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Political ‘expedience’ and peripheral saints: assimilating St. Asteios of Dyrrachion in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Anna Christidou*
Affiliation:
Central European University, Budapest

Abstract

Nearly twenty years after Antony Bryer raised St. Asteios of Dyrrachion from obscurity this article aspires to shed more light on the significance of this little-known saint. Despite the paucity of archaeological evidence, hagiographic texts help reconstruct and contextualize the steps in the institutionalization of a local martyr that appear to reflect the strategic importance of the city. The limited imagery of St. Asteios, including his unexplored portrait from the church of the Saviour at Rubik in modern Albania, are also used to substantiate his emblematic function as the local model of a Christian martyr-hero and, more importantly, his visual ‘identification’ with the city of Dyrrachion.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2014

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References

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48 Høgel, Symeon Metaphrastes, 69-70, 127-9.

49 Høgel, Symeon Metaphrastes, 31-6.

50 Gregory, A History of Byzantium, 157.

51 See note 9.

52 Tomadakes, “Ιωσήφ’, 77-8.

53 Kazhdan, ‘Constantinopolitan Synaxarion’, 485-515.

54 Høgel, Symeon Metapbrastes, 55.

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56 Commemorated with his co-martyrs on 17 June: AASS, June, III (Antwerp 1701) 287-8.

57 Tomadakes, “Ιωσήφ’, 170.

58 Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Ίεροσολυμιτική Βιβλιοθήκη, 118 and 124. The liturgy is also preserved in Patm. Ms. 806A: Papaeliopoulou-Fotopoulou, E., Ταμεΐον Άνεκδότων Βυζαντινων Άσματικων (Athens 1996) 220 Google Scholar.

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60 The Synaxarion places it on 7 July while the Menologion puts is on 6 July, the same day as St. Asteios.

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66 See note 2.

67 Commemorated on 16 January: Synaxarion, 397; MPG 117, col. 261-2.

68 Høgel, Symeon Metaphrastes, 59.

69 For St. Ursikios (commemorated on 15 August): Synaxarion, 892; MPG, 117, cols. 585-6. For Sts. Floros and Lauros (commemorated on 18 August): Tomadakes, “Ιωσήφ’, 184; Synaxarion, 907; MPG, 117, col. 589-90. For the ‘narrowed geography’ in post-iconoclastic hagiography: Efthymiadis, ‘Dark Age’, 96.

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72 Vestiges survive on the arched entrance, the bare edges of the south wall, the north-west corner, the north wall and the ceiling of the west alcove. The programme of the ceiling is partly reconstructed: Dhamo, Dh., ‘Konsiderata mbi zhvillimin a mosaikut Paleokristian ne Shqipëri’, Iliria 16/1 (1986) 311-19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Busschausen, , ‘Durazzo’, 7 Google Scholar; Bowes, K. and Mitchell, J., ‘The main chapel of the Dürres amphitheatre, decoration and chronology’, Mélanges de l’école française de Rome 121/1 (2009) 571-97, esp. 580-1Google Scholar.

73 Bryer, ‘Saint Asteios’, 42; Busschausen, ‘Durazzo’, 9-11. The chapel at Salona supersedes a gladiatorial sanctuary dedicated to Nemesis-Fortuna, the patroness of gladiators: Dyggve, E., Recherches à Salone, II (Copenhagen 1933) 35150 Google Scholar; idem, History ofSalonitan Christianity (Oslo 1951) 5-11; Ceci, E., l Monumenti Cristiani di Salona (Milan 1963) 241-3Google Scholar.

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84 See note 27.

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86 Bryer, ‘Saint Asteios’, 44; Bowes and Mitchell, ‘Main chapel’, 593-4.

87 See note 1.

88 See note 2.

89 The late antique walls follow the line of the pre-imperial and imperial defences: Gutteridge, ‘Cultural geographies’, 20-1.

90 It was probably built in the second or third century: Bowes et al., ‘Durres amphitheatre’, 387-8.

91 The study of the church was part of my PhD dissertation: Christidou, A., Unknown Byzantine Art in the Balkan Area: Art, Power and Patronage in Twelfth to Fourteenth-Century Churches in Albania, PhD dissertation, Courtauld Institute of Art (London 2011) (under publication)Google Scholar. A detailed presentation of this study falls outside the scope of this article.

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95 The subordination of Arbëria to Antivaris eventually materialized in 1199: AA, 39, no. 120.

96 The attack was recorded in a now lost inscription transcribed by Benedict Orsini, the bishop of Alessio in 1621: Cordignano, F.S.J., ‘Geografia ecclesiastica dell’Albania. Dagli ultimi decenni del secolo XVI alla metà del secolo XVII,’ OCP 36 (Rome 1934) 276 Google Scholar.

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102 Emphasized also by the imperial portraits of Milutin and Simonis at Staro Nagoričino and Gračanica: Todić, Serbian Medieval Painting, 55-7.

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