I wonder how many people know that the sarcophagi of the Roman emperors buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles are still around? The following picture from Wikimedia Commons and this one show some of them stood outside the Istanbul archaeological museum. The one without a cross on is said to be that of Julian the Apostate.
It is painful to see them outside Istanbul archaeological museum, but I guess the Byzantines have left there more important things. Anyway, at least they are not lost or destroyed.
Julian the Apostate died in 363 AD during his wars against the Persians. St Basil the Great dreamed at the time that St Mercurius had killed him with a spear. It is thought that Julian did die of a spear wound, perhaps from an auxiliary Saracen in the Sassanid army. The death of Julian was seen as a triumph to Christianity, and brought about by divine intervention. The Copts venerate St Mercurius whom they call Abu Marquora or Abu Sefain (the two-sworded one). They depict him holding two swords (one military and the other spiritual) and spearing a beast or a king, Julian the Apostate.
St Mercurius is just one of many martial saints – the Copts venerate several of them, including, besides St Mercurius, St George, St Mina, St Victor and St Maurice. All these were warrior saints. Amazingly, their veneration has not created in the Copts a warring nature.
I found it interesting that the Greek word for “saracen” is (if I recall correctly) sarakenos.
Yes the greeks made a play on words for sarakenos and mocked their ancestry by calling them the “Empty ones of Sarah” Kenos meaning “empty/vain” in Greek.
Interesting – thank you!
Why did the Greeks connect the Arabs with Sarah (or did they disconnect them from her by calling them “empty ones of Sarah”?) when the Arabs were Biblically connected to Hagar, second wife (was she a wife or concubine?) of Abraham, and mother of Ishmael from whom, it is said, Arabs descended.
I’m not entirely sure what the idea of it was, perhaps they interpreted “empty” as meaning “not from” Sarah or maybe because Sarah sent Hagar away empty handed?
The medieval Byzantines routinely called the Arabs “Hagarenes” – in reference to Hagar.