Bishop Marianos with Virgin Mary with Child and Christ

The portrait of bishop Faras, Marianos, is one of the most beautiful and well-preserved portraits of ecclesiastical officials in Nubia. It was discovered on the eastern wall of the Southern Chapel, adjacent to the southern aisle of the cathedral. Numerous portrayals of Nubian clergymen on the walls of the Southern Chapel demonstrate that this room must have been a space of commemoration of local priests. Marianos (bishop of Faras in the years AD 1005–36) was depicted as a middle-aged man with olive complexion and a dark, wide and short beard. Most likely, he was an Egyptian sent to Faras by the Patriarch of Alexandria, the superior of the Nubian church who consecrated all bishops. The church official wearing flamboyant liturgical vestments stands between his patron saints: the Mother of God holding Infant Emmanuel with the Book of Gospels in Her arms and Christ pictured as an adult (only His fingers have remained, as seen on the right shoulder of the bishop, fragments of His cruciform halo, one foot and a scrap of a crimson gown).