Doctors in the Choir: Healing Embodiment and Ingestion in Early Church Space

Holy physicians (anargyroi) dominate an eighth-century program of encaustic paintings in the Church of the Holy Virgin at the monastery of Deir al-Surian, yet the site is not known to have been nor included a healing sanctuary. This essay considers theological and therapeutic meanings of this program in relation to the anti-Julianist controversy as it related to healing nurture of Christ’s body, eucharistic theology, diverse narratives of medicine, the vulnerable body, and pious defacement of holy images. A brief comparison with the Chapel of the Physicians at Rome and an Egyptian cave church suggests that Deir al-Surian’s anargyroi program was not unique in late antique liturgical architecture.