Sarepta (near modern
Sarafand,
Lebanon) was a
Phoenician city on the
Mediterranean coast between
Sidon and
Tyre, also known biblically as Zarephath. It became a bishopric, which faded, and remains a double (Latin and Maronite) Catholic
titular see.
Most of the objects by which Phoenician culture is characterised are those that have been recovered scattered among Phoenician colonies and trading posts; such carefully excavated colonial sites are in
Spain,
Sicily,
Sardinia and
Tunisia. The sites of many Phoenician cities, like Sidon and Tyre, by contrast, are still occupied, unavailable to archaeology except in highly restricted chance sites, usually much disturbed. Sarepta[1] is the exception, the one Phoenician city in the heartland of the culture that has been unearthed and thoroughly studied.
History
Sarepta is mentioned for the first time in the voyage of an Egyptian in the 14th century BCE.[2]Obadiah says it was the northern boundary of
Canaan: “And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath (Heb. צרפת), and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the south.”[3] The medieval lexicographer, David ben Abraham Al-Alfāsī, identifies Zarephath with the city of Ṣarfend (Judeo-Arabic: צרפנדה).[4] Originally Sidonian, the town passed to the Tyrians after the invasion of
Shalmaneser IV, 722 BCE. It fell to
Sennacherib in 701 BCE.
Zarephath (צרפת ṣārĕfáṯ, tsarfát; Σάρεπτα, Sárepta) in Hebrew became the
eponym for any
smelter or
forge, or
metalworking shop. In the 1st century CE, the Roman Sarepta, a port about 1 km (0.62 mi) to the south[6] is mentioned by
Josephus[7] and by
Pliny the Elder.[8]
Sarepta is the location of a Shia shrine to
Abu Dhar al-Ghifari, a Companion of
Muhammad. The shrine is believed to have been built at least several centuries after Abu Dhar's death.[9]
After the Islamization of the area, in 1185, the
Greekmonk Phocas, making a gazetteer of the
Holy Land (De locis sanctis, 7), found the town almost in its ancient condition. A century later, according to
Burchard of Mount Sion, it was in ruins and contained only seven or eight houses.[10] Even after the
Crusader states had collapsed, the
Roman Catholic Church continued to appoint purely
titular bishops of Sarepta, the most noted being Thomas of Wroclaw who held the post from 1350 until 1378.[11]
Sarepta as a Christian city was mentioned in the Itinerarium Burdigalense; the Onomasticon of
Eusebius and in
Jerome; by Theodosius and Pseudo-Antoninus who, in the 6th century call it a small town but very Christian.[12] It contained at that time a church dedicated to St. Elias (Elijah). The Notitia episcopatuum, a list of bishoprics made in Antioch in the 6th century, speaks of Sarepta as a suffragan
see of Tyre; all of its bishops are unknown.
Titular sees
The diocese was nominally restored as
titular see, twice: in Latin and Maronite (
Eastern Catholic) traditions.
Nicolas Bureau, O.F.M. (1519.12.02 – death 1551) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Diocese of Tournai (Belgium) (1519.12.02 – 1551)
Guillaume Hanwere (1552.04.27 – 1560) as Auxiliary Bishop of above Tournai (Belgium) (1552.04.27 – 1560)
Johannes Kaspar Stredele 'Austrian) (1631.12.15 – death 1642.12.28) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Diocese of Passau (
Bavaria, Germany) (1631.12.15 – 1642.12.28)
Wojciech Ignacy Bardziński (1709.01.28 – death 1722?) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Diocese of Kujawy–Pomorze (Poland) (1709.01.28 – 1722?)
Charles-Antoine de la Roche-Aymon (1725.06.11 – 1730.10.02) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Diocese of Limoges (France) (1725.06.11 – 1730.10.02); later Bishop of
Tarbes (France) ([1729.12.27] 1730.10.02 – 1740.11.11), Metropolitan Archbishop of
Toulouse (France) ([1740.01.10] 1740.11.11 – 1752.12.18), Metropolitan Archbishop of
Narbonne (France) ([1752.10.02] 1752.12.18 – 1763.01.24), Metropolitan Archbishop of
Reims (France) ([1762.12.05] 1763.01.24 – death 1777.10.27), created
Cardinal-Priest with no Title assigned (1771.12.16 – 1777.10.27)
Johann Anton Wallreuther (1731.03.05 – 1734.01.16) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Diocese of Worms (Germany) (1731.03.05 – 1734.01.16)
Jean de Cairol de Madaillan (1760.01.28 – 1770.01.29) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Narbonne (France) (1760.01.28 – ?); later Bishop of
Vence (France) (1770.01.29 – 1771.12.16), Bishop of
Grenoble (France) (1771.12.16 [1772.01.23] – 1779.12.10)
Jean-Denis de Vienne (1775.12.18 – death 1800) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Lyon (France) (1775.12.18 – 1800)
Alois Jozef Krakowski von Kolowrat (1800.12.22 – 1815.03.15) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Olomouc (Olomütz,
Moravia, now Czech Republic) (1800.12.22 – 1815.03.15), Bishop of
Hradec Králové (now Czech Republic) (1815.03.15 – 1831.02.28), Metropolitan Archbishop of
Archdiocese of Praha (Prague,
Bohemia, now Czech Republic) (1831.02.28 – death 1833.03.28)
Johann Heinrich Milz (1825.12.19 – death 1833.04.29) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Trier (Germany) (1825.12.19 – 1833.04.29)
Johann Stanislaus Kutowski (1836.02.01 – death 1848.12.29) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Diocese of Chełmno (Kulm, Poland) (1836.02.01 – 1848.12.29)
Franz Xaver Zenner (1851.02.17 – death 1861.10.29) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Wien (Vienna, Austria) (1851.02.17 – 1861.10.29)
Nicholas Power (1865.04.30 – death 1871.04.05) as
Coadjutor Bishop of
Killaloe (Ireland) (1865.04.30 – 1871.04.05)
Jean-François Jamot (1874.02.03 – 1882.07.11) as only
Apostolic Vicar of
Northern Canada (Canada) (1874.02.03 – 1882.07.11); next (see) promoted first Bishop of
Peterborough (Canada) (1882.07.11 – death 1886.05.04)
Antonio Scotti (1882.09.25 – 1886.01.15) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Benevento (Italy) (1882.09.25 – 1886.01.15); next Bishop of
Alife (Italy) (1886.01.15 – retired 1898.03.24), emeritate as Titular Bishop of
Tiberiopolis (1898.03.24 – death 1919.06.10)
Paulus Palásthy (1886.05.04 – death 1899.09.24) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Esztergom (
Hungary) (1886.05.04 – 1899.09.24)
Filippo Genovese (Italian) (1900.12.17 – death 1902.12.16), no actual prelature
Joseph Müller (1903.04.30 – death 1921.03.21) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Köln (Cologne, Germany) (1903.04.30 – 1921.03.21)
Edward Doorly (1923.04.05 – 1926.07.17) as Coadjutor Bishop of
Elphin (Ireland) (1923.04.05 – succession 1926.07.17); next Bishop of Elphin (1926.07.17 – 1950.04.05)
Petar Dujam Munzani (1926.08.13 – 1933.03.16) as
Apostolic Administrator of
Archdiocese of Zadar (
Croatia) (1926.08.13 – succession 1933.03.16); later Archbishop of Zadar (
Croatia) (1933.03.16 – retired 1948.12.11), emeritate as Titular Archbishop of
Tyana (1948.12.11 – death 1951.01.28)
François-Louis Auvity (1933.06.02 – 1937.08.14) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Bourges (France) (1933.06.02 – 1937.08.14); later Bishop of
Mende (France) (1937.08.14 – retired 1945.09.11), emeritate as Titular Bishop of
Dionysiana (1945.09.11 – death 1964.02.15)
Luis Andrade Valderrama,
Friars Minor (O.F.M.) (1955.03.09 – 1977.06.29)
Archaeology
A
Heavy Neolithic archaeological site of the
Qaraoun culture that pre-dated Sarepta by several thousand years was discovered at Sarafand by
Hajji Khalaf. He made a collection of material and passed it to the
National Museum of Beirut. It consisted of an
assemblage of large flakes and
bifaces in
Eoceneflint. Some
piebald flint blades were also found along with
hammerstones in
Nummuliticlimestone that resemble finds from
Aadloun II (Bezez Cave), which is located 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) to the South. Khalaf also found a well-made
adze and a narrow, slightly polished
chisel. A collection in the National Museum of Beirut marked "Jezzine ou Sarepta" consisted of around twelve neatly made
discoid- and
tortoise-cores in
cherty flint of a cream colour with a tinge of red.[14]
The low
tell on the seashore was excavated by
James B. Pritchard over five years from 1969 to 1974.
[15][16]
Civil war in Lebanon put an end to the excavations.
The site of the ancient town is marked by the
ruins on the shore to the south of the modern village, about eight miles to the south of Sidon, which extend along the shore for a mile or more. They are in two distinct groups, one on a headland to the west of a fountain called ‛Ain el-Ḳantara, which is not far from the shore. Here was the ancient harbor which still affords shelter for small craft. The other group of ruins, to the south, consists of
columns,
sarcophagi and marble slabs, indicating a city of considerable importance.
Pritchard's excavations revealed many artifacts of daily life in the ancient Phoenician city of Sarepta: pottery workshops and
kilns, artifacts of daily use and religious figurines, numerous inscriptions that included some in
Ugaritic.
Pillar worship is traceable from an 8th-century shrine of
Tanit-Ashtart, and a seal with the city's name made the identification secure. The local Bronze Age-Iron Age stratigraphy was established in detail; absolute dating depends in part on correlations with Cypriote and Aegean stratigraphy.
The climax of the Sarepta discoveries at Sarafand is the cult shrine of "
Tanit/
Astart", who is identified in the site by an inscribed votive ivory plaque, the first identification of Tanit in her homeland. The site revealed figurines, further carved ivories,
amulets and a cultic mask.[17]
In
Hebrew after the
Diaspora, the name צרפת, ts-r-f-t,
Tsarfat (Zarephath) is used to mean
France, perhaps because the Hebrew letters ts-r-f, if reversed, become f-r-ts.[18] That usage is retained in daily use in contemporary Hebrew.
^Monachus Borchardus, Descriptio Terrae sanctae, et regionum finitarum, vol. 2, pp. 9, 1593
^Piotr Górecki, Parishes, Tithes and Society in Earlier Medieval Poland c. 1100-c. 1250, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, vol. 83, no. 2, pp. i-ix+1-146, 1993
^James B. Pritchard, SAREPTA. A Preliminary Report on the Iron Age. Excavations of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, 1970-72. With contributions by William P. Anderson; Ellen Herscher; Javier Teixidor, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1975,
ISBN0-934718-24-5
^James B. Pritchard, Sarepta in History and Tradition, in J. Reumann (ed.). Understanding the Sacred Text: Essays in honor of Morton S. Enslin on the Hebrew Bible and Christian beginnings, pp. 101-114, Judson Press, 1972,
ISBN0-8170-0487-4
^Amadasi Guzzo, Maria Giulia. “Two Phoenician Inscriptions Carved in Ivory: Again the Ur Box and the Sarepta Plaque.” Orientalia 59, no. 1 (1990): 58–66.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43075770.
Pritchard, James B. Recovering Sarepta, a Phoenician City: Excavations at Sarafund, 1969-1974, University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania (Princeton: Princeton University Press) 1978,
ISBN0-691-09378-4
William P. Anderson, Sarepta I: The late bronze and Iron Age strata of area II.Y : the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania excavations at Sarafand, Lebanon (Publications de l'Universite libanaise), Département des publications de l'Universite Libanaise, 1988
Issam A. Khalifeh, Sarepta II: The Late Bronze and Iron Age Periods of Area Ii.X, University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, 1988,
ISBN99943-751-5-6
Robert Koehl, Sarepta III: the Imported Bronze & Iron Age, University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, 1985,
ISBN99943-751-7-2
James B. Pritchard, Sarepta IV: The Objects from Area Ii.X, University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, 1988,
ISBN99943-751-9-9
Lloyd W. Daly, A Greek-Syllabic Cypriot Inscription from Sarafand, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 40, pp. 223–225, 1980
Dimitri Baramki, A Late Bronze Age tomb at Sarafend, ancient Sarepta, Berytus, vol. 12, pp. 129–42, 1959
Charles Cutler Torrey, The Exiled God of Sarepta, Berytus, vol. 9, pp. 45–49, 1949