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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Evagrius Scholasticus, in his Ecclesiastical History (3.33), reports that Severus of Antioch (459/465-538) received baptism at the shrine of *Leontios (martyr of Tripolis, Phoenicia, S00216) in Tripolis. Written in Greek at Antioch (Syria), 593/594.

Evidence ID

E04496

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Major author/Major anonymous work

Evagrius Scholasticus

Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, 3.33

33. Ἐκβεβλημένου τοίνυν Φλαβιανοῦ, Σευῆρος ἐπὶ τὸν ἱερατικὸν τῆς Ἀντιόχου θρόνον ἄνεισι, χρηματιζούσης τῆς πόλεως ἔτος πρῶτον καὶ ἑξηκοστὸν καὶ πεντακοσιοστόν, ἀνὰ τὸν Δῖον μῆνα, τῆς ἕκτης ἐπινεμήσεως τοῦ τηνικάδε κύκλου, κατὰ τήνδε τὴν γραφὴν χρηματιζούσης πρῶτον τεσσαρακοστὸν καὶ ἑξακοσιοστὸν ἔτος. Ὃς πατρίδα τὴν Σωζοπολιτῶν κληρωσάμενος, ἣ μία τοῦ Πισιδῶν ἐστιν ἔθνους, δικανικοῖς πρώην ἐσχολάκει λόγοις ἀνὰ τὴν Βηρυτίων· ἐκ δὲ τῆς τῶν νόμων ἀσκήσεως εὐθὺ τοῦ ἁγίου μεταλαβὼν βαπτίσματος ἀνὰ τὸ ἱερὸν τέμενος Λεοντίου τοῦ θεσπεσίου μάρτυρος, τοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς Τριπολιτῶν Φοινίκης παράλου τιμωμένου, ἐπὶ τὸν μονήρη βίον μετῆλθεν ἔν τινι φροντιστηρίῳ, ἀνὰ τὸν μέσον χῶρον κειμένῳ Γάζης τοῦ πολίσματος καὶ τοῦ λεγομένου Μαιουμᾶ τοῦ πολιχνίου.

‘33. Now, after Flavianos was deposed, Severus ascended the pontifical throne of Antioch, when the city was spending the 561st year of its era, in the month of Dios, in the sixth indiction of that cycle (at the time of writing it is in its 641st year). He hailed from Sozopolis, one of the cities of Pisidia, and had previously studied law at Berytus. Straight after his legal training, he received holy baptism at the holy shrine of Leontios, the divine martyr who is venerated at Tripolis of coastal Phoenicia, and converted to the monastic life at a monastery which lies midway between the city of Gaza and the town which is called Maiuma.’


Text: Bidez, Parmentier 2011.
Translation: E. Rizos.

Liturgical Activities

Other liturgical acts and ceremonies

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits

Source

Evagrius was born in about 535 in the Syrian city of Epiphania. Educated at Antioch and Constantinople, he pursued a career as a lawyer at Antioch, serving as a legal advisor to Patriarch Gregory (570-592). He wrote the Ecclesiastical History in 593/4, with the express purpose of covering the period following the coverage of the mid 5th century ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. His narrative starts with Nestorius and the Council of Ephesus (431) and stops with the death of Evagrius’ patron, Gregory of Antioch, in 592. The work offers a balanced mixture of ecclesiastical and secular events in the East Roman Empire, being best informed about Antioch and Syria. Evagrius also published a dossier of original documents from the archive of Patriarch Gregory of Antioch, which has not survived.


Discussion

The shrine of Leontios in Tripolis was the centre of his cult which was highly popular around the eastern Mediterranean.


Bibliography

Text and French translation:
Bidez, J., and Parmentier, L., Evagre le Scholastique, Histoire ecclésiastique (Sources Chrétiennes 542, 566; Paris, 2011, 2014), with commentary by L. Angliviel de la Beaumelle, and G. Sabbah, and French translation by A.-J.Festugière, B. Grillet, and G. Sabbah.

Other translations:
Whitby, M., The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus (Translated Texts for Historians 33; Liverpool, 2000).

Hübner, A.,
Evagrius Scholasticus, Historia ecclesiastica = Kirchengeschichte (Fontes Christiani 57; Turnhout, 2007).

Carcione, F.,
Evagrio di Epifania, Storia ecclesiastica (Roma, 1998).

Further Reading:
Allen, P., Evagrius Scholasticus, the Church Historian (Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, Etudes et Documents 41; Leuven, 1981).

Treadgold, W.,
The Early Byzantine Historians (Basingstoke, 2006), 299-308.


Record Created By

Efthymios Rizos

Date of Entry

03/05/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00216Leontios, martyr of Tripolis (Phoenicia)ΛεόντιοςCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Efthymios Rizos, Cult of Saints, E04496 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04496