medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Arethas (his name in Greek and thence in Latin; in Arabic, al-Haarith; d. ca. 523) was the leading noble of the oasis city of Nagrana (today's Najran in southernmost Saudi Arabia) when the king of the Himyarite realm to which Nagrana belonged converted to Judaism and attempted to enforce his religious choice either upon his entire populace or at least upon the populace in those portions of the kingdom in which influence from neighboring Christian Abyssinia was strongest. Arethas refused and was decapitated on this day for resisting. According to our principal sources for this event, later sixth-century accounts by bishops Simeon of Bet Arsam and Sergius (or Georgius) of Resafa (BHO 99-106), he was joined in martyrdom his wife Ruma and by his six daughters as well as many others: in some estimates their number was in the low thousands whereas others (including Bl. Cesare Baronio and his successors as editors of the Roman Martyrology) use a figure of 340 companions. In its revision of 2001 the Roman Martyrology included Ruma in its nomenclature for this commemoration; some Orthodox churches similarly incorporate specific mention of Syncletica and her two daughters, said traditionally to have been later martyrs in the same persecution. Otherwise this has been a feast of Arethas and companions, sometimes recorded in calendars (where space is usually at a premium) as one simply of Arethas. Modern churches tend to give Arethas a suffix distinguishing him from the late twelfth-century Arethas the Recluse (or of the Kyivan Caves; also 24. October in some calendars).
Arethas et socc. have a Greek-language Passio in several versions (BHG 166, 166b-166z) that in the tenth century was expanded by St. Symeon Metaphrastes (BHG 167; the earlier BHG 166z is also metaphrastic). In the Latin West, Arethas is entered under today in the earlier ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples. Also from Naples and ascribed to its duke-bishop Athanasius (d. 898; as bishop, Athanasius II) is a fragment of a Latin version of these saints' Passio (BHL 671).
Some period-pertinent depictions of Arethas of Najran and companions (or of Arethas alone):
a) Arethas as depicted in a tenth-century glazed ceramic icon in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore:
http://tinyurl.com/nbjv3vj
b) Arethas as portrayed in high relief (at lower right; at lower left, St. Eustratius) on the mid-tenth-century Harbaville Triptych in the Musée du Louvre, Paris:
http://tinyurl.com/qjpyd58
c) Arethas and companions as depicted (martyrdom) in the late tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613, p. 135):
http://tinyurl.com/nq3lxp7
d) Arethas as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the narthex in the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/qbrtb3u
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/4bxjjtm
e) Arethas as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1313 and ca. 1320) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the nave of the King's Church (dedicated to Sts. Joachim and Anne) at the Studenica monastery near Kraljevo (Raška district) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/94vdzrf
f) Arethas as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George in Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/q8h9nuo
g) Arethas as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1335-1350) of the north choir in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/6shzp6s
h) Arethas and his companions as depicted (martyrdom) in an October calendar scene of the fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/yhwgpn6
i) Arethas (at left, with Sts. Nestor and Nicetas the Goth) as depicted in the earlier fifteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1406 and 1418) in the church of the Holy Trinity at the Manasija monastery near Despotovac (Pomoravlje dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/3box76o
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
|