Moutalaske

Town of ancient Cappadocia

Moutalaske (Greek: Μουταλάσκη, romanized: Moutalaskē) was a town of ancient Cappadocia, inhabited in Byzantine times.^[1] It was the birthplace of both Saint Sabas (439) and Saint Meletios (c. 1035).^[2] The former, during a visit to emperor Anastasios I in Constantinople, sent money back to his home village in Moutalaske to fund the construction of a church dedicated to the Saints Cosmas and Damian.^[3]

Its site is located near Talas, Asiatic Turkey,^[1]^[4] about 6 km east of Kayseri, at the steep escarpment of a high plateau 200 m above the Kayseri basin.^[3] There are traces of a troglodyte settlement here including a monastery dedicated to Panagia (its naos and part of its choir were preserved in the vineyards of Nea Moutalaske around 1900) and, according to Hans Rott, two cave chapels dedicated to Saints Georgios and Koimesis.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 63, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
^ Johannes Pahlitzsch (2019), "Byzantine Monasticism and the Holy Land: Palestine in Byzantine Hagiography of the 11th and 12th Centuries", in D. Bertaina et al. (eds.), Heirs of the Apostles: Studies on Arabic Christianity in Honor of Sidney H. Griffith (Leiden: Brill), pp. 231–255, at 243–245.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hild, Friedrich; Restle, Marcell (1981). Tabula Imperii Byzantini Bd. 2. Kappadokien (Kappadokia, Charsianon, Sebasteia, und Lykandos). Wien: Herbert Hunger. p. 242. ISBN 3700104014. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
^ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.