The Miracles of *Artemios (41) recount how *Artemios (martyr of Antioch under Julian, S01128), at his shrine in Constantinople, healed from a hernia a certain Polychronios/Stephen, who saw the saint in dream visions. Written in Greek in Constantinople, 582/668; assembled as a collection, 658/668.
E04256
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Miracles of Artemios (BHG 173), 41
There was an 18-year-old man named Polychronios, or also Stephen. Suddenly he experienced pain in his left testicle which became swollen. Alarmed by this condition and advised by someone, he went to the church of the Forerunner to wait upon the saint.
καὶ τῇ δευτέρᾳ νυκτί, κοιμωμένου αὐτοῦ πλησίον τῶν τοῦ σκευοφυλακίου θυρῶν, ὁρᾷ ἐν τῷ ὕπνῳ αὑτοῦ τὸν ἅγιον Ἀρτέμιον ἑστῶτα εἰς τὸ θυσιαστήριον ἔμπροσθεν τῆς ἁγίας τραπέζης, κατέχοντα ἐν τῇ δεξιᾷ αὐτοῦ χειρὶ ἰατρικὴν σμίλην χρυσῆν καὶ προσκυνήσαντα τὴν αὐτὴν ἁγίαν τράπεζαν καὶ (ὅτε ἀνένευσεν προσκυνήσας) ἐπιτεθεικότα ἣν ἐκράτει σμίλην ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ ἁγίᾳ τραπέζῃ καὶ πάλιν ἐπάραντα αὐτὴν καὶ ἐξελθόντα τό τε ἅγιον θυσιαστήριον καὶ τὸ κάγκελλον, τὸ πλησίον ὂν τοῦ σκευοφυλακίου, ἔνθα καὶ κατέκειτο ὁ νοσῶν, καὶ ἀποστάντα ἐκεῖσε καὶ ὅτι ἐσήκωσεν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ τοῦ νοσοῦντος, καὶ τῇ σμίλῃ τῇ χρυσῇ, ἣν ἐκράτει, γυρεύσαντα κατὰ πάσης τῆς σαρκὸς τοῦ διδύμου, οὗ ἠσθένει, εὐστρογγύλως ὡς ἐπὶ τοῦ γράμματος, ὡς ἄν τις ποιήσῃ Ο, ἑβδομήκοντα· καὶ τῷ σχήματι τούτῳ τρίτον τὴν σμίλην ἐπιτεθεικότος τοῦ ἁγίου, ἤκουσεν αὐτοῦ εἰρηκότος· “Ἡ ἁγία Τριάς, ἡ τὰ πάντα συστησαμένη τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα, ἡ τοὺς πάντας περιποιουμένη καὶ τοὺς νοσοῦντας ἐπισκεπτομένη, αὐτή σε ἰᾶται”. καὶ ἐν τῷ λέγειν τὸν ἅγιον ταῦτα ὁ νοσῶν διυπνίσθη, καὶ ἀνακρίνων ὃ ἑώρακεν ἐπιρρίπτει τὴν χεῖρα αὑτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν δίδυμον, ὃν ἤλγει, καὶ ηὗρεν αὐτὸν ὑγιῆ καὶ δόξαν ἔδωκεν τῷ θεῷ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ μάρτυρι. ἔθετο δὲ παρ’ ἑαυτῷ ὁλόκληρον παραμεῖναι τὴν ἑβδομάδα ἐκείνην. καταλαβούσης οὖν τῆς ἑσπέρας τοῦ Σαββάτου, ἐπιφωσκούσης τῆς ἁγίας Κυριακῆς, τινῶν συμβουλίᾳ ἔθηκεν ἑαυτὸν κάτω ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ σορῷ [...] καὶ ὁρᾷ ἐν τῷ ὕπνῳ αὑτοῦ τὸν ἅγιον ὡς ἐκ τῶν χορῶν τῶν παννυχευόντων ἐρχόμενον καὶ κατιόντα τὰ τῆς ἁγίας σοροῦ γραδίλια καὶ ἐπιστάντα τῷ τόπῳ, ἐν ᾧ ἀνέκειτο καὶ εἰρηκότα αὐτῷ· “Τί ἀναβάλλῃ καὶ ψηλαφᾷς τοὺς διδύμους σου καὶ ἄχθῃ καὶ δυσφορεῖς καὶ μένεις διακατέχων αὐτοὺς τῇ χειρί σου; ὑγίανας καὶ ὑγιὴς εἶ τῇ σφραγῖδι, ᾗ ἐσφραγίσθης, τῆς ἁγίας παντοδυνάμου Τριάδος”.
'And on the second night, while he was sleeping near the doors of the sacristy, in his sleep he saw St. Artemios standing in the sanctuary in front of the holy altar holding in his right hand a medical lancet of gold and prostrating himself before the same holy altar. And when he stood upright after prostrating himself, he placed the lancet he was holding on the same holy altar and once again picking it up and leaving the holy sanctuary and the railing which is near the sacristy where the sick man was lying, he stood aside there and when he lifted the sick man's garments, he traced with the golden lancet which he was holding a perfect circle over all the flesh of the testicle where it was diseased as though upon the letter [for] 70 just as one makes an O; and after the saint had set the lancet on this figure for a third time, [Polychrionos] heard him saying: "The Holy Trinity Which created all thongs visible and invisible, Which preserves all men and watches over the diseased and sick, will cure you Itself." And as the saint uttered these words, the patient awoke and, reviewing what he had seen, put his hand upon [his] testicle where he felt pain and found it healed and he gave glory to God and to the holy martyr. He resolved to himself to remain for the whole of that week. So when Saturday evening passed and the holy Lord’s Day was beginning to dawn, on the advice of some, he positioned himself below on the holy tomb [...] and in his sleep he saw the saint as though coming from the choir of all-night celebrants and descending the flight of stairs to the holy coffin and standing over the spot on which he was lying and speaking to him: "Why are you lingering and touching your testicles and why are grieved and feeling out of sorts and why do you persist in gripping them with your hand? You have regained your health and are healed through the seal of the omnipotent Holy Trinity with which were sealed."'
The man woke up, examined his testicles, got up and threw himself upon the floor beside the martyr's tomb, glorifying God. It was in the 18th year of the reign of the emperor Constantine, son of Constantine on the fourth day in the month of October [4 October, 658].
Text: Papadopoulos-Kerameus 1909.
Translation: Crisafulli and Nesbitt 1997, 210-13, lightly modified.
Summary: J. Doroszewska.
Cult building - independent (church)
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - sarcophagus/coffin
Non Liturgical ActivitySaint as patron - of a community
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).It is unclear why the man is called with two different names, Polychronios and Stephen.
'He traced with the golden lancet... a perfect circle... as though upon the letter [for] 70, just as one makes an O' - the circularity of the O symbolizes the Holy Trinity as it has no beginning and no end (Crisafulli and Nesbitt 1997, 288).
The text states that 4 October, 658 fell on a Sunday, whereas in fact that day fell on a Thursday (Crisafulli and Nesbitt 1997, 288).
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
30/07/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01128 | Artemios, martyr of Antioch under the emperor Julian | Ἀρτέμιος | Certain |
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