Ideo in honore dupucatus est locus
Authors: Cambi Nenad 
Published: September 2018

As early as 1846. a significant inscription of the Bishop and confessor Maurus has been found in the altar of the Euphrasius' cathedral in Poreč (Parentium). In spite of many papers and studies dedicated to this epigraph all problems have not yet been solved. Especially wrong is the explanation of the last sentence which is the theme of this paper. But, in order to achieve the aim, it is necessary to take into consideration complete inscription and its context.The epigraph consists of four sentences of two lines each. The last sentence is incomplete, since its second line was chiselled out, except for zhe word actus. It is very important to bear in mind that the inscription is of sepulchral character.The word cubile in the first line was not very well understood. The author emphasizes that, bearing in mind the poetic way of the style, this word must be the substitution for the word sarcophagus. It is more probable since it is a fragment of a late antique sarcophagus. The second sentence is quite clear. The third speaks about the solemn translation of the Maurus' corpse on the place where he was elected bishop and where he suffered for the faith and became confessor. Most scholars thaught that the meaning of confessor and martyr must have been the same even in the 4th century. The author assumes that only the original meaning of the word could come in question, since the same word was twice mentioned. Confessors in contrast to martyrs survived persecutions and therefore were less honoured. Obviously the citizens of Parentium would not do such a confusion for their bishop, if he was really a martyr.The last sentence was usually thought to reffer to a new church which was attached to the older one (basilicae geminatae) in honour of the translation of Maurus' body from the cemetery to the cathedral. The word locus was thought to be the sinonym for the ecclesia. Only D. Rendić-Miočević had slightly different opinion. He emphasized the position and significance of the syntagma in honore, and supposed that honour of Maurus was duplicated, but not locus, i. e. ecclesia. Also for him locus is ecclesia.The author of this paper, starting from the sepulchral context of the inscription, points out that word locus in this regard means burial or burial with the belonging area. Locus signifies, especially in Christian terminology, holy burial (locus sanctus). So the meaning of the sentence must be that the Maurus' burial was doubled. How could a burial be doubled? But it is very simple. With translation Maurus got two burials: the original in the cemetery, the second one in the cathedral. It was quite normal for saints to have two or even more loca sancta. Such a situation should be noticed for example in Salona, where Anastasius burial was moved from his mausoleum in the southern church on the same site, but both functioned simultaneously. Maurus even nowdays has two burials. One in Rome, in the Lateran oratory near the Lateran baptistery and the other in the Poreč cathedral. The same is with Salonitan martyrs who have burials in the Split cathedral and in the same chapel in Lateran.So the word locus is not sinonym for ecclesia (church), but it means, as usual, the saints' burial. The author dated the epitaph in the 5th century and correlated it with the second phase of the Poreč cathedral.