BOSTRA. – A city of the Hawrân, ancient capital of the Roman province of Arabia established by Trajan in the year 106. Christianity was introduced there very early: it already had a bishop in the 3rd century, and Origen visited it twice. Its bishop Titus wrote against Mani, a work now lost. It still preserves many important ruins from the Roman period, as well as those of a large Christian church; an inscription tells us that it was dedicated to SS. Sergius and Bacchus and that it had been built under the archbishop Julian in the year 407 (era of B.), in the sixth indiction: hence between September 512 and March 513. The early publications of Rey, de Vogüé, and H. C. Butler give an erroneous idea of it; recent excavations have brought its actual form to light, namely that of a rotunda inscribed within a square and
having at its centre a quatrefoil structure formed by piers and columns (cf. J. W. Crowfoot, Churches at B. and Samaria-Sebase, British School of Archaeal, in Jerusalem, Supplementary Paper, 4, 1937).
It is a ground plan related to that of the Armenian church of Zwarthnotz, S. Lorenzo in Milan, and the recently discovered churches of Apamea and Antioch; all are connected with the type of building erected in the centre of Hadrian’s stoa at Athens, which may perhaps have been a church. The type of roofing of the church remains an unresolved problem: probably the central part was covered by a wooden dome, like the Anastasis of Jerusalem, the “new” church of Jerusalem built by Justinian and described by Procopius. The church was decorated with frescoes and mosaics. Ugo Monneret de Villard
At B. the Catholic episcopate was re-established in 1687. The succession of bishops has been uninterrupted since 1836. The metropolitan resides in Damascus or at Habab, where the most important parish is located. There are 5,700 faithful, 22 places of worship, 10 churches, 14 priests, and 27 schools.
Guglielmo de Vries