Session 2: Sanctity through Martyrdom: Male and Female Martyrs Saints and Holy (Wo)Men in Byzantine Literature and Art Dr. Christodoulos PAPAVARNAVAS (Austrian Academy of Sciences) ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART The Agenda for the Day • Summary of the Previous Unit • The Concept of Martyrdom • Text and Image: Illustrated Byzantine Menologia  Symeon Metaphrastes and His Menologion  The Menologion of Emperor Basil II • Literary Analysis of Two Passions  The Passion of Polykarpos (BHG 1556-1560)  The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity (BHG 1482) • Other Cult Objects • Cult Places Devoted to Martyrs ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Summary of the Previous Unit • ‘Byzantine Hagiographical Literature’ (Term, Period, Object, Genres, and Context of Use) • Literariness • Bibliographical Tools  Acta Sanctorum  BHG and BHG Novum  Synaxarion of Constantinople  Analecta Bollandiana  Patrologia Graeca  Bibliotheca Sanctorum  The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography by S. Efthymiadis  The Cult of Saints Project: http://cultofsaints.history.ox.ac.uk/?page_id=2 ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART The Concept of Martyrdom Meanings of μαρτύριον / ‘Martyrion’ (= martyrdom): 1. the event/process of trial, torture, imprisonment and execution of a Christian person 2. the account of a martyr’s life (= ‘Passion’ or ‘Martyrdom Account’) – literary genre 3. the martyr’s shrine, i.e., church or chapel (engl. martyry) Acta vs. Passio Texts with liturgical, didactic and entertaining Individual Passions vs. Group Passions character μάρτυς / μάρτυρες (= martyrs): 1st meaning ‘witness’ 2nd meaning ‘martyr’, i.e., the saint who suffered martyrdom (late 2nd century) The martyr’s death and its meaning – holiness/sanctity Historical background of Passions: Persecutions of Christians in Roman Empire (41–313 AD), under Julian the Apostate (361–363 AD), during the iconoclastic era (8th-9th centuries), and during the Arab invasions (e.g., the fall of Amorion in 838) ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Text and Image: Illustrated Byzantine Menologia Symeon Metaphrastes and His Menologion ‘Menologion’ (μηνολόγιον = μήν, ‘month’ + λόγος, ‘catalog’): a collection of vitae arranged according to the date of each saint’s celebration in the church calendar. Symeon Metaphrastes (10th century): author of the ‘Metaphrastic Menologion’, a liturgical collection organized according to the church calendar, mainly consisting of stylistically and thematically reworked earlier hagiographical texts (148 in total). Hence, Symeon received the byname ‘Metaphrastes’, which means translator or reviser. Symeon Metaphrastes probably gathered the most popular stories of martyrs among the Byzantines (82 in total), who obtained even greater popularity through the mass circulation of his Menologion. Significance of his work: the enormous scale of his enterprise and the subsequent success C. HØGEL, Symeon Metaphrastes: Rewriting and Canonization, Copenhagen, 2002 ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Text and Image: Illustrated Byzantine Menologia Symeon Metaphrastes and His Menologion A great number of illustrated manuscripts includes the ‘Metaphrastic Menologion’, for example, the codex Add. 11870 in the British Library, London, which “is the most lavishly illustrated of all the surviving Metaphrastian Menologia” (Patterson Ševčenko 1990: 119). N. PATTERSON ŠEVČENKO, Illustrated Manuscripts of the Metaphrastian Menologion, Chicago – London, 1990 ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Text and Image: Illustrated Byzantine Menologia Symeon Metaphrastes and His Menologion Scenes from the Martyrdom of Eudoxios, Romylos, Zenon and Makarios of Melitene, Metaphrastic Menologion, 11th century (cod. Add. 11870, fol. 67r, British Library, London) (Patterson Ševčenko 1990: 120-121) ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Text and Image: Illustrated Byzantine Menologia Emperor Basil II and His “Menologion” (Vat. gr. 1613) This is the most lavishly illustrated Byzantine liturgical manuscript (ca. 430 illustrations), compiled around 1000 AD for Basil II (r. 976 –1025); one miniature on nearly every page. It currently resides in the Vatican Library (Vat. gr. 1613). The manuscript is in fact not a ‘menologion’, but a ‘synaxarion’: a liturgical book containing a list of the saints and their feast days with a short description of sixteen lines of text and a painting of a saint or grouping of saints. https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1613 ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Text and Image: Illustrated Byzantine Menologia Emperor Basil II and His “Menologion” (Vat. gr. 1613) A Scene of the Martyrdom of Lucian of Antioch, Menologion of Basil II, ca. 1000 AD (cod. Vatic. gr. 1613, fol. 115) (Digitalised ms. by Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana) ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Text and Image: Illustrated Byzantine Menologia Emperor Basil II and His “Menologion” Martyrdom of Agatha, Menologion of Basil II, ca. 1000 AD (cod. Vatic. gr. 1613, fol. 115)(Papavarnavas 2016: 73) ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Text and Image: Illustrated Byzantine Menologia Emperor Basil II and His “Menologion” Martyrdom of Melasippos, Karina, and their Son, Menologion of Basil II, ca. 1000 AD (cod. Vatic. gr. 1613, fol. 115) ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Depiction of Martyrdom in the 19th-Century Art Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824– 1904), “The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer”, The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, USA https://art.thewalters.org/detail/36782/the-christian-martyrs-last-prayer/ ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Literary Analysis of Two Passions The Passion of Polykarpos (BHG 1556-1560) • Contextualization of the text: author; place, time and characters of the story • Christian virtues of the protagonist • Similarities between the passion of Polykarpos and the passion of Christ  Imitatio Christi • “Caesar is lord” (p. 9) • The depiction of the Jews in the text • Phases of martyrdom • Audience: Intra-textual (bystanders) – extra-textual (listeners/readers) ©CHRISTODOULOS PAPAVARNAVAS SAINTS AND HOLY (WO)MEN IN BYZANTINE LITERATURE AND ART Literary Analysis of Two Passions The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity (BHG 1482) (See the PowerPoint Presentation of the next session.)