch, whereas sarcophagi with the relics of three martyrs were placed in the other three. Prof. St. Boyadzhiev’s idea that 6 sarcophagi with relics of martyrs were placed in the bypass corridor /a kind of deambulatorium/[fig. 2]is disputed because the original martyrial building was without a bypass corridor [fig. 11] and because its limited width did not allow for it. In the fifth century, the martyrium was transformed into a church by the addition of a corridor, narthex, baptistery and a chapel with an apse, acting like a secondary martyrium where the relics were transferred [fig. 3, 4]. Another main question is: Who are the three martyrs who were placed in the tetraconchal martyrium near Perushtitsa. In the hagiographies of St. Theodotus, St. Asklepiode and St. Maximus of Marcianopolis (the capital of the province Moesia Secunda after the beginning of the 4th century) it was recorded that, due to their devotion to Christianity, they were judged in the city theater by the governor Theres. We have reason to affirm that he was vicarius of the diocese of Thrace which included the provinces of Moesia Secunda, Hemimont, Thrace, etc. An inscription from the theater of Philipopolis confirms that Theres indeed held that position in the beginning of the 4th c. [fig. 13]. Then the defendants were transported to Adrianople where they were also tried and tortured. Finally, they were directed to Philippopolis,probably through the secondary road of the Eastern Rhodope Mountains [fig. 12], but 30 miles before the city they were executed in a desolate place near a large spring on 15 September 307. The Martyrium near Perushtitsa corresponds fully to this description. Apropos, there is no other group of three martyrs from Philippopolis and its region documented in the hagiographic literature.

Ключови думи:

The Red Church; Peruchtitsa; martyrdom; tetraconch; Marcianopolis; Saints Theodotus, Asclepiodotus and Maximus; Theres; Saltis.

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