The Miracles of *Artemios (18) recount how *Artemios (martyr of Antioch under Julian, S01128) revealed the identity of the thief to a devotee who had had his clothes stolen while attending vigils at the saint's shrine in Constantinople. The saint made the man swear on an icon of *John (the Baptist, S00020), which he had in his home, that he would not do any harm to the thief. Earlier the victim had visited the church of *Panteleemon (martyr of Nicomedia, S00596), seeking information about the thief. Written in Greek in Constantinople, 582/668; assembled as a collection, 658/668.
E04238
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Miracles of Artemios (BHG 173), 18
Τὶς προσκαρτερῶν τῇ παννυχίδι τοῦ Προδρόμου ἐκ νέας ἡλικίας, ψάλλων τὰ στίχη τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις ταπεινοῦ Ῥωμανοῦ μέχρι τοῦ νῦν, οὗτος ἐν τοῖς χρόνοις τῆς βασιλείας Ἡρακλείου, διαφαυούσης τῆς ἡμέρας τοῦ γενεσίου τοῦ ἁγίου Προδρόμου, ἐσυλήθη.
'There was a certain man who from a tender age used to attend the all-night vigil of the Forerunner and who sang hymns of humble Romanos among the saints right up to the present day. In the time of the reign of the emperor Heraclius [r. 610-641], this man was burgled as the birthday of the holy Forerunner was dawning [June 24].'
That night the man, who for 52 years lived alone, went to the vigil as usual. A burglar who was observing his habits and knowing that he lived alone, used this opportunity and broke into his house. When the man returned home at dawn, he found nothing unusual, as the lock was secure. So he went to sleep. When he woke up and sought to dress in his better clothes to celebrate the feast, he realised that all his garments, except for those he was wearing at the vigil, were stolen.
δι’ ἐρεύνης δὲ γενόμενος ἠρώτα τοὺς γείτονας εἰπεῖν αὐτῷ, εἰ οἴδασι, πῶς γέγονε τὰ σῦλα· οἱ δὲ ἀγνοεῖν εἰρήκασιν. ὡς δὲ ὁρῶσιν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῇ γυμνώσει θρηνοῦντα, ὑποτίθενται αὐτῷ ἀπελθεῖν εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Παντελεήμονα, εἰς τὰ Ῥουφίνου, φάσκοντες εἶναί τινα ἐκεῖ ἐπίστασιν διδόντα, ὃς ἐρεῖ αὐτῷ τὸν συλήσαντα. συνέβη γὰρ ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ χρόνῳ πλείστους εἶναι δαιμονιῶντας ἐν πολλαῖς ἐκκλησίαις.
'Mounting an investigation, he asked his neighbors to tell him if they knew how the burglary had occurred. They said that they did not know. But when they saw him lamenting over the burglary, they suggested to him that he go to *Saint Panteleemon [E00596] in the Rouphinos [quarter], saying that someone was there dispensing information who would tell him the burglar. For it happened at that time that there were a very large number of possessed in many churches.'
The man went off to Saint Panteleemon but when he heard there the cry of the possessed ones, he decided to go back home in fear that he was approaching demons. At home he threw himself on his bed in a state of depression and fell asleep. He did not go to church, because he neither had a change of clothes nor a mood good enough to do so.
κοιμωμένῳ δὲ αὐτῷ φαίνεται ὁ ἅγιος Ἀρτέμιος ἐν σχήματι εὐπρεποῦς τινος ἀνδρός, παγανὰ φοροῦντος, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· “Διατί οὐχ ὑπήντησας καὶ ὠψίκευσας μετὰ τοῦ κηροῦ σου τὰ ἅγια, καθὼς ἔθος ὑμῖν ἐστιν τοῖς τῆς παννυχίδος”;ὁ δὲ ἀπεκρίθη, ὅτι “Ἐσυλήθην καὶ οὐκ ἔχω τι φορέσαι”. ὁ δὲ ἅγιός φησι πρὸς αὐτόν· “Καὶ θέλεις εὑρεῖν ἅπερ ἀπώλεσας”; ὁ δὲ πρὸς αὐτόν· “Ὄντως θέλω, γυμνὸς γάρ εἰμι”. ὁ δὲ μάρτυς εἶπεν αὐτῷ· “Ὄμοσόν μοι, ὅτι οὐ κακοποιεῖς τὸν ἐπάραντα, καὶ λέγω σοι, τίς ἐστιν”. ἔφη ὁ ἀπολέσας· “Μὰ τὸν θεόν, οὐδὲν αὐτῷ κακὸν ποιῶ, ἀλλὰ καὶ φίλον αὐτὸν κτήσομαι”. λέγει πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ ἅγιος· “Οὐ πιστεύω σοι”. καὶ κρατήσας τὴν χεῖρα τοῦ συληθέντος ἐπιτίθησιν αὐτὴν ἐπὶ τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰωάννου, ἣν εἶχεν αὐτὸς ὁ συληθείς, καί φησι πρὸς αὐτόν· “Κατ’ αὐτοῦ μοι ὄμοσον· οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι φοβῇ καὶ ἀγαπᾷς αὐτόν”. καὶ ὤμοσεν αὐτῷ λέγων· “Οὐδὲν αὐτῷ κακὸν ποιήσω, ἀλλὰ καὶ φίλον
μου μέγαν ἕξω αὐτόν, καὶ φιλοτιμίαν αὐτῷ δίδωμι, εἰ εὕρω αὐτά”. τότε ὁ ἅγιος λέγει· “Θεοδόσιος ὁ ψάλτης ἐπῆρεν καὶ χει αὐτά”. χαρίεις δὲ διυπνισθείς, περὶ ὥραν ἑβδόμην προῆλθεν εἰς τὸν τραπεζίτην Ἀβραάμιον, τὸν πλησίον τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰωάννου, ὃς ἦν καὶ ἀρκάριος τοῦ φιλικοῦ τῶν τῆς παννυχίδος. καὶ λέγει πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ ἀρκάριος· “Ποῦ ἦς; διατί οὐχ ὑπήντησας μετὰ τοῦ κηροῦ εἰς τὰ ἅγια; δὸς καὶ <τὸ> κηρίν σου καὶ τὸ πρόστιμον”. ὁ δὲ ἀπεκρίθη· “Μὰ τὸν θεόν, ἐσυλήθην, καὶ διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν μέ τι φορέσαι οὐκ ἦλθον”.
'But St. Artemios appeared to him in his sleep in the garb of a man of rank wearing civilian clothes, and said to him: ‘Why did you not go to meet and escort in procession the holy objects with your candle, as is customary for you celebrants of the all-night vigil?’' He responded: "I was burgled and I do not have anything to wear." And the saint said to him: "And do you wish to find what you lost?" And he replied: "I really do, for I am naked." The martyr said to him: "Swear to me that you will not harm the thief and I will tell you who he is." The victim said: "By God, I will do him no harm; on the contrary I will treat him as a friend." The saint said: "I do not believe you." And taking the hand of the victim, he placed it on the icon of St. John, which this self-same victim owned, and said to him: "By him [i.e. St John], swear to me; for I know that you respect and love him." And he took an oath saying to him: " I will do him no harm; on the contrary I will even make him my great friend and even give him a gift, if I find my property." Then the saint said: "Theodosios the psaltes took and keeps them." Waking up in a good mood about the seventh hour, he went to the moneychanger Abraamios near the church of *St. John [E0020], who was also the treasurer of the society of all-night celebrants. And the treasurer said to him: ‘Where were you? Why did you not go to meet the holy objects with your candle? Give me your candle and the fine.’ He answered: ‘By God, I was burgled and because I did not have anything to wear I did not go.’''
He told the moneychanger and those sitting by him that he had a dream in which he was told that Theodosios the psaltes took his clothes. This very singer was present there as well and was playing dice with various people. He got angry hearing what was said. He ordered the victim to make a list of the stolen things. In fact, he committed this burglary with his brother. The brother was eventually brought to the victim who saw that he was wearing his clothes and his belt. He immediately forgot what he swore to Artemios. The case was brought to the eparch by an official (sekretarios). The official recounted the matter to the eparch falsely saying that the victim lent his clothes to the burglars in order they might look their best for a wedding. He asked the victim to confirm his words. The victim confirmed, because he did not hear what the official said, as he was standing too far off. Then someone who knew what really happened approached the victim and told him that the official had falsely testified in his case. Then the victim recalled what he had promised to the saint and asked the official to set the burglars free. He gave some money (altogether 11 hexagrams [i.e. silver coins]) to the officials involved. He got all his clothes back except for some pieces that, out of compassion, he left to the thief that he might not be naked, and he gave the psaltes a gold coin.
Text: Papadopoulos-Kerameus 1909.
Translation: Crisafulli and Nesbitt 1997, 116-17.
Summary: J. Doroszewska.
Chant and religious singing
Procession
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Activities accompanying CultFeasting (eating, drinking, dancing, singing, bathing)
Use of ImagesOther forms of veneration of an image
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Saint as patron - of a community
Visiting graves and shrines
Vigils
Oath
MiraclesMiracle after death
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Freeing prisoners, exiles, captives, slaves
Finding of lost objects, animals, etc.
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOfficials
Prisoners
Other lay individuals/ people
The socially marginal (beggars, prostitutes, thieves)
Cult Related ObjectsOil lamps/candles
Source
The Miracles of Artemios is a collection of 45 miracle-stories, effected by the saint at and around his burial and cult site in the church of St. John the Baptist in the Oxeia quarter of Constantinople. Artemios was an Alexandrian dux and martyr of the reign of Julian, who has an independent Martyrdom (E06781). The Miracles does not include this passio, although the stories on occasion show some acquaintance with it. Nothing is known of the cult before the period described in the Miracles.The Miracles’ vignettes stretch from (at least) the reign of Maurice (582-602) to that of Constans II (641-668). The current text was compiled in the period 658-668: the terminus post quem is provided by the last datable event mentioned within the text (Mir. 41: 4 October 658) and the terminus ante quem by the fact that Constans is there described as still alive (as he is too in Mir. 23).
The text is not, however, the product of a single pen, but seems instead to be a compilation of several parts. Those narratives at the beginning and end of the collection (Mir. 1-14, 42-45) are short, somewhat unembellished, healing narratives of a more-or-less standardised kind; while those of the central section are far more elaborate and varied, and seem to fall into rough thematic doublets or groups. One such group is conspicuous because all of its miracles (24-31) conclude with some sermonettes on secular medicine. The most obvious explanation for this basic dissonance is that the collection as we have it has been composed from at least three different parts: first, an earlier, more simple collection which opens the text; second, an original composition in the central section (where the addition of the sermonettes to some miracles perhaps indicates the exploitation of another, pre-existent collection of miracles); and third, a final addition of the four concluding miracles.
Besides pre-existent collections of written material preserved within the shrine itself, the text also draws, no doubt, on the oral traditions then circulating amongst the shrine’s clientele. The text itself describes in vivid terms the community of clerics and lay devotees who gathered around the shrine, in particular for its weekend vigil, and several such persons are the protagonists of individual miracles. One such person is an anonymous devotee of the saint’s vigil who features in two long and detailed miracles (Mir. 18, 22); another is George, a cleric and devotee of Artemios, who features as protagonist in three different miracles (Mir. 38-40). It seems clear, then, that the compiler draws from the oral accounts, or perhaps even written records, which the saint’s clerics and devotees produced, and which provide these central miracles with their vivid detail and insight. Indeed, although the compiler of the collection is anonymous, it is reasonable to suppose that he is also a lay devotee of the saint, and perhaps even one of those persons who feature prominently in the text.
Through descriptions of this vigil, and other scattered details, we are offered an unparalleled perspective both on the layout of the church of St. John—which can be reconstructed in some detail—and on the practices of Artemios’s devotees. The saint’s cult was an incubatory healing cult, in which the sick came to the shrine and slept overnight, in the hope of a miraculous cure. The collection underlines the importance of performing ‘the customary rites’ in advance of a cure, which seems to mean the dedication of a votive lamp and other offerings. The weekly vigil is also presented as especially efficacious, for on this night it was possible to sleep in and around the crypt where the tomb which contained the saint’s relics was sited (see e.g. Mir. 17).
Almost all of the cures occur within the church of St John itself, or else upon those who have spent some time there and then withdrawn. The principal mode of healing is a miraculous dream, sometimes in combination with the application of holy oil taken from the tomb’s lamps, or a wax-salve imprinted with the image of the saint. Almost all of the miracles concern healing, but also of a particular kind. For Artemios was a specialist in diseases of the male genitals and groin, which dominate the entire collection. Sick women at the shrine could expect a vision of the martyr *Phebronia, who appears in several places as Artemios’ female equivalent (Mir. 6, 23, 24, 38, 45).
In contrast to equivalent collections, Artemios does not collaborate with secular doctors, or depend on quasi-Hippocratic cures. Indeed, one of the most striking features of the text is the series of sermonettes which punctuate the central miracles and denounce in virulent terms the inadequacies of contemporaneous Hippocratic medicine (Mir. 24-31).
The text was compiled at a moment of high drama for the eastern Roman Empire, in which its territorial holdings, and revenues, had been dramatically reduced through the Arab conquests. This context is however strikingly absent from the collection, which instead paints a picture of vivid and thriving urban life, in particular amongst the capital’s middle classes, who make up the vast majority of the saint’s devotees. Nevertheless, it has been suggested the text offers a powerful political metaphor related to the perceived disease of the body politic: that the cure for all ailments, whether derived from sin or from natural causes, is not to turn to other men, but rather to propitiate and to trust in God.
Discussion
This miracle is unique because it is the only one in the entire collection which does not tell of a miraculous cure. It belongs to the central section of the collection of Artemios' miracles that consists of elaborate and varied narratives (Mir. 15-41; see above, Source).Hymns of 'humble Romanos' - presumably Romanos the Melodist (Gr. Romanos ho Melodos), the notable 6th-century Syrio-Greek hymnographer.
The all-night vigil of the Forerunner was held on Saturdays, it means therefore that the feast of John the Baptist that according to the narrative was on the next day must have taken place on Sunday. The computer program "Expert Astronomer" which features a perpetual calendar shows that only four times during the emperor Heracleius' reign (610-641) did 24 June fall on a Sunday: in 613, 619, 624, and 630. However, since the text mentions a silver coin called a hexagram, which was introduced in 615, the year 613 as the time of the action can be ruled out (Crisafulli and Nesbitt 1997, 251).
'But when they saw him lamenting over the burglary, they suggested to him that he go to Saint Panteleemon in the Rouphinos [quarter], saying that someone was there dispensing information who would tell him the burglar. For it happened at that time that there were a very large number of possessed in many churches.' This passage suggests that amongst the 'large number of possessed' the victim could gain information about the identity of the thief, presumably through a diabolical insight imparted by one of the possessed (Crisafulli and Nesbitt 1997, 252).
Bibliography
Text:Papadopoulos-Kerameus, A., Miracula xlv sancti Artemii, in idem, Varia graeca sacra [Subsidia Byzantina 6] (St. Petersburg: Kirschbaum, 1909): 1-75.
Translation:
Crisafulli, V.S., and J.W. Nesbitt, The Miracles of St. Artemios. A Collection of Miracle Stories by an Anonymous Author of Seventh Century Byzantium (Leiden, New York, Köln: Brill, 1997).
Further reading:
Alwis, A., “Men in Pain: Masculinity, Medicine and the Miracles of St. Artemios,” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 36. (2012), 1–19.
Busine, A.,“The Dux and the Nun. Hagiography and the Cult of Artemios and Febronia in Constantinople,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 72 (2018), 93–111.
Déroche, V., "Pourquoi écrivait-on des recueils de miracles? L’exemple des miracles de saint Artémios," in C. Jolivet-Lévy, M. Kaplan, J.-P. Sodini, (eds), Les saints et leur sanctuaire à Byzance: textes, images, monuments (Paris, 1993), 95-116.
Deubner, L., De incubatione capita quattuor scripsit Ludovicus Deubner. Accedit Laudatio in miracula Sancti Hieromartyris Therapontis e codice Messanensi denuo edita. (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1900).
Efthymiadis, S., "A Day and Ten Months in the Life of a Lonely Bachelor: The Other Byzantium in Miracula S. Artemii 18 and 22," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 58 (2004), 1-26.
Grosdidier de Matons, J., “Les Miracula Sancti Artemii: Note sur quelques questions de vocabulaire,” in E. Lucchesi and H.D. Saffrey (eds), Mémorial André-Jean Festugière: Antiquité, Paienne et Chrétienne (Geneva: Cramer, 1984), 263-266.
Haldon, J., "Supplementary Essay: The Miracles of Artemios and Contemporary Attitudes: Context and Significance," in Crisafulli and Nesbitt, Miracles of Artemios 33-75.
Kaplan, M., “Une hôtesse importante de l’église Saint-Jean-Baptiste de l’Oxeia à Constantinople : Fébronie," in D. Sullivan, E.A. Fisher, S. Papaioannou (eds), Byzantine Religious Culture: Studies in Honor of Alice-Mary Talbot (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 31–52.
Krueger, D., Writing and Holiness: The Practice of Authorship in the Early Christian East (Phildelphia, PA, 2004), 63-70.
Mango, C., “History of the Templon and the Martyrion of St. Artemios at Constantinople,” Zograf 10 (1979), 40–43.
Rydén, L., "Kyrkan som sjukhus: om den helige Artemios' mirakler," Religion och Bibel 44 (1987), 3-16.
Simon, J., “Note sur l’original de la passion de Sainte Fébronie,” Analecta Bollandiana 42 (1924), 69–76.
Philip Booth, Julia Doroszewska
27/07/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Ἰωάννης | Certain | S00596 | Pantaleon/Panteleemon, martyr of Nicomedia | Παντελεήμων | Certain | S01128 | Artemios, martyr of Antioch under the emperor Julian | Ἀρτέμιος | Certain | S01631 | Romanos, 'the Melodist', 6th c. | Ῥωμανός | Uncertain |
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