Reburial of the Holy Twelve

As I write this on Tuesday evening, it’s Wednesday morning in Israel, and the group is heading up the hill. It’s the first time all month that I REALLY AND TRULY wish I were digging with the group at Hippos this year. Unlike Nancy, who’s pinning away in Nebraska, and Linda, Arny, Jim, Glenn, Marc, Andrea, and Kristina (all repeat volunteers), I did not catch the archaeology bug during my first experience. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but the truth is, I probably have more thoroughly enjoyed my last three weeks state-side than I would have digging in Israel. I’ve been to NYC with a friend, had meals with good friends each week I’ve been home alone, and later this week will travel to Valparaiso for the Regular Annual Meeting of the Lutheran Deaconess Conference. While there, I’ll celebrate the 30th anniversary of my consecration as a deaconess.

But RIGHT NOW I wish I were in Israel, for at sunrise on Wednesday morning Israeli time, the Hippos group will celebrate a brief ritual as they rebury the remains of “the holy twelve,” as Mark has dubbed the remains dug up during the last 2 seasons from the burial chamber in the chancel. The anthropologist’s report is complete, and she determined that at least 12 people had been buried there (3 in the stone sarcophagus and 9 underneath it, predating the burial of the sarcophagus in the chamber). Last weekend I pirated materials from funeral rites on the Greek Orthodox Church in America web site and compiled a reburial service. Section of text were rearranged and reworded to fit the situation, but at its core the brief rite has as its origin Greek Orthodox funeral rituals, which is only appropriate for the reburial of Byzantine Christians.

This hymn says far more poetically why I wish I were at Hippos today:

Rejoice in those saints, unpraised and unknown,
who bear someone’s cross, or shoulder their own;
they share our complaining, our comforts, our cares:
what patience in caring, what courage is theirs!

Rejoice in God’s saints today and all days!
A world without saints forgets how to praise.
In loving, in living, they prove it is true:
their way of self-giving, Lord, leads us to you.