Συνοδία. Редкий тип религиозного сообщества в надписях из ранневизантийской паломнической базилики крепости Мачхомери в Лазике

Вестник Волгоградского государственного университета. Серия 4: История. Регионоведение. Международные отношения. 2021. Т. 26. № 6. С. 119–125.

Vinogradov A.

The process of Christianization of the Lazica, poorly presented in written sources,
received an important source in the recently found inscriptions from the Machkhomeri fortress near Khobi. 
The inscriptions were discovered during the excavations of a three-nave basilica, built in the 6th c. by a certain
Gorgonios in honour of Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. The next benefactor of the church was a certain Theonas,
his wife and family. In the northern part of the basilica, there were also found fragments of two inscriptions, which
contain the list of benefactors with their synodiai. The dedicants of the inscriptions were among others the carpenters/
builders of the church and their colleagues, who probably also formed a synodia. Thus, we see in the 6th-c.
Lazica a rare kind of religious community around a mighty person or institution – a synodia consisting mainly of
lay people. The competition for the right to own objects inside the Machkhomeri Basilica shows that this church
was the centre of attraction and pilgrimage in the region, perhaps thanks to the relics of the Martyrs of Sebaste.
Key words: Lazica, Byzantine epigraphy, religious communities, Byzantine architecture, pilgrimages.

Keywords: греческая эпиграфика