Syria: 5th century skeleton found in Byzantine cathedral

english.globalarabnetwork.com ^ | Saturday, 15 August 2009 13:23 | Maha Karim

[Antoninus]

Rome fell in 407AD. Constatine had formed the Eastern Roman Empire because of a schism of the Catholic Religion. His home was Byzantium and he remaned it Constantinople. By the 5th Century the Byzantine Empire stretched from Northeast Greece across Asia Minor.

Huh? The above is historically incorrect for so many different reasons.

[nikos1121]

So I wouldn’t think that the person was tortured by the
Romans.

[Welcome2thejungle]

Not likely for being a Christian as Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire by the 5th Century.

[Diamond]

That is a picture of a living fossil. There is no indication that the skeleton found in the Byzantine cathedral was fossilized.

Cordially,

[Nikas777]

I don’t think they dated the bones - just the church.

[BenLurkin]

Is this really a “cathedral”?

[centurion316]

Good point. I was also thinking that he might also have been martyred while traveling among the heathens outside the empire.

[Nikas777]

Young Werther your info is a little off.

Constantine ruled a united empire which became divided again after his death - the division was administrative along cultural lines for ease of administration not for any Christian schism.

This division created the Latin church and the Greek church that later became the Catholic Church is it is now called in the west and the Orthodox Church (though both churches call themselves the same name officially - One Holy and Apostolic Catholic Church - ‘catholic’ is a Greek word that means ‘universal’).

[Nikas777]

About 10% of Syria is still Christian give or take and the Muslim tribe that rules Syria are the Alawites who are considered Muslims that are really crypto-Christians who profess Islam but worship in secret ceremonies that recall a Christian past - including going to relics of Christian saints on the saint's feast days, etc.

Syria is a dictatorship - but because the ruling Alawites adhere to the Arab nationalist Ba'athist movement Christians live pretty much free from persecution there. It is a paradox that is the middle east.

[Nikas777]

You misunderstood me. The bones could be the bones of a persecuted Christian from before the time of Constantine reburied in the church as a relic of a martyred saint and these bones would be a few hundred years older than the church that was probably built to house the bones.

[Welcome2thejungle]

That is certainly possible. The point I was trying to make was that the Roman Empire was not persecuting Christians in 5th Century. It was at the time trying to fend off invading barbarian hordes. By 476 AD the Western Empire fell.

I would think the archaelogists who found the bones could determine the age of the bones and therefore whether or not your theory is possible.

[Nikas777]

Agreed - just a semi-educated guess on my part.

[SunkenCiv]

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[afraidfortherepublic]

In any event, this serves as a reminder that Syria used to be a Christian nation

Amen. And so did Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, and many other places that have been lost to Islam. Pray for us. Pray for Holy Mother, the Church. Pray for the Christian martyrs.

[colorado tanker]

Theodora was one hot babe in her youth and supposedly had a voracious sexual appetite.