Basilique Majorum (Félicité et Perpétue)

The basilica Majorum also called "of Mcfida" is a basilica Christian Tunisian ruins located away from the archaeological site of Carthage . The site, which has delivered many Christian inscriptions including the Martyrs' mention mentioning the saints Perpetual and Felicity , is now abandoned due to the very poor state of conservation of the remains and its distance from the other remains of the city. The place is used as a cemetery pagan from the i st century . An inscription was found there, mentioning the presence of the bodies of the martyrs , whom we know from a text by Victor de Vita that they were buried in the said basilica [ 1 ] . Saint Augustine preached several sermons there Furthermore, a text by the same Victor de Vita tells us that the church was requisitioned by the Vandals and intended for Arian worship , the building being restored to Catholicism in a certain way in the Byzantine period . The abandonment of this place turned out at the beginning of vii th century , due to the narrowing of the urban fabric in its immediate environment [ 3 ] . It was excavated between 1906 and 1908 by Father Alfred Louis Delattre , covered and then released for the Eucharistic Congress in 1930 [ 5 ] . Its state of conservation is very poor [ 6 ] . The discovery of the Martyrs' registration made it possible to identify it, following a text by Victor de Vita , at the Basilica Majorum , place of deposition of the martyred saints in 203 The complex was important: the basilica proper was located in an area [What?] With an apse and had seven naves and an apse. A ciborium was located in the middle of the central nave, with an altar situated above a funerary chapel which sheltered the martyrs [ 7 ] . Surcreusée by the excavations, it does not present any more but barrels of columns and some remaining walls, not very impressive. Father Delattre had already noted his poor condition, which he said was due to the re-use of materials in neighboring dwellings [ 8 ] , in particular for La Marsa and Sidi Bou Saïd [ 5 ] . The building can no longer be studied according to Noël Duval [ 5 ] . All that remains is the reconstruction dating from the 1930s, identical to an element of the site, the Confession of Martyrs [ 7 ] fitted with two lateral staircases. -from Wikipedia