• from Dostourian (1993:84-86)
• Part II Section 2

2. In the year 502 of the Armenian era [1053-1054] a fearful and horrible omen appeared and a very calamitous event took place in the city of Antioch. This phenomenon, which seemed awe-inspiring and marvelous to those observing it, appeared inside the sun. The phenomenon became an awful sign and a cause of perturbation for all the Christian faithful, to whom God by violent threats now manifested his fearful judgement. The cause of this calamity was the following. In the city of Antioch there were many Syrians who had gold and silver, and possessed wealth and all types of affluence. When their children went to the church of their faith,¹ five hundred boys seated on mules went forth. [Because of all this] the Romans were very envious and harbored a deep hatred against them. Now one of the important personages of the Syrian nation possessed many slaves, and this became the pretext for bringing him to trial before the Roman patriarch.² [Threatening him] with an [unfavorable] verdict, the Romans converted him to their faith and by his own volition rebaptized him. Thus this important personage, who had forsaken his faith, now became an enemy to the great Syrian nation.

Also at that time the Syrians were subjected to many difficulties because they were beginning to get into controversies with the Romans concerning their faith every day.³ The Romans became so insolent that they were not even conscious of their actions for the patriarch went so far as to order the [Syriac] Christian Gospels burned. When they placed the Gospels of God in the fire, a voice came forth from the Gospels and they escaped the flames of the fire. They put the Gospels in the fire a second time, and once again [the Gospels] escaped the flames of the fire. Indeed, becoming enraged, they insolently dropped the Holy Gospels into the fire for the third time, and once again [the Gospels] came out unharmed. When they repeated this act for the fourth time, then the Holy Gospels ignited in the midst of the fire; in this way the Holy Gospels of Christ, our God, were burned by the Romans in the city of Antioch. Now, when the Roman patriarch and all his people returned to the church from the spot where the burning had taken place, they were filled with great exultation, as if they had been victorious over a wicked enemy. When they entered the Church of Saint Peter, the whole place resounded with a crashing noise, and a violent tremor shook the entire city of Antioch. On another day fire fell upon the Church of Saint Peter from heaven, and like a lamp the entire church flared up from its foundations. The stone burned like a woodpile, and the rising flames reached up to the sky. The ground of the sanctuary was torn open, and the sacramental table sunk into the hole made there; the bright gem which the emperor Constantine⁴ had placed in Saint Peter, along with two hundred thousand pieces of gold which had always remained upon the holy altar to serve as a light during the night, was swallowed up by the earth and never found again. Four other [Roman] churches were burned by this fire from heaven along with Saint Peter, but no church of the Armenians or Syrians was harmed.

When this happened, the inhabitants of the whole city of Antioch were horror-struck and stood in fear and trembling. Then everyone began to pray, all the inhabitants of the city weeping and with heavy groans beseeching God. The Roman patriarch went forth, accompanied by priests, deacons, other clerics, and a great crowd of men and women, including old people and children; they processed through the city, dressed in ecclesiastical garb and carrying magnificent religious objects. When they reached the parade grounds of the Romans at the place where a small bridge was built over a mountain torrent, the whole ground suddenly reverberated, and there occurred an earthquake in the middle of the day at the sixth hour. At that moment the earth was torn apart and, opening wide, swallowed up the entire crowd of clergy and people into its depths, more than ten thousand persons. For fifteen days the sounds of their cries came forth from the depths of the abysses. Finally they suffocated, for the earth closed over them, and to this day they remain buried there. Thus, because of their many sins, the inhabitants of the city of Antioch suffered these calamities at the hands of God, the righteous judge. It is not even worth remembering the wicked deeds which the ecclesiastics and the Greek faithful of all ranks committed in the city of Antioch. The smoke of their wicked deeds rose higher than that of Sodom and Gomorrah,⁵ and thus their fate proved that they indeed deserved the punishment they received. For in Sodom and Gomorrah the fire came down in order to kill the evildoers, while in the sinful city of Antioch the same evildoers were exterminated and killed by fire and abysses opening up; yet the inhabitants of this city still persisted in their impious beliefs. Professing piety, they nevertheless performed the deeds of unfaithful and wicked men, for they took delight in impure acts which are odious to hear and very disgusting to relate. What shall I say of these evildoers when the Savior considered it a grave sin for us to even look at a woman? Moreover, what shall I say of the rampant sodomy, a sin for which the Lord himself made the city of Antioch pay the penalty ?⁶

Footnotes

1. Matthew is referring here to the Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) church as opposed to the Byzantine Orthodox church.

2. The Byzantine Orthodox patriarch of Antioch.

3. There were various doctrinal and ritual differences between the two churches. Cf. sec. 30, n. 3.

4. Constantine I (324-337) under whom Christianity became a legalized religion in the Roman empire.

5. Cf. Genesis 19.

6. The Armenian historian Vardan Vardapet corroborates Matthew's account of the earthquake of Antioch, although differing in a few minor details and giving a much shorter account. Vardan states that, because of the earthquake, ten thousand people died, including the Greek patriarch. He also says that four attempts were made to burn the Syriac Gospels, the fifth attempt succeeding, and compares the whole incident to Christ's crucifixion by the Jews

• from Ambraseys (2009)

In the year 502 [8 March 1053 to 7 March 1054] a terrifying sign appeared in the city of Antioch, a portent of mass destruction which was made manifest by divine wrath . . . [Disputes between Roman and Syrian Christians: the Latin patriarch of Antioch and his clergy burn the Syrian gospels publicly and return rejoicing to St Peter’s church.] When they had returned, a terrible crash shook the entire building, and a violent earthquake shook the whole city. On another day the fire of heaven fell on St Peter’s, and the church became like a brazier and was overturned . . . The floor of the sanctuary opened, and the altar of the Holy Sacrifice was swallowed up into the depths of the earth . . . Forty other churches belonging to the Romans were consumed by the lightning along with St Peter’s, whereas those of the Armenians and the Syrians suffered no damage . . . [The people do public penance, led by the Latin patriarch and his clergy.] When they [the penitential procession] reached Hor’om-Meidan [“the place of the Romans”], at the place where the little bridge is, built on the mountain torrents, the earth suddenly roared, and an earthquake was felt. This was in the middle of the day, towards the sixth hour. At the same moment the earth opened, uncovering the abysses, and it swallowed up the patriarch, the priests and all the crowd, which came to a total of 10,000 people. For a fortnight plaintive cries issued from this chasm: then those wretches were suffocated when the earth closed up over them: and they stayed buried. (Matth. Edess. 95–97).