Philostorgius in his Ecclesiastical History, reports that the emperor Constantius II (r. 337-361) had the relics of *Andrew (the Apostle, S00288), *Timothy (disciple of Paul,S00466), and *Luke (the Evangelist, S00442) transferred to Constantinople and buried at the shrine of the Holy Apostles. Written in Greek at Constantinople, 425/433.
E04195
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Philostorgius
Philostorgius, Ecclestical History, 3.2
(Summary in Photius)
Ὅτι Κωνστάντιον δι’ ἐπαίνων ἄγει καὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν φησὶν αὐτὸν δομήσασθαι τὴν ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει καὶ οὖσαν καὶ καλουμένην μεγάλην. καὶ δὴ καὶ Ἀνδρέαν τὸν ἀπόστολον ἐκ τῆς Ἀχαΐας μετακομίσαι ἐπὶ τὸν ναὸν ὃν οὗτος ἐξῳκοδομήσατο, τὸ κοινὸν τῶν ἀποστόλων ἐπιφερόμενον ὄνομα οὗ πλησίον καὶ τὸν πατρῷον τάφον ἱδρύσασθαι· ναὶ δὴ καὶ Λουκᾶν τὸν εὐαγγελιστὴν ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς Ἀχαΐας εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ μετενεγκεῖν τέμενος· ἀλλὰ καὶ Τιμόθεον τὸν ἀπόστολον ὡσαύτως ἐξ Ἐφέσου τῆς Ἰωνίας εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν ἀνακομίσαι περιώνυμον καὶ σεβάσμιον οἶκον.
‘He heaps praise upon Constantius and says that he built the church in Constantinople that is justly called “the great” [i.e. Saint Sophia]. In addition, he brought the apostle Andrew over from Achaia to the church that he had built and that is called after the apostles in common. Next to it he erected his father’s tomb. Not only that; he also translated the evangelist Luke from Achaia to the same sacred precinct. The apostle Timothy as well he likewise brought over from Ephesus in Ionia to that same renowned and august house.’
Text: Bidez and Winkelmann 1981.
Translation: Amidon 2007, 38.
Cult building - independent (church)
RelicsBodily relic - unspecified
Transfer/presence of relics from distant countries
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMonarchs and their family
Source
Philostorgius was born in Borissus of Cappadocia in c. 368, and lived from the age of twenty in Constantinople, where he became a follower of the Anomaean theologian Eunomius. His twelve-volume Ecclesiastical History, now largely lost, appeared between 425 and 433. In 402/3 a continuation of the Church History of Eusebius of Caesarea had been produced in Latin by Rufinus of Aquileia, who recounted the period from the Council of Nicaea to the death of Theodosius I in 395. Rufinus presented Nicene Christianity as the Orthodox faith which was oppressed by the Arian emperors and restored by Theodosius I (379-395). Philostorgius offered a radically different, pro-Arian, reading of the 4th century theological disputes, portraying Nicene heroes like Athanasius of Alexandria and Basil of Caesarea in a negative manner. His work may have triggered the mid 5th century boom in Greek ecclesiastical historiography, represented by the Nicene ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus.Philostorgius’ original text is only known from a summary in the 9th century Bibliotheca of Photius, and from fragments in a later version of the Greek Martyrdom of Artemios (E06781). A partial reconstruction of Philostorgius’ Ecclesiastical History, based on Photius and the fragments, has been produced by Joseph Bidez and Friedhelm Winkelmann. Winkelmann’s text is available in English translation by Philip R. Amidon.
Philostorgius is also the author of the Martyrdom of *Loukianos of Antioch (E00).
Discussion
Philostorgius is the earliest Constantinopolitan source mentioning the translation of the relics of Andrew, Timothy, and Luke to Constantinople under Constantius II, though Jerome, writing in Palestine in 406, had earlier recorded these events (E08340).Bibliography
Text:Bidez, J., and Winkelmann, F., Philostorgius, Kirchengeschichte; mit dem Leben des Lucian von Antiochien und den Fragmenten eines arianischen Historiographen. 3rd. ed. (Griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 21; Berlin, 1981).
Translations and commentaries:
Amidon, P.R., Philostorgius, Church History (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007).
Bidez, J., et al., Philostorge, Histoire ecclésiastique (Sources chrétiennes 564; Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2013).
Further reading:
Mango, C., “Constantine's Mausoleum and the Translation of Relics,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 83 (1990), 51-61.
Marasco, G., Filostorgio: cultura, fede e politica in uno storico ecclesiastico del V secolo (Studia ephemeridis "Augustinianum" 92; Rome: Institutum patristicum Augustinianum, 2005).
Treadgold, W.T., The Early Byzantine Historians (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 126-134.
Efthymios Rizos
08/01/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00288 | Andrew, the Apostle | Ἀνδρέας | Certain | S00442 | Luke, the Evangelist | Λουκᾶς | Certain | S00466 | Timothy, the disciple of Paul the Apostle | Τιμόθεος | Certain |
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