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Theodore of Sykeon and the historians
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Saint George, it was noted in the epilogue to an eleventh-century collection of his miracles, ‘did not only perform his daily miracles in his own person: his gracious power was extended to those whose life accorded with his, and whose trust in him was beyond doubt or question. Sometimes he rescued them from the perils that oppressed them: sometimes he collaborated with them in the miracles and wonders which they performed. Of this there is ample testimony, but particular reference may be made to that great and famous Theodore, called the Sykeote, whom everybody knows. In all this George followed his master Christ, who gave his disciples power over demons, and sent them out to heal the sick.’ Of the extent of Theodore’s posthumous reputation there can be no question.
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References
1 See Festugière, [A-J.], [Vie de Théodore de Sykeon], Greek text with French translation and commentary, Société des Bollandistes, sub hag 48, 2 vols (Brussels 1970) 1 pp xxiii-ivGoogle Scholar. For the miracles of saint George see Miracula S. Georgii, ed J. B. Aufhauser (Teubner 1913). The quotation, given by Festugière and taken from Paris MS Gr 1604, occurs on p 40: compare Festugière 1 pp 159-60, cap 169, lines 30-9, 52-8. For the monastery of saint George Sykeotes and the cult of saint Theodore see Janin, [R.], [Les Eglises el les monastères de Constantinople] (Paris 1953) pp 81-3Google Scholar.
2 MS Patmos 736. See Festugière 2 pp 287, 301-10 for the text of this life, and below n 20.
3 See above p 65, and note the comments of Brown at p 20 above.
4 For Nikephoros Skeuophylax, monk and sacristan of the church of the Blachernae in Constantinople see Beck p 546 and the references there given. The encomium was edited by C. Kirch from a twelfth-century manuscript in An Bol 20 (1901) pp 249-72.
The page references given by Halkin—BHG, 3 vols (3 ed Brussels 1957) 2 p 276 no 1749—refer only to the Greek text. For the dating see Ehrhard 3 pp 504-5.
5 [Three Byzantine Saints, trans Dawes, Elizabeth] and Baynes, [N.H.] (Oxford 1948) p xiii Google Scholar. The Life of Theodore occupies pp 85-192. The translation is taken from the shorter form of the longer Life of Theodore (see n 11 below), and is further abbreviated. There is no adequate introduction or commentary. See also the review by Halkin, F. in An Bol 69 (1951) pp 163-4Google Scholar.
6 Dawes and Baynes p 87. See also Kaegi, W. E. Jr, ‘New evidence on the early reign of Heraclius’, BZ 66 (1973) pp 308-30Google Scholar. I owe this reference to Dr Michael Angold.
7 Beck p 459.
8 Halkin, [F.], ‘Un ménologe [de Patmos (MS 254) et ses légendes inédites’], An Bol 72 (1954) pp 15–34, at p 30Google Scholar.
9 See n 1 above.
10 Joannu, [T.], ##[Μνημεΐα άγιολογικά] (Venice 1884) pp 361–495 Google Scholar; emended by Nikitin, P. V., O nyekotoruikh grecheskikh Tekstakh zhitii Svyatuikh, Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences, 8 series, hist-phil class, 1,1 (St Petersburgh 1895) pp 59–60 Google Scholar. See BHG 2, p 276, no 1748.
11 Venice, St Marks, MS 359, fols 193v-270r = M. The lacunae occur in cap 26 (26, line 15 - 26a, line 20) and after cap 146 (147, line 36 - 169, line 58), referring to the edition of Festugière. For an account of the manuscript, and in particular for the evidence for the loss of certain gatherings, see Ehrhard 1 pp 426-30.
12 Above n 5.
13 Patmos MS 254, fols 155r-278r = P. See Halkin ‘Un ménologe’ pp 15-19 for discussion of the manuscript, which he dates c 1000, rejecting the earlier dating suggested by R. P. Blake, who supplied the photographs from which he worked. The manuscript is described by Ehrhard, 1 pp 611-14, not at first hand, nor from photographs, but from notes supplied by friends. See BHG no 1748. Festugière, 1, p xxv, decided that il est vain de reproduire ici ces analyses, though he did comment on the confused and faulty Greek of P (1 pp xxxv-vi).
14 Halkin, ‘Un ménologe’ p 17.
15 Ibid p 30.
16 Athens National Library MS 1014, fols 113r-6or = A. See Festugière 1 pp xxvii-xxix. Some not altogether adequate discussion is given of the omissions from this text of the Life, which are listed on p xxvii. See Ehrhard 3, 2 pp 921 seq, and pp 86-9 below.
17 Festugière 1, p xxviii.
18 Ibid 2 p 283.
19 Now Paris BN MS Gr 1534, fols 95vb-107rb = VB1. Festugière copied this text himself (2 p 283). For comment and general bibliography see 2 pp 283-7; Greek text 2 pp 288-300. See Ehrhard 1 pp 399-402; p 399 n 1 for discussion of the dating and rejection of the twelfth-century dating proposed by Omont-Delehaye.
20 Patmos MS 736, fols 117r-24v = VB2. See Festugière 2 p 287, and the references there given, for composition and dating—in particular for the form of the second part of the manuscript (fols 117-279), which includes VB2, and for its relationship to the ‘imperial menologies’, see Ehrhard 3, 1 pp 341-78. For the association of the terminal imperial prayers to those Lives with the emperor Michael IV (1034-41) see Ehrhard 3, 1, pp 394, 403-5, and Halkin, F. in An Bol 57 (1939) pp 228-30Google Scholar. For the Greek text see Festugière 2 pp 301-10.
21 This is the only manuscript in which Theodore is not directly associated with material relating to his spiritual patron saint George. In part this was a natural association resulting from the occurrence of their feasts on successive days (22 and 23 April) and strengthened by the translation of Theodore’s relics to the monastery of saint George at Constantinople (later saint George Sykeotes). For further discussion see Janin pp 81-3.
22 Festugière 1 p xxvii.
23 Cap 39 line 14—cap 55 line 8.
24 Cap 164 line 70—cap 167 line 34 (not caps 163-6 as given by Festugière 1 p xxviii); cap 167 line 101 to the end; and cap 162 line 100—cap 164 line 4. This last is not mentioned in Festugière’s introduction to the text, though it is noted elsewhere (1 pp 148, 149 notes) that folium unam excidisse videtur in Cod. A,
25 For this discussion see Festugière 1 pp xxvii-xxviii.
26 ‘11 peut y avoir amputation de quelques chapitres, mais la lacune est évident,’ Festugière 1 p xxvii. These chapters record the construction of the church of saint Michael, the appointment of Philomenos as abbot (40-1), miracles (42-5), the careers of some of Theodore’s disciples (46-9), Theodore’s second visit to Jerusalem (50-1), miracles (51-3) the visit of the future emperor Maurice (54).
27 Chapter 165, a section of comment by the biographer, George Eleusios, has some connection with the previous chapters. Chapter 166, however, describing the visit of the emperor Heraklios to Theodore, is in all essentials an entirely self-contained section, though the biographer once again features in it.
28 Of these, the five line omission in chapter 27, lines 23-8, is a straight-forward case of homoeoteleuton: autoū (line 22/3)—autoū (line 28).
29 See cap 80 = cap 80a, 80b in Festugière’s translation (2 pp 70-1).
30 See too PG 157 (1866) cols 716-17. I owe this reference to Dr Michael Angold.
31 See also cap 166.
32 See above p 87, and n 26.
33 For as complex a text as that of the Life of Theodore, as in so many other cases, direct access to the manuscripts is essential. Festugière, in fact, worked directly on only one manuscript, Paris MS Gr 1534 (= VBl): for all the others he relied on intermediaries. For M he used Joannu’s text, revised from the manuscript by Saffrey; for P he worked from photographs supplied by Halkin; for A from photographs supplied by the national library at Athens; for Patmos 736 once again from photographs. It goes without saying that Ehrhard’s critical commentaries underlie the whole discussion. This is not unreasonable in cases of straight-forward transcription and collation, but where any doubt exists as to the composition of a text or manuscript it is not entirely satisfactory, and in this particular case there is real cause for concern. In the case of P Ehrhard himself had worked neither from the manuscript, nor from photographs but from notes supplied to him, and Halkin remarked that ‘the analysis and commentary left something to be desired’ (Halkin, ‘Un ménologe’, p 15). The photographs from which Halkin worked, and which he supplied to Festugière, had been supplied to him by professor Blake of Harvard. These photographs were, however only presque complète, and, Halkin remarked, une partie des photos de Blake est malheureusement fort difficile à dechiffrer. Some of the doubts about the dating of this manuscript derive from this failure to consult the manuscript at first hand. With A, too, a markedly different version of the Life from MP, it is unfortunate that, whatever the difficulties, the manuscript itself was not examined in the preparation of the new edition of the Life.
34 If this chapter is to be regarded as part of the original Life it is of importance in dating the composition of the work, but the failure of the biographer to record the translation of the relics of Theodore to Constantinople by Heraklios may be taken to reinforce doubts about including it: see n 31 above.
35 See the end of the conventional prologue (cap 2) and cap 170a.
36 Festugière 1 p 165, cap 170a.
37 CMH 4 (2 ed 1967) 2 P 224.
38 See Beck pp 570-2 and the references there given, and passim.
39 See n 11 above.
40 See n 12 above.
41 See n 16 above.
42 See nn 19, 20 above.
43 Where for example, A omits most of caps 1-2 so do VB1VB2; where A omits caps 31-8, and perhaps 40-54 VB1 omits caps 31, 35, 46-53, 57, and VB2 31-3, 42, 47-53. In the second part of the Life, where A omits caps 81-160 VB1 omits caps 81, 84-96, 98-9, 101, 103, 106-11, 113-18, 121-6, 129-32, 138, 140-51, 154-5, 158-60, and VB2 caps 90,92,105-19,122-9,141,143-7,149-51, 153, 157-61. Much of this is miraculous material of precisely the sort that a brief life might ornii, but not all of it, and caps 12, 46-53, 64-8, 154-5 (VB1). caps 7, 9, 28-9, 47-53, 59, 66, 74-7, 119, 129, 153 (VB2) illustrate this.
44 See n 4 above.
45 For discussion see Ehrhard 3, pp 504-5.
46 See encomium caps 6, part of 19, 20.
47 It is possible to see references to chapters 83 and 85 of the Life in chapter 30 of the encomium, but since these are references to standard miracles which occur more than once in the Life (compare caps 62, 68, 73) nothing certain can be established here.
48 See 30 above.
49 See Nelson above p 115.
50 See Cameron above p 65.
51 Above pp 13-15, 18, 21.