The Miracles of *Artemios (32) recount how *Artemios (martyr of Antioch under Julian, S01128), at his shrine in Constantinople, healed Menas, an Alexandrian, from injured intestines and genitals. Written in Greek in Constantinople, 582/668; assembled as a collection, 658/668.
E04248
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Miracles of Artemios (BHG 173), 32
Ἐν τοῖς χρόνοις τῆς βασιλείας Μαυρικίου τοῦ τῆς θείας λήξεώς τις τῷ γένει Ἀλεξανδρεὺς ὀνόματι Μηνᾶς, ὢν ὡς ἐτῶν εἴκοσι, κάμνων εἰς οἰνέμπορον, τὰς οἰκήσεις ποιούμενος πέραν ἐν Ἀργυροπόλει, πλησίον τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Ἀδριανοῦ.
'In the years of the reign of Maurice of divine portion [r. 582-602], there was a certain Alexandrian by birth named Menas, about 20 years old, who worked for a wine-merchant and who made his residence on the other side [of the Bosporos] in Argyropolis, near [the sanctuary] of the holy martyr *Adrian [E01342].'
One day, when he was working on a ship and loading clay vessels [i.e. amphorae], suddenly, through the inspiration of an evil spirit, he severely injured his intestines and genitals with an amphora and fell half dead into the sea. His companions saved him, fetched him out on a litter, and laid him down on a bed. His master summoned a doctor to care for him. The doctor demanded some money to buy supplies for his treatment and went away. By divine intervention, a friend of the injured man came and advised him not to rely on a doctor, but go to the district of Oxeia in Constantinople to the church of John the Forerunner and approach the martyr Artemios. The friend told him his own story of how Artemios healed him after when he had lifted a great weight and his genitals became swollen so that he suffered from persistent pains.
τινὲς οὖν ἔχοντες πεῖραν τῶν θαυμάτων τοῦ ἁγίου Ἀρτεμίου συναινοῦσίν μοι ἀπελθεῖν πρὸς αὐτόν· ὃ καὶ ἐποίησα ἀπελθὼν ὑπὸ φορεῖον, καὶ ἐπιτελέσας τὰ ἐκεῖσε πρὸς συνήθειαν γινόμενα, ἔμεινα ἐκεῖσε δύο ἡμέρας, καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ὁρῶ καθ’ ὕπνους τινὰ χλαινηφόρον στιχάριν φοροῦντα καὶ βαλτίδιον, καὶ εἰπόντα μοι· Ἄνω τὰ ἱμάτιά σου, ἵνα
ἴδω, τί ἐστιν ὃ ἔχεις. καὶ σηκώσαντός μου αὐτὰ ἥψατο <διὰ> τῶν τριῶν δακτύλων τῆς δεξιᾶς χειρὸς τὴν κοιλίαν μου, πιλώσας εὐφυῶς καὶ κατὰ τῶν δύο μου μηρῶν, καὶ ἔφη μοι· Ὁ Χριστός σε ἰᾶται, ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν καὶ θεός. ἀνάστα οὖν, εὐχαρίστησον αὐτῷ. καὶ ἅμα τῷ εἰπεῖν αὐτὸν ταῦτα διυπνίσθην, καὶ ψηλαφήσας ἐμαυτὸν ηὗρον τοὺς διδύμους μου καὶ τὰ ἐντός μου ὑγιῆ...
'Then some men who had experience of the miracles of St. Artemios advised me to go to him. This I did indeed, going by stretcher, and after accomplishing what is customarily done there, I remained in that place two days and on the third day I saw in my sleep someone wearing a cloak, also a deacon's alb and a belt; and he said to me: "Up with your garments, so that I might see what's wrong." And after I lifted them, he touched my belly with three fingers of his right hand, skilfully compressing it against my two thighs, and said to me: "Christ heals you, our Lord and God. Therefore stand up and give thanks to him." And as soon as he said this, I awoke and as I touched myself, I found my testicles and intestines healthy..."'
The friend withdrew and the patient thus asked to be brought to St. Artemios. His master boiled with anger, since he had already paid the doctor for treatment. But the patient dismissed the doctor and insisted on being conveyed to the martyr. He told his master to charge all his expenses to his earnings and had himself placed on a boat and conveyed to the church of the Forerunner. He did what what was customary for that place and with tears was begging Artemios for help.
Τῇ αὐτῇ νυκτί”, καθὼς μεθ’ ὅρκων ἐκ βλεφάρων δάκρυα ἐκχέων ἔφη ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ λέξει, “ἐθεασάμην”, φησίν, “ἐν τῷ ὕπνῳ μου τὸν ἅγιον Ἀρτέμιον ἀπὸ τῆς ἁγίας αὐτοῦ σοροῦ ἀνερχόμενον καὶ ἐξελθόντα τὰ κάγκελλα τοῦ σκευοφυλακίου καὶ ἐλθόντα ἕως ἐμοῦ· ἐκείμην γὰρ ἐν τῷ τετάρτῳ στύλῳ τοῦ ἀριστεροῦ ἐμβόλου... καὶ ἀπήγγειλα αὐτῷ, καθώς μοι συνέβη· καὶ ἀπεβημάτισεν ἐξ ἐμοῦ καὶ ἐξῆλθεν τὸν ἔμβολον εἰς ὃν ἐκείμην καὶ τὸν νάρθηκα, καὶ εἰσῆλθεν διὰ τῶν μέσων πυλῶν καὶ ἔρριψεν ἑαυτὸν ἁπλωτὸν εἰς τὸ ἔδαφος, καὶ ηὔχετο ἐφ’ ἱκανὸν ἐν τῷ ναῷ ὄπισθεν τοῦ ἄμβωνος... πάλιν ἐλογιζόμην περὶ τοῦ καγκέλλου καὶ τῶν μέσων πυλῶν, πῶς κεκλεισμένων αὐτῶν ὄντων αὐτομάτως ἠνοίχθησαν αὐτῷ καὶ εἰσῆλθεν. εἶτα ηὔξατο, ἠγέρθη καὶ εἰσῆλθεν ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ θυσιαστηρίῳ, καὶ πάλιν ἐκεῖ ἔρριψεν ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον, καὶ μικρόν τι διαποιήσας ἠγέρθη καὶ ἐφίλησεν τὴν ἁγίαν τράπεζαν καὶ πάλιν ἐξῆλθεν τῷ αὐτῷ τρόπῳ διὰ τῶν καγκέλλων... καὶ εἰσῆλθεν ὁμοίως τῷ αὐτῷ σχήματι διά τε τοῦ νάρθηκος καὶ τῶν μέσων πυλεώνων. τοῦτο ἐπὶ τρεῖς καθόδους ποιήσας, καὶ εἰς τὴν τρίτην βολὴν ἔφη μοι· Σκατζύ, ἄνω τὰ ἱμάτιά σου. καὶ σηκώσαντός μου αὐτά, τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ ἥψατο τοῦ ὀμφαλοῦ μου καὶ τοῦ ὑπογαστρίου καὶ ἔφη μοι· Ἴδε ὁ Χριστός, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος, ἰάσατό σε· ἀλλ’ ἐγερθεὶς εὐχαρίστησον αὐτῷ. διυπνισθεὶς δὲ ηὗρον ἑαυτὸν ὑγιῆ ὄντα. παραυτίκα οὖν ἐξαναστὰς τῆς στρωμνῆς, εἰς ἣν ἐκείμην, δρόμῳ ἀπῆλθον, καὶ τῶν καγκέλλων ὄντων ἠσφαλισμένων ἔρριψα ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ τὰ πρόθυρα τοῦ σκευοφυλακίου εἰς τὸ ἔδαφος, εὐχαριστῶν τῷ σωτῆρι ἡμῶν Χριστῷ, τῷ ἐκεῖσε ἐπάνω τῶν θυρῶν τοῦ ῥηθέντος σκευοφυλακίου ἐν εἰκόνι ἐκτετυπωμένῳ ἑστῶτι.
'On the same night in my sleep, I saw St. Artemios coming up from his holy coffin and proceeding beyond the railing of the sacristy and approaching me (for I was lying at the fourth column of the left colonnade)…. And I told him exactly how it happened. And he strode away from me, left the aisle where I was lying and the narthex, and went in through the central gates and cast himself stretched out on the floor and prayed for some time in the nave behind the pulpit…. Again I was reflecting about the railing and the central gates, how, although locked, they automatically opened for him and he went in. Then he prayed, got up and went into the holy sanctuary, and there once again cast himself face down and after spending a short time he got up and kissed the holy altar and once again exited in the same way through the railings…. And similarly in the same outfit he went in through the narthex and the central gates. After doing this on three circuits, on the third pass he said to me, ‘Skatzy, up with your garments.’ After I lifted them, he touched my navel and lower abdomen with his hand and said to me, ‘Behold! Christ, the son of the living God, has cured you. But rise and give thanks to him.’ On waking up, I found myself healed. So arising at once from the mattress I was lying on, I set off at a run and because the railings were secured, I threw myself on the floor before the doors of the sacristy, giving thanks to Christ our Saviour Who there above the doors of the said sacristy is depicted on an icon standing.’'
Text: Papadopoulos-Kerameus 1909.
Translation: Crisafulli and Nesbitt 1997, 164-71.
Summary: J. Doroszewska.
Cult building - independent (church)
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - sarcophagus/coffin
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Non Liturgical ActivitySaint as patron - of a community
Visiting graves and shrines
Incubation
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOther lay individuals/ people
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 belongs to the central section of the collection of Artemios' miracles that consists of elaborate and varied narratives (Mir. 15-41; see above, Source).'Skatzy, up with your garments.’ - it is unclear, why Menas is addressed by the saint as 'Skatzy' and what the word means. For hypotheses, see Crisafulli and Nesbitt 1997, 277 (with references).
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. “Gaza, Emesa and Constantinople: Late Ancient Cities in the Light of Historiography”, in L. Rydén, J.O. Rosenqvist (eds), Aspects of Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium (Uppsala: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 1993).
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
29/07/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01128 | Artemios, martyr of Antioch under the emperor Julian | Ἀρτέμιος | Certain | S01342 | Adrianos, martyr of Nicomedia, and Natalia, his pious wife | Ἀδριανός | Certain |
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