The Making of Saints in Late Antique North Africa

The "Making of Saints" is a phenomenon of central significance to Christianity since a vision-inspired Ambrosius discovered the remains of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius in 386 AD in Milan. In North Africa it seems to have taken on an extremely interesting form that makes Brent D. Shaw speaking of the blood of the martyrs as "the vital force, the kinetic energy powering Christian life in Africa". This volume contributes to the productively expanding research field of North African Christianity by providing narrative analyses on the one hand and presenting case studies from an archaeological perspective on the other, which allow a comparative perspective of the phenomenon in order to systematically combine them: narrative alone did not "make" a martyr, architectural staging too was needed – the story made the martyr and the staging made the saint. The multidisciplinary approach brings together the most recent results concerning excavations and epigraphy, but also an innovative conceptual understanding of text, space, and – last but not least – religion, in order to examine the social function that the veneration of martyrs had in a longue durée perspective. Cover 1 Titel 4 Impressum 5 Preface and Acknowledgements 6 Table of Contents 8 Prologue 10 Sabine Panzram — The Making of Saints in Late Antique North Africa. Between Story Telling and Architectural Staging 12 Éric Rebillard — Early African Martyr Narratives as Living Texts 48 Part One The Story Made the Martyr? 68 Alice van den Bosch — A Witness for the Defence. St Salsa at Tipasa 70 Nathalie Klinck — The Making of Female Martyrs. The Cases of the Mauritanian Saints Salsa of Tipasa and Marciana of Caesarea 86 Daniel Syrbe — The “Military Saints” of Late Antique North Africa and the Christian Discourse on Military Service 110 Bruno Pottier — The Passion of the Martyrs of Abitinae and the Role of Lay Notables in the Donatist Church 140 Robert Wisniewski — Some Relics, a Bishop, a Curse, and Four Sermons. Constructing the Cult of a Saint in Late Antique Hippo 174 Part Two Saints and the City – The Architectural Stagin 190 Anna Leone / Tommaso Giuliodoro — Between Religion and Protection. Military Saints and their Cults in Late Antique North Africa 192 Moheddine Chaouali — New Views on the Episcopate of African Cities during Late Antiquity. The Cases of Bulla Regia and Mustis 222 Stefan Ardeleanu — Sacralizing the Martyr’s House in Late Antique North Africa. Architectural, Textual and Visual Features in the Making of Martyr Shrines and the Complexity of Local Martyrscapes at Tipasa 242 Ralf Bockmann — Bonding Experiences. Saints Joining Past and Present in Byzantine North Africa 284 Epilogue 304 Éric Fournier — Eternal Persecutions. Cultural Trauma and Memory of the Martyrs in Vandal North Africa 306 Abbreviations 338 List of Figures 340 Index of Places, Persons, and Subjects 344