DOI Artikel:
Mierzejewska, Bożena: Remarks on decoration of the Western Wall of Narthex in the Faras Cathedral
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18950#0165
narthex were reminded about it by the archangels with a sword and a trumpet
yisible on the western wali (the wali on which the Last Judgement was often
represented in Byzantine churches). The image of the enthroned Theotokos
with the young Christ, to whom those beings formed a guard, proclaimed the
idea of the Incarnation through which salvation came to the world, accessible
to anybody who had chosen the life according to the teachings of Christ.
The liturgical role of the narthex in Nubian churches is not known. It
cannot be excluded that the liturgical function of this chamber was in some
way connected to the commemoration of the dead as for example in the
churches of Palestine or as in Byzantine monastery churches where the
narthex was the place of the midnight service during which the prayer for the
dead was sung.42 The Faras cathedral was the place of rest of 17 local bishops
buried in smali mortuary chapels and graves in the immediate vicinity of the
church.43 They were certainly commemorated during services by the clergy
and believers. Perhaps our knowledge of the Nubian liturgy and the liturgical
role of certain chambers in the Christian sanctuaries of Nubia could be
enriched by futurę discoveries of up to now very scarce churches, monasteries
and above all liturgical texts.
Linguistic consultation - Michał Murawski
would be the herald announcing the Last Judgement; ibid., p. 193: in the Book ofthe Imestiture
ofthe Archangel Michael Michael blows the trumpet of life. The angel blowing a trumpet at the
resurrection is represented on fol. 8v. of the Gospels (MS. 2930) in Matenadaran Collection in
Yerevan, dated 1315, cf. E. Korkhmazian, I. Drampian, G. Hakopian, Armenian Miniatures of
the IM and 14"’ centuries from the Matenadaran Collection Yereaan, Leningrad 1984, ill. p. 63.
42 About the liturgical, mainly mortuary role of the side chapels and nartex in medieval
Byzantine architecture see G. Babic, Les Chapelles annexes des eglises byzantines. Fonction
liturgiąue etprogramme iconographiąue, Paris 1969; on place of commemoration ofthe dead in
churches as attested by the Constantinopolitan and Palestinian typika, pp. 45-53.
43 B. Żurawski, “Bishops’ Tombs in Faras”, in Nubische Studien, op. cit., pp. 413—419.
yisible on the western wali (the wali on which the Last Judgement was often
represented in Byzantine churches). The image of the enthroned Theotokos
with the young Christ, to whom those beings formed a guard, proclaimed the
idea of the Incarnation through which salvation came to the world, accessible
to anybody who had chosen the life according to the teachings of Christ.
The liturgical role of the narthex in Nubian churches is not known. It
cannot be excluded that the liturgical function of this chamber was in some
way connected to the commemoration of the dead as for example in the
churches of Palestine or as in Byzantine monastery churches where the
narthex was the place of the midnight service during which the prayer for the
dead was sung.42 The Faras cathedral was the place of rest of 17 local bishops
buried in smali mortuary chapels and graves in the immediate vicinity of the
church.43 They were certainly commemorated during services by the clergy
and believers. Perhaps our knowledge of the Nubian liturgy and the liturgical
role of certain chambers in the Christian sanctuaries of Nubia could be
enriched by futurę discoveries of up to now very scarce churches, monasteries
and above all liturgical texts.
Linguistic consultation - Michał Murawski
would be the herald announcing the Last Judgement; ibid., p. 193: in the Book ofthe Imestiture
ofthe Archangel Michael Michael blows the trumpet of life. The angel blowing a trumpet at the
resurrection is represented on fol. 8v. of the Gospels (MS. 2930) in Matenadaran Collection in
Yerevan, dated 1315, cf. E. Korkhmazian, I. Drampian, G. Hakopian, Armenian Miniatures of
the IM and 14"’ centuries from the Matenadaran Collection Yereaan, Leningrad 1984, ill. p. 63.
42 About the liturgical, mainly mortuary role of the side chapels and nartex in medieval
Byzantine architecture see G. Babic, Les Chapelles annexes des eglises byzantines. Fonction
liturgiąue etprogramme iconographiąue, Paris 1969; on place of commemoration ofthe dead in
churches as attested by the Constantinopolitan and Palestinian typika, pp. 45-53.
43 B. Żurawski, “Bishops’ Tombs in Faras”, in Nubische Studien, op. cit., pp. 413—419.