The Witness
of the Early Christian Martyrs,
Monks, and Holy Families of
Cappadocia
.
by Don Schwager
A land of radical disciples
and missionary monks
One of the first group of people from other
nations to receive the Gospel and outpouring of
the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the early
church were the Cappadocians in Asia Minor
(today located in central Turkey). Luke in his
account of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, list the
residents of Cappdocia among the nations
gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast (Acts 2:9).
They witnessed the tongues of fire which
appeared over the heads of the apostles and
other disciples who had gathered in the upper
room in prayer for the coming of the Holy
Spirit. And to their utter amazement when they
heard Peter and the other apostles speak to the
crowds, each heard them in their own native
language.
We know that the Gospel quickly
spread to Cappadocia and throughout the region
of Asia Minor. Peter's First Letter
specifically addressed the Christian
communities in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia - all Roman provinces in
Asia Minor.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the
Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, in the
sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience
to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his
blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to
you.
– 1 Peter 1:1-2
When Peter wrote his letter, some time before
his execution in Rome between 64 - 67 AD, the
majority of Christians in Cappadocia and Asia
Minor were Gentile converts. Peter addresses
them as “elect exiles” living in “dispersion.”
These were titles originally given to the Jews
who were a nation chosen by God but now were
dispersed among the Gentile nations after the
Babylonian exiles. Peter wrote his letter during
a time of persecution which affected the
Christians living in the Roman provinces of Asia
Minor. Peter wrote to affirm them in the faith
and to encourage them to persevere with hope in
the midst of severe trials and persecution.
Rapid growth of
Christianity in the first 4
centuries
Mike
Aquilina, an historian of the
Roman era and the early church
fathers, writes in his essay, Salt
of the Empire:
By the time
Constantine legalized the practice
of Christianity in 313, the Roman
Empire was already heavily
Christianized. By the year 300
perhaps 10 percent of the people
were Christians, and by the middle
of the century, Christians may
well have been a majority of the
citizens, 33 million Christians in
an empire of 60 million people. So
Constantine did not so much ensure
Christianity’s success as
acknowledge it. His edict of
toleration was overdue recognition
that the Christian church had
already won the empire. They were
already in the majority.
These were not 33 million
“nominal” Christians – not 33
million “cafeteria Catholics” and
“chaplain to the culture”
Protestants. They could not be.
They did not have the luxury of
being lukewarm. In the decade
before Constantine’s edict, the
Church had suffered its most
ruthless and systematic
persecution ever under the emperor
Diocletian and his successors. The
practice of the faith was, in many
places, punished by torture and
death. In many places, to live as
a Christian meant, at the least,
to accept social stigma and
humiliation. What is more, the
Christian way itself was
characterized by demanding
disciplines in the life of prayer
and in the moral life.
To be a Christian was not easy in
the year 300. It cost something.
Whether or not you were martyred,
you had to pay with your life.
Christians were laying their lives
on the line every time they
attended the liturgy, and they
continued to do so through the
course of every day. Yet the rate
of conversion throughout the
empire – beginning with the first
Christians, long before
Constantine – was most remarkable.
A few years ago, an eminent
sociologist, Rodney Stark of the
University of Washington, set out
to track church growth in the
ancient world. He gathered his
findings in The Rise of
Christianity: How the Obscure,
Marginal Jesus Movement Became
the Dominant Religious Force in
the Western World in a Few
Centuries, 1966,
HarperCollins Publishers.
[When Dr. Stark published his
finding he was not a Christian and
had no vested interest in making
Christianity look good.]
What Stark found in his study of
the first Christian centuries was
an astonishing growth rate of 40
percent per decade. Again,
Constantine gets no credit for
this growth. Most of it happened
in the years before he was born.
In fact, even though conversions
were coerced at various times
after the year 380, the Church
never again witnessed the kind of
growth that took place when
conversions were costly.
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Witness of heroic
martyrs
among the Christians of Cappadocia
A number of holy martyrs were honored as
Christian heroes throughout Cappadocia,
including St. George the Wonder Worker – a Roman
officer under Diocletian in 303, Orestes the
Physician in 304, the Forty Holy Martyrs of
Sebaste in 320, the martyr Barbara of Nicomedia,
and the martyr Catherine of Alexandria in 305.
They were tortured and put to death for their
bold witness of faith and loyalty to Jesus
Christ. A number of the early rock cut cave
churches and shrines in Cappadocia were
dedicated to their honor.
Saint George of Cappadocia, wall
frescoe in the rock cut cave church of St.
Basil,
in
Goreme, Cappadocia. Photo by David
Lyons / Alamy Stock
The Martyr George of Cappadocia
The martyr George, whom Eastern Christians call
the Victory-Bearer and Wonder Worker, was a
native of Cappadocia, a Roman province in Asia
Minor. He was raised in a deeply committed
Christian family. His father was martyred for
Christ when George was still a child. His mother
was originally a Greek native from Lydda in the
Roman province of Syria Palaestina. After his
father’s death, George and his mother settled
back in the Syrian province where she owned
land.
When George came of age, he joined the Roman
army. He was brave and valiant in battle, and he
came to the notice of the emperor Diocletian
(284-305) and joined the imperial guard with the
rank of comites, or military commander.
As Christians increased in number and influence,
Diocletian, who was pagan and
anti-Christian, began to intensify his
persecution against the Christians. Following
the advice of the Senate at Nicomedia,
Diocletian gave all his governors full freedom
in their court proceedings against Christians,
and he promised them his full support.
When George heard the decision of the emperor he
decided to take a public stand against the
empereor’s edict. George distributed all his
wealth to the poor, freed his servants, and then
appeared in the Senate. The brave soldier spoke
out openly against the emperor’s designs. He
confessed himself a Christian, and appealed to
all to acknowledge Christ: “I am a servant of
Christ, my God, and trusting in Him, I have come
among you voluntarily, to bear witness
concerning the Truth.”
“What is Truth?” one of the dignitaries asked,
echoing the question of Pontius Pilate. The
saint replied, “Christ Himself, Whom you
persecuted, is Truth.”
Stunned by the bold speech of the valiant
warrior, the emperor, who had loved and promoted
George, attempted to persuade him not to throw
away his youth and glory and honors, but rather
to offer sacrifice to the gods as was the Roman
custom. The confessor replied, “Nothing in this
inconstant life can weaken my resolve to serve
God.”
Then by order of the enraged emperor the armed
guards led him off to prison and began to
torment him there. The next day at the
interrogation, powerless but firm of spirit,
George again answered the emperor, “You will
grow tired of tormenting me sooner than I will
tire of being tormented by you.” George
was severely tortured for days and then
sentenced to death for refusing to recant his
faith.
At the place of execution he prayed that the
Lord would forgive the torturers who acted in
ignorance, and that God would lead them to the
knowledge of Truth. Calmly and bravely, George
bent his neck beneath the sword, receiving the
crown of martyrdom on April 23, 303.
The martyr George was widely honored among the
Christians in Cappadocia for his bold witness of
faith and perseverance in suffering for Jesus
Christ. He is called St. George the Wonder
Worker for many miracles that were attributed to
him. The Cappadocian bishops in the 4th and 5th
centuries included him in the annual feast day
commemoration of martyrs, and a number of
shrines and churches which were built to honor
the martyrs included St. George among them.
The photo above features a wall frescoe painted
in the cave church of St. Basil in Cappadocia,
dating from the 5th century, which depicts St.
George on his horse with a spear in his hand
slaying the dragon - a biblical symbol of Satan
and his kingdom of darkness and evil.
Martyrdom of the Forty Christian
Soldiers of Sebaste in 320 AD
Gregory of Nyssa (330-395 AD) in his homily on
the commemoration of the Forty Holy Martyrs of
Sebaste, describes the martyrs as forty
battle-tested and highly-decorated Roman
soldiers, who were part of the Twelfth Legion
“Fulminata” (Legio XII Fulminata)
meaning “Armed with Lightning” stationed in
Cappadocia. They were also very committed
Christians who openly confessed their faith.
During the persecution by the emperor Lucinius
in 320 AD, they were interrogated and refused to
recant their faith.
According to Basil the Great (329-379 AD), they
were condemned by the pagan prefect to be
exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste,
(in southern Anatolia ) on a bitterly cold
night, so that they might recant their Christian
faith or freeze to death. Among the suffering
soldiers, one weakened, and left his companions,
seeking the warm bath house or banya near the
lake which had been prepared for any who might
waver in their faith. This one deserter,
according to the Synaxarion, dropped dead as
soon as he crossed the threshold to the bath
house. One of the guards, who was appointed to
keep watch over the martyrs, saw a supernatural
light descending over them. Immediately he
proclaimed himself a Christian, threw off his
garments, and placed himself beside the
thirty-nine soldiers of Christ. Thus the number
“forty” remained complete.
At dawn, the stiffened bodies of the confessors,
some of which still showed signs of life, were
crushed with hammers, burned and then the
charred bones were cast into a river so that
Christians would not gather them up. Three days
later the martyrs appeared in a dream to Peter,
Bishop of Sebaste, and commanded him to recover
and bury their remains. The bishop, together
with several clergy, gathered up the relics of
the glorious martyrs by night and buried them
with honor. Later, their relics were recovered
and distributed throughout many cities. In this
way the commemoration of the Forty Martyrs
became widespread, and numerous churches and
shrines were erected in their honor.
Many Christians today commemorate their
martyrdom on March 9th and March 10th.
Martyrdom of Orestes the
Physician in 304 AD
The Martyr Orestes the Physician of Cappadocia
lived at the end of the third century in the
city of Tyana in Cappadocia in the time of the
emperor Diocletian (284-305). He was a capable
soldier, and from childhood a very committed
Christian.
By order of the emperor, the military officer
Maximinus was sent to Tyana to deal with
Christianity, which then had spread widely
throughout Cappadocia. Orestes was among the
first brought to trial to Maximinus. He bravely
and openly confessed his faith in the Crucified
and Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. The prosecutor
offered the saint riches, honors and renown to
renounce God, but Saint Orestes was unyielding.
At the order of Maximinus, they took Orestes to
a pagan temple and again demanded that he
worship idols. When he refused, forty soldiers
took turns one after the other, beating the
Orestes with lashes and rods, and then they
tormented him with fire. Orestes cried out to
the Lord, “Establish with me a sign for good,
let those who hate me see it and be put to
shame” (Psalm 85/86:17). The Lord heard his
servant. The earth began to tremble, and the
idols fell down and were smashed. Everyone
rushed out of the temple, and when Saint Orestes
came out, the very temple tumbled down.
Infuriated, Maximinus ordered the holy martyr to
be locked up in prison for seven days giving him
neither food nor drink, and on the eighth day to
continue with the torture. They hammered twenty
nails into the martyr’s legs, and then tied him
to a wild horse. Dragged over the stones, the
holy martyr departed to the Lord in the year
304. His relics were thrown into the sea.
In 1685, when Saint Demetrius, later the Bishop
of Rostov, was preparing the Life of Saint
Orestes to be printed by the Kiev Caves Lavra,
he became tired and fell asleep. The holy martyr
Orestes appeared to him in a dream. He showed
him the deep wound in his left side, his wounded
and severed arms, and his legs which had been
cut off. The holy martyr looked at Saint
Demetrius and said, “You see, I suffered more
torments for Christ than you have described.”
The humble monk wondered whether this was Saint
Orestes, one of the Five Martyrs of Sebaste. The
martyr said, “I am not that Orestes, but he
whose Life you have just finished writing.”
[Source:
https://oca.org/saints/lives]
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How many
Christians were martyred in the
first 4 centuries AD?
The eighteenth-century historian
Edward Gibbon, author of the Fall of
the Roman Empire, reduced the number
of casualties during the Great
Christian Persecution to a maximum
of 2,000 and suggested a total of
4,000 for the entire imperial
period. Historians now say that you
cannot determine an exact number,
the numbers being considered range
from 10,000 to 100,000 martyrs.
“Judging from the calculation of
Ludwig Hertling [ an Austrian Jesuit
who specialized in ancient history
and theology at the Gregorian
University in Rome], one could
estimate that during the second half
of the first century (Nero,
Domitian) the martyrs would be about
five thousand; during the second
century (Hadrian, Trajan, Antonio,
Marco Aurelio) about ten thousand;
for the whole third century
(Septimius Severus, Decius,
Valerian, Aurelian) about twenty
thousand; and the late third and
early fourth century (Diocletian,
Galerius, Maximinus Daja) some fifty
thousand. This calculation would
give us a number of approximately
one hundred thousand martyrs during
the persecution of the Roman
Empire.”
- Gómez, Álvaro. Historia de la
Iglesia, Edad Antigua, Madrid
2001, pp. 104-105
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A distinguished family of holy
women, monks, and bishops
In addition to the holy martyrs who were held in
high esteem by the Cappadocian Chrisians, there
were a number of notable Christian men and women
who impacted the growth of Christian society,
culture, and education in Cappadocia.
Macrina of Caesarea:
philosopher, monastic foundress, miracle
worker
One distinguished holy woman from Cappadocia was
Macrina (330-379 AD), a philosopher, miracle
worker, and founder of a monastic community of
women. Macrina was the eldest of 10
children in a well-off Christian family in
Cappadocia. Along with Macrina, this family
produced an extraordinary number of saints: the
girl’s maternal grandmother (Macrina the elder),
for whom she was named; her parents, Basil and
Emmelia; and three of her brothers, all bishops
– Peter of Sabaste, Gregory of Nyssa, and
Basil of Caesaraea, and a fourth brother,
Naucratius who became a renowned Christian
jurist, and a sister (or sister-in-law), Blessed
Theosebia the Deaconess.
Gregory of Nyssa wrote a 35-page narrative of
his sister’s life around 380-383. In an
introduction to The Life of Saint Macrina,
scholar Kevin Corrigan calls Macrina the
“spiritual guide” in her distinguished family
and says that her “influence upon the major
currents of her own time is evident on almost
every page of the [Life], an influence that goes
to the very heart of Christianity.”
According to the Life, the holy woman rejected
“a great swarm of suitors,” preferring a life of
Christian asceticism. She persuaded her mother
to give up their “rather ostentatious
lifestyle,” treat her maids as “sisters and
equals instead of slaves and servants” and turn
their home into a monastery for women.
Peter founded a men’s monastery near Macrina’s
community on the banks of the river Isis. Basil
became the father of a monastic tradition that
still forms the basis for much Orthodox
monasticism today. But it seems he wasn’t always
inclined toward renunciation. Gregory
relates that when “the great Basil” returned
from school as a young man, “he was monstrously
conceited about his skill in rhetoric” until
Macrina gave him a talk. “So swiftly did she win
him to the ideal of philosophy that he renounced
worldly appearance” to follow his life of
poverty and virtue.
Gregory heard her last philosophical discourse
on a visit he made to his sister at the end of
her life. (“I kept wishing that the day could be
lengthened so that she might not cease to
delight our hearing,” he wrote.) He was with the
many women at Macrina’s bedside when she died in
379. News of her death “spread like wildfire,”
and crowds of people poured in for the funeral
procession, many telling Gregory about miracles
“the great Macrina” had performed while she was
alive.
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Basil on his
Conversion to Radical Discipleship
"...always carrying in
the body the death of Jesus, so that
the life of Jesus may also be
manifested in our bodies" – 2
Corinthians 4:10
When Basil had finished
his advanced education, and was about
to embark on a professional career
teaching rhetoric in his hometown of
Caesarea, he experience a profound
conversion and call to leave all for
Christ. In a letter to a friend, he
described his sudden change from
lukewarmness to repentance and fervor:
"Much time had I
spent in vanity, and had wasted nearly
all my youth in the vain labor which I
underwent in acquiring the wisdom made
foolish by God. Then once upon a time,
like a man roused from deep sleep, I
turned my eyes to the marvelous light of
the truth of the Gospel, and I perceived
the uselessness of the wisdom of the
princes of this world, that come to
naught. (1 Corinthians 2:6) I wept many
tears over my miserable life and I
prayed that guidance might be given to
me to admit me to the doctrines of true
religion.
First of all
was I minded to make some mending of my
ways, long perverted as they were by my
intimacy with wicked men. Then I read
the Gospel, and I saw there that a great
means of reaching perfection was the
selling of one's goods, the sharing them
with the poor, the giving up of all care
for this life, and the refusal to allow
the soul to be turned by any sympathy to
things of earth. And I prayed that I
might find some one of the brethren who
had chosen this way of life, that with
him I might cross life's short and
troubled strait.
And many did I
find in Alexandria, and many in the rest
of Egypt, and others in Palestine, and
in Cśle Syria, and in Mesopotamia. I
admired their continence in living, and
their endurance in toil; I was amazed at
their persistency in prayer, and at
their triumphing over sleep; subdued by
no natural necessity, ever keeping their
souls' purpose high and free, in hunger,
in thirst, in cold, in nakedness, (2
Corinthians 11:27) they never yielded to
the body; they were never willing to
waste attention on it; always, as though
living in a flesh that was not theirs,
they showed in very deed what it is to
sojourn for a while in this life, and
what to have one's citizenship and home
in heaven.
All this moved
my admiration. I called these men's
lives blessed, in that they did indeed
show that they bear about in their body
the dying of Jesus (2 Corinthians
4:10). And I prayed that I, too,
as far as in me lay, might imitate
them."
Source:
Letter 223,
http://newadvent.org/fathers/3202223.htm
|
A new
domestic asceticism
"The fourth century marks the
beginning of a golden age of monasticism in the
church, and in the forefront of our minds here
are the great founders and fathers of Christian
asceticism. We think, rightly, of Antony the
Great (d. 356), about whom several lives were
written, though Athanasius’s became the most
famous. We think of Pachomius (d. 346),
whom we regard as the founder of coenobitic
monasticism and who wrote the first rule to
guide the common life for communities of both
male and female ascetics. We think of
Rufinus (d. 410) and Jerome (d. 420). The
pioneering female ascetics should not be
forgotten: Marcellina (d. 398), Demetrias
(after 440), Melania the Elder (d. 410) and the
Younger (d. 439). And, of course there are
our Basil and Macrina (d. 379).
"We do well to recognize,
however, that this golden age is not limited to
the institutionalized forms of asceticism but
also embraces the less organized and more
inchoate movement, from which some of the more
organized forms grew.⁴ At least two factors
spurred the growth of this movement, as they did
of organized asceticism: persecution before
Constantine’s conversion and the secularization
of the church that followed it. While
persecution must have affected individual
families differently, Gregory of Nazianzus
indicates how it affected Basil’s paternal
grandparents.⁵ During the reign of Maximinus, he
tells us, Basil’s ancestors steered the virtuous
mean between cowardice and foolhardiness in the
face of persecution (Or. 43.5–6). They fled to
the mountains of Pontus as a small company
without servants and stayed there for around
seven years. “Their mode of life,” Gregory
relates, “delicately nurtured as they were, was
straitened and unusual, as may be
imagined, with the discomfort of its exposure to
frost and heat and rain, and the
wilderness allowed no fellowship or converse
with friends” (Or. 43.6; 397).
"Gregory describes here a
sort of forced ascetic life. The wilderness
forced on Basil’s grandparents not only
the bodily discomfort turned asceticism brought
on by the elements but also ascetic isolation, a
sort of social abstinence. As a very famous and
later example of the former, we can call to mind
Augustine’s dear friend Alypius, who “tamed his
body to a tough discipline by asceticism of
extraordinary boldness: he went barefoot on the
icy soil of Italy” (Conf. 9.6.14; 163).
"Basil’s grandparents and
their companions, Gregory tells us, did not
grumble as did the Israelites in the desert.
Rather, in piety and faith they cast themselves
upon the mercy and bounty of God, who provided
them wild game for food. These animals were not
hunted or chased with dogs but with
prayers, at which “their quarry lay before them,
with food come of its own accord, a
complete banquet prepared without effort, stags
appearing all at once from some place in the
hills” (Or. 43.7; 397). Persecution became
the occasion for prayer and ascetic struggle,
and Basil’s grandparents took advantage of it.
Indeed, Gregory wonders at these wild
animals presenting themselves as food to
Basil’s relatives, not hunted by them but
“caught by [their] mere will to do so”
(Or. 43.8; 397). He sees this both as a
foretaste of heaven and a reward for the
“struggle” (athlēsin) in which they had been
engaged (Or. 43.8).
"With the conversion of
Constantine, mediocrity and sometimes corruption
replaced persecution as a spurring influence on
both formal and domestic asceticism, for
Constantine’s beneficence to the church was a
mixed blessing. It meant the production of
Bibles, the building of churches, the
restoration of property, tax breaks and some
civil powers for clergy, and so on, but it also
meant lukewarm half-converts from paganism and
unscrupulous men seeking ecclesial office for
worldly reasons. We will see later that one of
the moving forces behind Basil’s ascetic
thought was his conviction that the church
of his time experienced so many difficulties and
internal divisions because Christians,
especially Christian leaders, had
abandoned the commandments of Jesus and the
order and peace that flow from keeping
them (On Judg. 1–2).
"Anna Silvas describes well
the household asceticism that resulted from
Christian families devoting themselves to living
the gospel: The values of the Graeco-Roman
civic politeia gradually yielded to more
explicitly Christian virtues. The cultural shift
is seen especially in the fostering at home of
the Scriptures and church traditions, in
the practice of hospitality, personal frugality,
and a Gospel charity in which the ruling
idea is no longer philanthropy with a view
to civic kudos, but self-effacing succour of the
poor in imitation of Christ. (Silvas,
68)
"We see a shift to from the
ascetic practices of Basil’s grand-parents to
those of his parents. There was a movement from
the forced and prayerful austerity of
living in the woods to avoid persecution to the
“community of virtue” notable “for generosity to
the poor, for hospitality, for purity of
soul as the result of self- discipline, [and]
for the dedication to God of a portion of
their property” (Or. 43.9; 398). This is
not quite the shift that Silvas describes above,
but, of course, the one type of shift is not
exclusive of the other, and we will see in Basil
himself as in his family a gradual abandonment
of the trappings and values of the secular
culture in which they lived as they ever more
thoroughly embraced the gospel and its social
implications."
Excerpt
from Basil of Caesarea, by Stephen
M. Hildebrand,
(c) 2014, published by Baker
Academic
cut rock
cave dwellings provided cells and chapels
for the monks
Basil the Great reformed the monastic movement
in Cappadocia by instructing his brother monks
to live together in monastic communities so they
could fulfill the commandment to "love your
neighbor as yourself." The monks also were at
the service of the local population, providing
spiritual help, education, and charitable works
for the disadvantaged.
The first monastic communities were small
structures built to provide the Christian monks
with solitude and a place for meditation. They
were located near sources of water. Daily
worship took place under the supervision of a
member of the clergy. Everything was shared, the
sick were tended, and there were no differences
that would cause a rupture with the local
Christian population
Basil created a “new city” of
charitable works for the disadvantaged
When famine struck Cappadocia in 369 AD, Basil
and his fellow monks began a daily service of
providing food for the poor. Basil’s brother
Gregory of Nyssa describes how he daily
gathered together the poor to “ set before
them basins of soup and meat.” Basil’s soup
kitchen served as an impetus for Basil to appeal
to the wealthy to join him in financing and
creating a “new city” devoted to charitable
works on behalf of the disadvantaged.
Basil's vision included a complex of hospitals
for lepers and invalids, an orphanage and place
to care for the elderly, and a training center
for the unskilled, and a hospice for travelers.
Basil staffed the hospitals with competent
doctors. Monks, nuns, and laypeople served as
caregivers. His “new city” of charitable
works inspired other bishops and communities to
build similar facilities in their cities, such
as Constantinople and Alexandria.
When Basil the Great died in 379, he close
friend, Bishop Gregory Nazianzen, during the
funeral oration reminded his audience of Basil’s
charity towards the poor:
Go forth a little way from the city,
and behold the new city, the storehouse of
piety, the common treasury of the wealthy…
where disease is regarded in a religious
light, and disaster is thought a blessing, and
sympathy is put to the test...
My subject is the most wonderful of all, the
short road to salvation, the easiest ascent to
heaven. There is no longer before our eyes
that terrible and piteous spectacle of men who
are living corpses, the greater part of whose
limbs have mortified, driven away from their
cities and homes and public places and
fountains, aye, and from their own dearest
ones, recognizable by their names rather than
by their features… no longer the objects of
hatred, instead of pity on account of their
disease...
[Basil] took the lead in pressing upon those
who were men, that they ought not to despise
their fellowmen…Others have had their cooks,
and splendid tables, and the devices and
dainties of confectioners, and exquisite
carriages, and soft, flowing robes; Basil’s
care was for the sick, and the relief of their
wounds, and the imitation of Christ, by
cleansing leprosy, not by a word, but in deed.
Selime Rock Cut Monastery,
Ihlara Valley, Cappadocia
The
Unique Landscape of Cappadocia
Standing 1,000 meters above sea level, the
Cappadocian relief is a high plateau, pierced by
volcanic peaks that create a visually stunning
landscape, which includes dramatic expanses of
rock, shaped, into towers, cones, valleys, and
caves. From a distance, Cappadocia appears like
a deserted land, however, with closer
examination, it is possible to spot the small,
winding paths and beautifully carved homes
scattered within the unique land formations.
The rock formations that make up Cappadocia were
created by volcanic eruptions, erosion, and
wind. Over three million years ago a volcanic
eruption deposited a blanket of ash across the
1500 square mile landscape which formed into a
soft rock. This rock, slowly eaten away by wind
and time, has created some spectacular
forms.
Wind, climate, mechanical weathering, rain,
snow, and rivers caused the erosion giving to
Cappadocia its unusual and characteristic rock
formations. The Cappadocian climate, with sharp
changes of temperature, heavy rains, and melting
snow in the spring, plays an important role in
the formation of the Cappadocian landscape.
In addition, mechanical weathering is
responsible for fragmentation because rocks
expand when heated and break up as they cool.
Frozen water in the cracks can also cause
fragmentation. However, the most important
sources of erosion are rain and rivers. Heavy
rainfall transformed the smooth surface of the
plateau into a complex pattern of gullies that
followed pre-existing fissures in the rocks.
Eroded materials were then removed by the
rivers. Sometime streams and rivers made very
sharp vertical cuts into the volcanic soil and
created isolated pinnacles at the intersection
of two or more gullies. Rain and rivers also
formed valleys such as Zelve and Goreme.
Source:
http://www.geologyin.com/2014/12/cappadocia-fairy-chimneys-turkey.html
Rock Cut Cave Churches and
Underground Churches
Facade
of Karanlik rock-cut cave church in the
Goreme valley region of Cappadocia
A vast number of churches and chapels were cut
out of the soft lava rock in Cappadocia. The
rock cut cave churches were expanded from early
cave dwellings and were also cut out in the
underground cities of Cappadocia. More than a
thousand rock-cut churches and monastic
dwellings, dating from the earliest days of
Christianity to the thirteenth century, have
been identified by archaeologists over the past
few decades. They estimate that many more are
yet to be discovered in the mountain regions and
uncharted underground cities of Cappadocia.
Christ Pantocrator (Ruler of
All),depicted in the central dome
frescoe in the
rock cut church Karanlik Kilise, in
Goreme, Cappadocia
Saint George and Saint Theodore
are both depicted on horses wielding their
spears as
they each slay a dragon which is a
biblical symbol of Satan and his kingdom of
darkness,
in the Karsi rock cut cave Church of Saint
John, Goerme, Cappadocia, 5th-6th century AD
Underground Cities
Artist’s rendition of a
Cappadocian underground city
– today pilgrims and tourists can visit
various sites
The land of Cappadocia offered Christians
secure places of refuge during intense periods
of persecution. Numerous cave dwellings and
underground cities with connecting tunnels
between cities offered protection from their
persecutors and invading forces who came to
plunder the land.
More than forty complete underground cities
and 200 underground structures have been
discovered in recent times in Cappadocia, many
of them connecting to each other via
tunnel. Most people didn’t live in the
underground cities full time. Underneath the
cities was a vast network of tunnels,
connecting each home in the area to the city.
When the area came under attack, families
would flee to their basements, rush through
the dark tunnels, and gather in the
underground city.
In the first few centuries of the Christian
era, numerous Christian communities flourished
in the cities and villages of Cappadocia.
During periods of persecution by the Romans in
the first four centuries (and later by
invading Arabs), the Christian communities
took refuge for periods of time in underground
tunnels and interconnecting underground
cities. Some archaeologists believe they were
started by the Hittites (c.1200 BC).
The Christian communities expanded and
fortified these underground cities and added
several new levels of underground tunnels and
dwellings to house families, animals, and
storage of food and supplies. They also built
numerous underground churches and cemeteries.
Underground passageway with circular stone
to block entrance Unwary
soldiers could be caught in the many traps
laid throughout the labyrinthine
corridors, such as stones which could be
rolled to block doorways, and holes in the
ceiling through which spears could be
dropped. Invaders were further outwitted
by the Christian builders who made their
tunnels narrow, forcing their enemies to
fight, and be picked off, one by one.
[source from Ancient Origins 2014]
Two
video clips from the History Channel
describe how the early Christians lived
underground during times of persecution:
Don
Schwager is a member of the Servants
of the Word and author of the
Daily
Scripture Readings and Meditations
website.
Photo credits:
unless specified, photos are from
Wikimedia Commons at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cappadocia
Select bibliography:
•
The Rise of Christianity: How
the Obscure, Marginal Jesus
Movement Became the Dominant
Religious Force in the Western
World in a Few Centuries, by
Rodney Stark, 1996, by Princeton
University Press
• Becoming
Christian: The Conversion of
Roman Cappadocia, by Raymond
Van Dam, 2003
• Families
and Friends in Late Roman
Cappadocia, by Raymond Van
Dam, 2003
•
Basil of Caesarea:
Foundations of Theological Exegesis
and Christian Spirituality, by
Stephen Hildebrand, 2014, Baker Academic
•
Basil of Caesarea:
His Life and Impact, by Marvin Jones, 2014,
Christian Focus Publications
•
Christianizing the Roman Empire,
by Ramsey McMullen
• Rock Cut Facades
from Early Byzantine Period, by
Dr. Veronica Kalas, Hypogea, 2017
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