Saint Simeon ordered them to observe three nights of vigils and prayers, and to erect stelae adorned with crosses at the four cardinal points, “at the edge of each village”. On each of these steles “you will make three crosses”, he had specified. These crosses, we still find them in their forked, bicorn or tricorn form, scattered throughout the region.
The history of Mount Lebanon in the 5th century is told in a Syriac manuscript from this period. Written in beautiful Estranguelo characters (Syriac square) on parchment, it is now kept in the Vatican Library under the Vat code. Syr. 160. To remedy the shortcomings that handicap the history of the Lebanese High Middle Ages, Father Antonin Jean Sader studied this manuscript and its discoveries in medieval Maronite sites. His adventure brought together philology and archeology in a world of wild beasts, prayer vigils, stelae and fire. In this romantic story, the missing link between pagan Phoenicia and Christian Lebanon reappeared.
The manuscript Wat. Syr. 160
Father Jean Sader collected his findings in his book Crosses and symbols in ancient Maronite art. He presented the Syriac manuscript 160 from the Vatican and its relationship to the early Christian crosses of the 5th century found across the mountains and valleys of Lebanon. This manuscript had been brought back from the East by the Maronite scholar Joseph Simon Assémani who made a presentation of it in Latin in his Oriental Library. In 1715, Évode Assémani analyzed it in his Catalog, focusing more particularly on the first 79 folios that he published in Syriac and Latin. After the 77 folios entitled The Miracles of Saint Simeon, the second part (folios 77 to 79) consists of a letter from the priest Cosmas of Phanar. Évode Assémani then considers him the main informant on the conversion of the population of Mount Lebanon.
The manuscript indeed mentions a crucial event which had taken place around a certain Syriac stylite, Shemun of Estouno, that is to say Saint Simeon. The facts took place in the 5th century, in the Provincia Syria of the Romans, in the north of Lebanon. For 37 years, Saint Simeon had lived there isolated at the top of his 18m high column. Pilgrims came from all over to consult him and receive his blessings. The manuscript precisely tells the story of a population from the mountains of Phenicia, begging the saint to deliver them from the scourge that afflicted them. Desperate, these people related their misfortunes at the foot of the column, with terrifying details on which the scribe dwells at length here.
The surge of wild animals
He then writes, in his text spread over two columns, that “a considerable crowd arrived from Lebanon, at the saint’s house. They informed him about the wild beasts that had appeared throughout Mount Lebanon They attacked the inhabitants, killed them and devoured them. Throughout the country arose lamentations and cries of pain. It was said that every day and in each mountain village, two or three people were devoured. “.
The story then displays the most frightening images, describing “the beasts with their manes in the wind” pushing “mournful howls”, sometimes even “bursting into houses”, and tearing young children from their mothers’ arms. for the “devour before them”. Everywhere, we read, arose “endless groans and lamentations”.
The four stelae
For the holy Stylite, all these misfortunes had befallen Lebanon because of the idolatry of its inhabitants. “You have abandoned the one who created you… and you have taken refuge with mute idols”, he retorted before telling them to do penance and promising him to receive baptism. What he will ask them to do next will forever be part of their customs and will have an impact on the artistic and architectural heritage of Lebanon.
Saint Simeon ordered them to observe three nights of vigils and prayers and to erect stelae adorned with crosses at the four cardinal points, “at the edge of each village”. On each of these steles “you will make three crosses”, he had specified. We still find these crosses in their forked, bicorn or tricorn form, scattered throughout the region, often reused in the masonry of churches and monasteries.
The manuscript then tells us that “the beasts have ceased their attacks on men made in the image of God”, and that conversions were taking place in great numbers. Whole crowds went to the holy Stylite to receive baptism.
It is likely that the earthquakes of the 5th century could have caused an ecological imbalance, causing wild beasts to prey on humans in inhabited areas. These stories of wild beasts are still transmitted by the oral tradition of popular legends. It is also possible that the gatherings of watchmen in prayer, and especially the fires lit in the middle of the crowds and in the squares, could have frightened the animals which would have withdrawn towards the remote valleys. Nothing is less certain today, but what leaves no doubt is that the populations actually converted to Christianity in the 5th century, and that the stelae were indeed erected and engraved with their crosses.
The forked crosses
Most of these stelae were reused as lintels and jambs for church doors. Sometimes located inside buildings, some ended up disappearing in the Middle Ages under the coating of frescoes. But this tradition was strongly perpetuated, going so far as to engrave crosses on the exterior lintels of peasant and bourgeois houses. Later, the crosses were hung on the inner side, above the entrance doors, to retain their protective power.
The crosses found are forked and of roughly the same dimensions, being able to fit into circles 20 to 30 centimeters in diameter. The most common end with two or three horns on each branch. The bicorn type can be considered as the main element of this early Christian art. From these crosses, which became widespread in the 5th century to be able, according to legend, to defy death, a whole symbolist tradition developed.
These symbols have three purposes. The first was for the salvation of a population threatened by beasts. The second consisted simply of tributes paid to hermits and saints in the form of ex-votos during pilgrimages. The third is the result of tradition, which at later times takes up signs that have become stereotyped. But, in all these cases, they provide protection, as Jules Leroy pointed out. Because the latter had noted in the Syriac inscriptions which accompany them, the meaning explicitly given to the cross. These inscriptions, he noted, “in you we will overcome our enemies, the victorious cross“ or “in you is our hope“leave no doubt about their protective value.
