Relics in Context: Material and Literary Traces of Martyr Veneration in Ephesus

During the Early Byzantine period, Ephesus emerged as a pivotal centre of Christianity in Asia Minor, profoundly shaped by the veneration of local saints and their relics. While scholarly attention has traditionally focused on the city's monumental architecture, the cult practices surrounding martyrs and relics offer equally compelling insights into the religious transformation of this metropolitan hub. This paper addresses a notable gap in current scholarship by examining the multifaceted evidence for martyr veneration in Ephesus, moving beyond the well-documented cases of Timothy and the Seven Sleepers. This study adopts an interdisciplinary methodology, integrating literary sources with archaeological evidence. Following a chronological framework from the earliest Christian centuries through the inception of the Byzantine era, the paper systematically re-examines individual cases of martyrs and relics attested in textual sources, critically assessing whether—and how—these accounts find corroboration in the archaeological record. Hagiographical texts, martyrologies, and pilgrimage accounts are analyzed alongside material remains—including reliquaries, cult installations, and martyria—to evaluate the correspondence between literary tradition and physical evidence. By situating relics within their specific topographical, architectural, and social contexts, this paper demonstrates how the veneration of martyrs fundamentally reconfigured Ephesus's sacred geography. The analysis reveals that martyr cult in Ephesus was not merely a passive reception of universal Christian practices, but rather a dynamic process of local appropriation and innovation. This contextualized approach ultimately contributes to broader discussions concerning the role of relics in shaping Early Byzantine urbanism and the complex relationship between belief, material culture, and spatial practice in the nascent Christian world.