From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   September 22nd - St. Phocas the Gardener, Martyr   
      
    St. Phocas martyred gardener from Sinope, on the Black Sea performed his   
   duties with care and purpose; gave food and lodging to any to any stranger   
   in need; lived as an anchorite pursuing prayer and contemplation; suffered   
   martyrdom for being a Christian; beheaded by soldiers who were given orders   
   to look for Phocas in order to try him for his faith; inadvertently, the   
   soldiers stayed at Phocas when they asked him for a place to sleep; when   
   they told Phocas their mission and asked his whereabouts, he prepared   
   himself for death by digging his own grave; in the morning, he admitted to   
   the soldiers that he himself was Phocas and calmly faced his death. Gardener   
   by trade, Phocas led a life of simplicity, oneness with nature, and a purity   
   recalling God's creation of the first human gardeners, Adam and Eve   
      
   THE STORY OF a unique archaeological find, dubbed 'the unluckiest church in   
   the world', has been pieced together by an archaeologist at the University   
   of Warwick. Intriguing fragments of mosaic began washing ashore on the Black   
   Sea coast in the early 1990s, and were brought to the attention of the   
   museum at Sinop in Turkey. The source of the fragments was discovered to be   
   at the edge of a cliff top, where Dr. Stephen Hill began work on a project   
   to halt the erosion that threatened to destroy the site.   
      
   Hill and his team soon found themselves, however, embroiled in something   
   more complex than the rescue mission they had embarked upon. Expecting to   
   find Roman architecture from the 2nd century, the archaeologists instead   
   discovered the remains of a Christian church from the 4th century, an   
   extremely early find, given that Christianity had only just emerged as a   
   tolerated religion at that date.  After working on the project for more than   
   eleven years, Hill is amazed at how the research has come together in its   
   latter stages: "It was only towards the end of the excavation process and   
   into the post-excavation analysis that the complexity of the successive   
   problems became apparent - so the whole story unfolded somewhat like a   
   detective story."   
      
   One of the most surprising revelations was the discovery of a baptismal   
   font. Fonts served a specific purpose for the Christian community, and to   
   find one in such a remote location posed an absorbing question. The   
   worshippers at this secluded church would most likely have been monks,   
   already baptised and with no need of a font - so why was one built there?   
   Researchers believe the answer may be connected to the story of Phocas,   
   patron saint of gardeners and mariners.  Popular stories of this man tend to   
   concentrate on the peculiar, not to say lurid, circumstances of his death.   
      
   Legend has it that Phocas led a simple life in obedience to God, some time   
   in the third or fourth century. He spent his days helping those in need,   
   growing flowers in his garden and praying - all of which, apparently, did   
   little to endear him to the Roman authorities, who ordered his assassination   
   as part of their persecution of Christians. Two soldiers were dispatched for   
   Sinop on the Black sea coast with instructions to kill Phocas on sight.   
   However, the executioners had trouble finding anywhere to stay as night   
   fell, and without knowing it they turned up outside their victim's   
   residence. As befitted his character, Phocas offered them shelter and food   
   for the night, but over supper learned of his killers' intentions. Without   
   revealing himself, he offered to show them the way to their target in the   
   morning.  Once they had gone to sleep, Phocas went into his garden and dug a   
   grave for himself, before spending the rest of the night in prayer. When the   
   soldiers arose the next day, their host told them that Phocas was now at   
   their disposal, and revealed his true identity to them.   
      
   The would-be assassins were thrown into turmoil, appalled by the thought   
   that they must kill the man who had shown them such kindness. Phocas himself   
   resolved their dilemma, by explaining that to die for his faith would be the   
   highest honour. He entreated them to carry out their duties, which they   
   eventually did. The kindly gardener was beheaded and buried in the grave of   
   his own making.   
      
   A cult surrounding the martyrdom of St. Phocas grew up, and his grave may   
   have become a place of pilgrimage. If so, then the church built in his   
   memory was probably built on the site of his death, and designed to   
   accommodate the needs of these early pilgrims. One of these needs was   
   baptism, hence the font. Analysis of the archaeological findings by Hill and   
   his team has revealed that the troubles of Phocas's putative church bear   
   comparison with those of the man himself. It appears that the church would   
   originally have been situated in a valley floor, subject to melt-water   
   flooding and landslides, and an unwise place to build at all.   
      
   Before its completion in the fourth century, an earthquake struck the region   
   and severely damaged much of the church's structure. A whole section of the   
   new building was abandoned, with the builders sealing up the doors and   
   windows and reinforcing the remaining walls.  The setbacks continued. The   
   intricate floor mosaic, which first alerted archaeologists to the site, was   
   completed by the builders but subsequently abandoned when a flood deposited   
   a thick layer of sediment over it. Then as the main part of the church was   
   being fitted with decorative sculptures and embellishments, a second   
   earthquake hit. Archaeological evidence for this comes from the remains of   
   the sculptures, which would have been fitted to the building before being   
   finely carved on site.   
      
   The unfinished works of art mark the abandonment of attempts to ever   
   complete the church as a place of worship.The remaining part of the church   
   was subsequently used as a pottery, although it was later subject to another   
   landslide. The porch of the church survived for some time, and appears to   
   have been used by opium smokers, who left behind poppy seeds and part of a   
   pipe some time in the middle ages.   
      
   The site now lies at the very edge of a cliff overlooking the Black Sea,   
   which has already claimed chunks of the precious mosaic. Hill reports that   
   sea defences he has applied appear to have reversed the erosion, and the sea   
   is now depositing material to protect the cliff, but Turkey's seismological   
   disturbances present another threat to the site - and a quandary for   
   archaeologists.   
      
   To dig or not to dig? Further parts of the structure currently lie under a   
   thick deposit of topsoil, which acts as good protection from future   
   earthquakes in the region. Hill is concerned that investigating this area   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)