Socrates, in his Ecclesiastical History (7.22), reports that the emperor Theodosius II (r. 408-450) acquired the filthy cloak of a holy bishop of Hebron, who died in Constantinople, and put it on in order to partake of the man’s blessing. Written in Greek at Constantinople, 439/446.
Evidence ID
E04015
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Major author/Major anonymous work
Socrates
Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, 7.22.13-14
13. Οὕτω δὲ ἦν εὐσεβής, ὥστε πάντας μὲν τοὺς τῷ Θεῷ ἱερωμένους τιμᾶν, ἐξαιρέτως δὲ οὓς ἐπυνθάνετο ἐπ’ εὐλαβείᾳ πλέον ἐκπρέποντας. 14. Λέγεται δὲ τὸ τοῦ Χεβρῶν ἐπισκόπου ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει τελευτήσαντος σάγιον ἐπιζητῆσαι καὶ σφόδρα ἐρρυπωμένον περιβαλέσθαι, πιστεύσας μεταλαβεῖν τι ἐκ τῆς τοῦ τελευτήσαντος ἁγιότητος.
'He [the emperor Theodosius II] was so pious that he revered all those who were consecrated to the priesthood of God; and especially those about whom he heard that they were eminent for their godly way of life. It is said that, when the bishop of Hebron died in Constantinople, the emperor sought to acquire his cloak and, although it was excessively dirty, he put it on, believing that he would thus partake in some of the sanctity of the deceased man.'
Text: Hansen 1995. Translation: E. Rizos.
RelicsEcclesiastics - bishops
Contact relic - saint’s possession and clothes
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Monarchs and their family
Source
Socrates ‘Scholasticus’ was born between 380 and 390 in Constantinople, where he probably spent his entire life. He was trained as a grammarian and rhetorician under the sophist Troilos of Side. From his work, Socrates emerges as a classically educated intellectual, and probably a member of the higher echelons of Constantinopolitan society.His only known work, the seven-volume Ecclesiastical History, was published between 439 and 446, very probably in 439/440. It covers the period from the accession of Constantine to 439, focusing on the Roman East and recounting the 4th century Christological disputes, the reign of Julian the Apostate, the conflicts that led to the deposition of John Chrysostom, and the beginnings of the Nestorian dispute. Socrates’ synthesis is defined by his loyalties to Nicene Orthodoxy, the Theodosian dynasty, and the Origenist tradition. He is markedly sympathetic to the Novatian community, of which he may have been a member, and is interested in recording information about several other sectarian Christian groups of his time. Although an Origenist, like John Chrysostom and his supporters, Socrates distances himself from the Johannite party.
Socrates draws extensively on the Latin Ecclesiastical History of Rufinus of Aquileia for his account of the 4th century, which results in substantial overlaps between their works. In this database, we record only Socrates’ additions, and not the sections he reproduces from Rufinus. Alongside the recording of doctrinal disputes, successions of bishops, and victims of persecutions, Socrates was the first author to include a relatively systematic treatment of monasticism to the agenda of ecclesiastical historiography. It seems that he had access only to Greek and Latin sources, but not to the Syriac and other Aramaic hagiographies produced in this period in the East.
The work of Socrates is the first of the three Orthodox ecclesiastical Histories published in Greek between 439 and 449. Within less than ten years of its publication, Socrates’ work was systematically reworked and expanded by Sozomen, and may have been known also to Theodoret of Cyrrhus. Socrates’ narrative overlaps extensively with both of these ecclesiastical histories. This boom in Greek ecclesiastical historiography may have been instigated by the publication in Constantinople of an Arian Ecclesiastical History by Philostorgius in 425/433, which survives in fragments.
Discussion
The identity of this holy man, apparently a bishop of Hebron in Palestine, is unknown.Bibliography
Text:Hansen, G.C., Sokrates, Kirchengeschichte (Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte NF 1; Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1995).
Translations:
Zenos, A.C., "The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus," in: The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 2 (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1890), 1-178.
Périchon, P., and Maraval, P., Socrate de Constantinople, Histoire ecclésiastique (Sources Chrétiennes 477, 493, 505, 506; Paris: Cerf), 2004-2007.
Further reading:
Bäbler, B., and Nesselrath, H.-G. (eds.). Die Welt des Sokrates von Konstantinopel: Studien zu Politik, Religion und Kultur im späten 4. und frühen 5. Jh. n. Chr. Zu Ehren von Christoph Schäublin (Munich: K.G. Saur, 2001).
Chesnut, G.F., The First Christian Histories: Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Evagrius (Atlanta: Mercer University, 1986).
Leppin, H., Von Constantin dem Grossen zu Theodosius II. Das christliche Kaisertum bei den Kirchenhistorikern Socrates, Sozomenus und Theodoret (Hypomnemata 110; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht), 1996.
Nuffelen, P. van, Un héritage de paix et de piété: Étude sur les histoires ecclésiastiques de Socrate et de Sozomène (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 142; Leuven: Peeters), 2004.
Treadgold, W.T., The Early Byzantine Historians (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
Urbainczyk, T., Socrates of Constantinople: Historian of Church and State (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997).
Wallraff, M., Der Kirchenhistoriker Sokrates: Untersuchungen zu Geschichtsdarstellung, Methode und Person (Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 68; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997).
Record Created By
Efthymios Rizos
Date of Entry
21/11/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00117 | Ascetics, unnamed or name lost | Certain |
|---|
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