The Church of Mar Elian is believed to date back to the early fifth century and to have been founded on the site of the saint's martyrdom in 284. Elian was a local physician who was murdered by his father, a Roman officer, for his Christian faith. He is widely venerated in Syria for miracles of healing. The church was built around a late antique marble sarcophagus decorated with crosses and located in a small side apse south of the main sanctuary of the church. In the 1970s fragments of frescoes and mosaics were discovered during a renovation programme in the chamber around the tomb, and some elements of the decoration possibly date back as far as the sixth century, though most of the frescoes are twelfth century. Today the church interior boasts frescoes of the life of Mar Elian and various biblical scenes painted by two Romanian artists.
Creator
Emma Loosley
Date of Visit
June 2001
Contributor
Emma Loosley
Rights
Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons
unless otherwise indicated
Type
Architecture
Tags
Architecture, C12th, C5th, C6th, Church, Fresco, Homs, Late Antique, Mar Elian, Mosaic, Sarcophagus, Syria, Tomb
Collection
Citation
Emma Loosley, “The Church of Mar Elian, Homs,” Architecture and Asceticism, accessed April 19, 2024, https://architectureandasceticism.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/205.